Philippines Trip Day Five

We spent a lot of time in the car on Wednesday. I was up by 6 am, and we were on the road by 7 am. We took a pit stop for some breakfast around 8 am at a rest stop. This was probably the most Americanized pit stop I've ever seen! You could get any sort of American food here- Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Cinnabon, and Dairy Queen. Kenny was in the mood for pizza, but that was closed, so we opted for Chow King (Chinese food).

I thought I'd heard Tita Oma say that it would take about 3 hours to get to the beach. When we hit the three hour mark, I was constantly on the lookout for the water. Little did I know that we'd be making some stops to visit family along the way.

Our first stop was the small town where Tita Oma was born. We visited with some aunts, uncles, and young cousins. I was so anxious to get to the beach that I just sat around in the shade and waited. I didn't know Kenny and Raymond had gone exploring for some treats, otherwise I would have joined. Thankfully, we only spent about a half hour here.

We drove in the car for what seemed like ages, probably another two and a half hours. By this point, I'd resigned myself to the fact we wouldn't have enough time to go jet skiing all afternoon.

Our second stop was at the family farm. The farm house was in the rice basket of the Philippines in the middle of nowhere. It was very scenic, though. The farm house was extremely small and lacked furniture. I'm not sure if this is where the actualy familiy lived, or if it was more for storage. There were 2 families here, and they were excited to see a white girl and chinese boy, along with an American cousin they'd never met. We gave them some candies and umbrellas, along with some clothes. When we were about to leave, we got offered a ride on a dirtbike. I didn't really want to, but Kenny and I were kind of forced into a ride. We cruised through the paddies and stopped at a neighbors house.

I didn't think much of the house, but it had quite a party going on in the backyard. There were lots of kids, food, and even a karaoke machine. We were told to help ourselves to the food. It tasted okay, but the flies swarming around were a turn off! I later found out that it wasn't pork like I'd assumed, but it was goat! That was a first for me!

Again, we got back in the car to finish the long treck to Subic. We arrived in town around 6pm! There was no chance of even making it to the beach in the daylight anymore! I was pretty bummed. I'd assumed we had a hotel reservation, but it turns out we didn't. The first place we stopped at was really swanky, like somewhere you would want to stay on your honeymoon. It was also very expensive. We drove another half hour north, and found a secluded beach with a variety of bed and breakfast type hotels. Dinner was down along the water at a beachfront restaurant. Even though we were exhausted from sitting in the car all day, we had enough energy to go swimming in the outdoor pool until 11pm or so.

After swimming came the highlight of my trip. It involved food. Not any ordinary kind of food, this food is in a league of it's own. Like "Fear Factor" quality food. It is called Balut, and in some countries it is a delicacy. I didn't think it was! Here is what Wikipedia says about Balut:

A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.

A street vendor came to the pool late in the evening. At this point, I'd already downed a beer. Joe had been telling me about this on the plane, but I didn't realize this was the moment of truth. We bought 4 balut.

First, I watched eveyone eat theirs. Kenny was the best to watch, since he hadn't had one before either. He is a brave one, he ate it very quickly.

Then it was my turn. I was so nervous. After just peeling it, I thought I was going to be sick! I looked at the egg when it was halfway peeled, and there was the embryo. It was so creepy, and I swear it looked like it was smiling at me. It took so much courage to eat it! I think going bungee jumping would be easier I've never been so scared! I put lots of salt on it because I didn't want to know what it tasted like. I bit into it, and suprise, it tasted just like an egg. The center was soft, not crispy like I thought it would be. My first thought, after the inital shock was, "Wow! This is too salty!" In the end it wasn't the taste of the egg that made me gag, it was the copious amount of salt I'd put on it! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this, but Kenny took about 30 during the whole process and I'm sure they'll end up on Facebook soon enough!

Here's the album from day five:
http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=2219385&id=59501140