Rain

Rainy season has officially begun with typhoon "Caloy" ending the summer. A couple of friends are stuck in Boracay for the past three days now. They didn't book for a return flight, I mean who does that? Knowing Aklan is a busy airport with tourist rushing in and out they should have booked a return flight but then again who wants to ride an airplane in this weather heh?

Whymsical Batanes Islands

Photos by Farl

Farl has one of the amazing photo sets of Philippines in Flickr. His Batanes set is simply enchanting. Every picture is accompanied by details of the shots and the story behind the picture.

From Batanes.gov.ph:

"Batanes province comprises the northernmost isles of the Philippines. The island of Y'ami is only 224 kilometers from Taiwan. The Balintang Channel, where the Pacific Ocean and China Sea meet, separates the islands from the rest of Luzon. The three major islands of Itbayat, Sabtang and Batan, are the only inhabited islands of the small archipelago. About half of its area is hilly and mountainous.

Typhoons on a northwesterly path regularly sweep through the islands from July to October although rainfall is heaviest from August to November. Batanes, as a whole, enjoys a pleasantly cooler climate because of its greater distance from the equator. From December until February, temperatures may dip as low as 7 degrees Celsius."

Balut Anyone?

Yes, you've seen them glamorized a couple of times in Fear Factor and Survivor episodes in their gross food challenges. I've only tasted the yolk part but I never tried eating the embryo itself because its hairy. >_<

Here's an interesting article on how the Fear Factor staff were able to find balut in Los Angeles:

Filipinos call them "balut." Here at Fear Factor we simply call them gross. 

We knew that balut – also known as the "treat with feet" and the "eggs with legs" – would make for a great Fear Factor stunt. But the trick was in finding out where to get a hold of some here in Los Angeles…

It's actually good for your health.

From Wikipedia:

A delicacy of Asia and especially the Philippines, China, and Vietnam, a balut (or Trứng vịt lộn in Vietnamese language) is a fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors at night. Their high protein content is complementary to the consumption of beer. The word balut roughly translates to mean "wrapped".