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Balut - partially developed 15 day old chicken with feathers, beak, and all.

Today was a very overcast day. The dive at Arco was really good in that there was a lot of good life we saw -- 2 frogfish, a leaf fish, 3 moray eels, and a pygmy seahorse. Unfortunately, I needed a change of batteries from the beginning of the dive. It sucks because I did charge the batteries beforehand, but the Energizer batteries I use occasionally have bad cells. I couldn’t take pictures for any of the dives of the day.

Since Amy left, and Markus and Thomas were leaving the next day (can’t fly within 24 hours of diving), my only dive buddy I knew was Patrick; a young German guy that’s been traveling for 6 months. New to the group is Stephanie -- a German girl living in Manila, and two girls from Hong Kong -- Phoebe and Carmilla. Junior, who I’ve never dove with, led our dives as divemaster.

Second dive was a Buoyancy Gardens which was good too. Visibility wasn’t as good as Arco, but we saw a pair of pegasus sea moths, two pipefish, anemone shrimp, scorpionfish, and a moray eel. I was very happy about my dive because my buoyancy has never been so good. The reason why is because I changed the weight I wear by removing 1 kilo; this made me be able to use less air in my vest which changes ones buoyancy based on depth.

After we got back, I cleaned up quickly because I had to change rooms and Stephanie was moving into my room. I moved into the loft of Hamid’s room which was decent at first. While organizing some things in the room I heard something move around in the walls. I looked around and noticed a large black tail sticking out of the wall. Though I didn’t see the body, I’m assuming it’s a rat because Dawn said she saw one in her room before.

Tired from diving I decided to take an afternoon nap. I wanted to make sure though that I could wake up before 6 p.m. in order to organize dinner plans with others before they left. I ate at Oops Bar! with Thomas, Markus, Hamid, and Stephanie. I ordered a German dish that was pork in a creamy sauce and hash browns. It was quite good. I’m wondering if I’m actually going to learn more about German culture than Filipino. I am surrounded by so many German tourists and residents here.

After dinner we simply walked up to the bar. It was Markus and Thomas’ last night so we had to celebrate properly. Markus ordered me a round of Jagermeister; I shot it he sipped it. At another table I hung out with Cheri (waitress at Hayahay), Arlene (cook at Genesis), and a couple others. I discovered a few of them liked to eat a Filipino delicacy called “balut” -- a 15 day old chicken egg that has a partially developed chick inside -- beak, feathers, claws, bones and all. I ordered a round for them and one for Hamid who has been promising the last couple days he would try it.

Hamid takes the plunge and lives up to his word by trying balut.

To eat balut, you peel away the top part of the egg, slurp up the juices inside, and then eat the chick. I have to say, it looked grosser than I thought it would be. Before I was thinking I would probably eat one if I was drunk but now I think it will take more than that. I left the bar around 2 a.m.

Arlene loves the balut and proves she licked it clean.

- jason