The Hanging Coffins of Sagada and Eating Balut

I got up this morning, stood in a puddle, shaved the right side of my face while estimating the left side, and then enjoyed a little breakfast before checking out. We were heading to Sagada today. Typically, food in Southeast Asia tends to be spicy and really draws out the flavors of the ingredients. I just love Thai and Vietnamese food. However, in the Philippines everything tends to be very sweet and it masks the true flavor of the ingredients resulting in somewhat bland food. In fact, things like spaghetti sauce and even ketchup are made with bananas to make them more sweet.

However, today I was in search of something I have never tried before, Balut, and this roadside market seemed like the perfect place to search for it.

I found it! For those of you who have not heard of this, it’s just an egg. Well, an egg with an almost fully formed fetus in it. And while it is in a cooler it’s not too keep it cold but instead keep it warm.

It’s actually a three course portable meal. The first course is a kind of soup as you crack the top of the egg off and drink the warm clear liquid. This is the worst part as it tastes like salty death with the slightest hint of egg on the back of the palette.

The next course is the main. You slurp the fetus out much like you would slurp an oyster, it’s just that it is looking back at you. Plus things like the beak are still pretty soft.

The final course is dessert. You eat the remaining yolk, which tastes like a hardboiled egg that has gone slightly bad, but still a nice palette cleanser. After eating it you then say a little prayer to, well I’m not sure which one this is, Jesus, Mother Mary? Anyway, it worked because I did not throw up and in fact would eat another one at a later date.

We continued our trip taking in the views.



After a while I asked my driver to let me out and go ahead a bit so that I could walk a little to take in the scenery instead of watching it pass by through the window.



I got lost a little and asked this guy for directions.

While his wife played peek-a-boo with me.

Once the next village was in sight I found my driver and rode the rest of the way.





In this town they have tricycles instead of Jeepneys, but they still trick them out to outdo the next guy.





The standard Southeast Asia electrical grid.

There was a market here so I had to stop, looking for new fruits or vegetables I have not seen before.



And of course, checking out the meet department.

I often get asked if I ever have (or ever would) eat something from a market like this. Yes to both. This is some of the freshest meat you will ever find. They have no refrigeration so this animal was alive only hours ago. You can eat it raw and the flavor comes through, a wonderful iron taste with a beef like texture. It will put any western Beef Carpaccio to shame.





They really like their dried fish in the Philippines, I guess it is like their potato chips, just healthier and naturally organic. The smell cannot be mistaken and most offensive to my western nose.

I stumbled across the poultry department and PETA would be very upset. Not only in the conditions they are forced to live in but also the killing method.

When you pick out your bird they basically blowtorch it dead and burn it clean, then manually pluck out any remaining stubble. It was another wonderful new smell I would discover.



We finally reached Sagada. We first checked out some coffins that were tucked away in a cave.



The coffins are quite small, and while the Filipinos are a short people, they are not this short. They believe that if you are born in the fetal position then you should be laid to rest in the fetal position.

Not sure why they had to put this sign here, but I had no intention of taking a peek.

Well this one is already kind of open, let me take a peek.

Continuing on we walked through a more traditional cemetery on our way to see the hanging coffins.

They are scattered all over the mountains.

Depending on who you ask, you will get a few different answers as to why they do this. Some will tell you it is so they are closer to heaven. Others will say it was because they did not want their corpse to rot in the ground. While still others will tell you it was because wild dogs would dig them up and eat them.

If you have ever seen “An Idiot Abroad” you might recognize the white coffin with the blue lettering as that was the one Karl Pilkington painted in an episode.

You might also spot a few chairs up there. It’s not so they can take the corpse out on a nice sunny day, but rather it was the chair that the corpse sat in for up to two days in the family home before it was placed in the coffin. I guess if they don’t mind the dried fish smell, how bad could a two day old dead guy smell in this hot tropical heat?

Before leaving I checked out the local church. As I did not burst into flames upon entering I decided to snap this picture, pretty sure this one was Jesus.

We then got to another “basic” hotel, however this one was clean with proper lighting so I was able to shave the left side of my face. The Masferre Inn had a few tables downstairs where you could get “food” but you really wouldn’t want to eat here. I downloaded my pictures and video from the day and then readied my pack for tomorrow.