Masskara Festival: the Experience

Pretty much the entire point of my journey to Bacolod was to enjoy the Masskara Festival that the island/city is known for.  According to the website/reviews/other write-ups I’d seen, I was expecting something similar to Mardi Gras.  Eh…. not quite.  It’s fun, to be sure, but I don’t think it’s quite the same.  The biggest thing is that the performers and many people wear decorated masks.  It’s pretty cool seeing all the designs and uniforms that go along with them.  You can also buy cheap little masks to take part in the festivities, or slightly more ornate ones if you feel like taking a souvenir home.

Big mask…
Little masks!For me, of course, the best part of the festival was the food.  I loved the chicken inasal tents that popped up everywhere.  You could walk down the street at certain points and pass six different inasal places in a city block.  So tasty.  There was also other types of Filipino fair fare (did ya like that?).  We tried chicken intestines, rambutan (a spiky red fruit you have to peel to get to the grape-like interior), lanzones (don’t eat the seeds!), and balut.  ‘What is balut?’ you might ask.  Well let me tell you…

Basically, you let a chicken or a duck lay an egg that gets fertilized.  Then, after letting Momma Bird cluck happily along for a week or so in anticipation of meeting her soon-to-hatch chick, you steal the egg and leave her a shattered shell of a bird.  Think that’s awful?  Just wait.  All you pro-lifers better stop reading right now.  Because the next step is take what we affectionately have been calling the ‘half-chicken’ and boil it.  If chickens had souls and predestination was how judgement worked, then that process would pretty much be half-chicken hell.  Sick stuff.

After boiling the half-chicken, the next step is to eat it. Here are the steps below…

1. Crack the boiled half-chicken egg at one end (top or bottom).
2. Drink the juice.  It’s high in baby chicken fat.
3. Peel the egg.
4. Slurp, suck, and nibble the mushy soft bits while trying not to think about the sliminess of chicken birth juice and the chewiness of nearly-formed wings/beaks/chicken faces.
5. Discard the hard, rubbery bit.  Bonus points if you can bounce it into your in-law’s beverage.

It’s not too bad really, it’s like a strangely textured hard-boiled egg that tastes really yolky.  I just wanted to scar someone forever.  You’re welcome, Mom =)

Mmmm, tasty!!Food aside, the rest of Masskara can be described in one word.  Crowded.  There are soooo many people.  Clogging the streets, the tents, the public square, the convenience stores…. it’s crazy.  On multiple nights the parade was delayed several hours, and even then we rarely saw more than a few floats as they made their agonizingly slow progress down the street.

There were other events, one of which was a pretty cool dance competition involving different dance teams from different districts (barangays) around the city.  There were some pretty sick dance parties, including some started/driven by yours truly and company.  Seriously… one night we were on stage dancing and rocking out for hours.  It was a lot of fun!

The people of Bacolod were also exceedingly friendly.  From the countless restaurant employees, to our taxi/van drivers, to street vendors, to our pension owner, to the drunk old guy who followed me around saying he would be my bodyguard and telling me stories of Bacolod’s history.  We encountered lots of great people, and I would definitely recommend checking out the festival if only for that.

 
Our favorite street vendor…So, if you visit the Philippines and don’t mind a little tourism/crowdedness, I’d definitely check out Masskara.  It’s a good time and the people of Bacolod are genuinely welcoming of outsiders.  But do yourself a favor.  Get outside the city and explore.  I’ll tell you why in my next post! =)

Masked performers, Sara, and I