Balikbayan

When I was at the airport,  I noticed while waiting for arrival of my friend from Korea the different groups of Asians arriving from the main Arrival Terminal. First, there were the Japanese people, all dressed business-like and yes, with cameras. Then came the Vietnamese and Chinese/Vietnamese people, wearing expensive clothes. Then came the Chinese people, with their luggages. But one can pick out the Filipinos out of all the other Asians. How?

The Balikbayan Box! If you see a group of Asians, usually dark-skinned, hauling with them a big cardboard box, then you know those Asians are Filipinos. They are the only Asian group that use cardboard boxes to haul personal items while traveling internationally in the airports.

This cardboard box is unique and part of Filipino culture, during international traveling. Airports worldwide will have balikbayan boxes that ONLY belong to a traveling Filipino person, who is known as the Balikbayan. In this box, all kinds of gifts from the place of touring or visiting are placed inside for the family and friends to enjoy. You cannot be a REAL Filipino person not unless you have a balikbayan box when traveling by plane in the airport.

The Balikbayan box is sold commercially in the Philippines and in the United States by Filipinos. If you want to experience what it is like to travel internationally Filipino style, you MUST, you definitely MUST, include the balikbayan box in your itinerary. No exception!

I am sure Homer and Geoffrey Chaucer, those two world renouned traveling men, would have obliged!