ALBAY: Land of the World's Most Perfect Cone

Albay is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region in southeastern Luzon Island. The name Bikol first came to be known as the name of the biggest and longest river in the region. The river comes from the outflow of lakes and springs from the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte form a large stream that exits in the San Miguel Bay, off the shores of Camarines Sur. The people of the region are called Bikolanos and the language is called Bikol.

The citizens of Albay are called Albayanos. Albay is a province composed of 15 towns and 3 cities. The capital of the province is Legazpi City. It was named after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the Spanish conquestador who came to the Philippines in 1565 and started the massive colonization.

also, in Bicol Region people don't usually say "Good Morning", instead they say "Marhay na aga"

TOP TOURIST ATTRACTION IN ALBAY:

MAYON VOLCANO

The volcano is referred to in those parts as “Bulkang Magayon” which literally translates to “beautiful volcano”. They say that the name of Mayon comes from an ancient regional folktale about a princess named Daragang Magayon (Beautiful Maiden). But be careful and alert at  all times because this beautiful volcano could also be a:

"Beautiful Disaster".

THE MUST TRY FOODS IN ALBAY

Other than seeing how majestic the view can be in Albay, your journey won't be complete without trying their popular and flavorful foods, so here are some of Albay's best tasting foods:

• BICOL EXPRESS

 There is no doubt that Bicol Express is one of the Philippines’ most popular dishes. As the story goes, it’s named after the train that plies the Manila-Bicol route. For obvious reasons, it is a common assumption that the dish naturally hails from the Bicol region. A Filipino dish in which the slices of pork meat is cooked with coconut milk, shrimp paste, and chili pepper. There's a belief that this dish was adapted from a Bicolano dish called "Gulay na may Lada", meaning 'vegetable with chili'. Their main difference is quite very obvious: Bicol Express uses pork while "Gulay na may Lada" uses only vegetable

• SILI "CHILI" ICE CREAM

Want some sugar spice and everything nice? Well, you can't go wrong with this dessert specially if you love spicy and sweet. An orginal spicy ice cream of Legazpi, is it really spicy? Just deliciously so, as every spoonful was a tug of cold and hot, intriguing and confusing  tastebuds. The sili tickles the tongue in every spoonful. Your tongue won't really burn, but the heat creeps in good around your mouth until the throat. If you love it red hot, this is definitely the masiram ('yummy') Bicol treat to challenge your spicy sweet tooth! You can taste this dessert at the 1st Colonial Grill

• GUINOBATAN LONGGANISA

 A Filipino pork sausage originating from the town of Guinobatan in Albay. Each sausage is typically only 2 inches in length. It is made from lean pork, salt, sugar, garlic, saltpeter, and black pepper. Unlike other Philippine sausages, the meat is uniquely chopped by hand. The dish is celebrated in the annual "Longganisa Festival" of Guinobatan.

• PINANGAT

A Filipino dish which originated in Bicol Region, Philippines. More popularly known in Manila as Laing, this dish is a nice blend of taro leaves, chili, meat and coconut milk wrapped in gabi leaves and tied securely with coconut leaf.