Playing with fire


(A few more posts about Boracay and then I'll shut up about it, I swear.)

This was one thing I wanted to talk about: the fire-dancers.

Basically, you get a pair of dog leashes, dip the leather handles in kerosene(?), light them up and then twirl them around like Chinese Olympians who swirl around those long stranded ribbons.

Except the ends of these, of course, are on fire. A pretty sight, especially when night falls and all you see are these flashing circles of light.

What's surprising is that this phenomenon is pretty recent since I don't remember anybody doing this the last time we were here the latter part of last year. Our friend who's based there told us that most of the people who do this do it for tricks but they're friendly enough to teach it to anyone who wants to learn.

Personally, I'd love to learn but I'm a bit on the hairy side so I'm afraid I might go up like a wicker man.