Monday, February 16, 2015

19th Hot Air Balloon Festival Clark Pampanga




Another item checked off of my bucketlist: Attending the Philippines International Hot Air Balloon festival in Clark Pampanga. We checked in 1 day before the main event in a hotel just across SM Clark. The hotel (Tune Hotel) we stayed in was really nice and neat. The room size was pretty small but I didn't mind at all. I am 101% happy and satisfied with the neatness and fresh smelling scent of our hotel room. The a/c was a downside though but good thing there's a ceiling fan to help with the ventilation. 

Baby brought some baon for our late lunch, a delicious Pinoy food (Bagoong with calamansi and sili and Daing na bangus), that I can eat every single day of my life. Haha!  We went out to take a short tour to Clark Airbase for some photo ops right after opening our Valentines gift for each other (Naks, haha!) Then for dinner, we've had steak with rice at Meats and Match. We came back to our hotel room around 9 in the evening, just in time for our favorite teleserye on ABS-CBN. Haha! 

We slept kind of late but I managed to wake up around 2 in the morning. Actually, I woke up with an upset stomach. I thought I won't make it to the festival but the power of prayers helped me get through it. We freshened up a bit, put our clothes on then left. We stopped by at 7-11 for some cup noodles and coffee to keep us going. We arrived in the area (Air Force City) 3:30 A.M.


Tickets were sold for P300. I was supposed to buy the tickets online but my Paypal account doesn't have sufficient funds. Anyway, the organizers started to sell tickets around 4:15. I can barely remember the exact time the program has started but the first activity was the RC UFO Flying. Then it was followed by Skydiving Philippine Flag Jump and the Hare and Hound Hot Air Balloon flights. The Hare and Hound Hot Air Balloon flights was definitely my most favorite part of the program. If my memory serves me right, there were 36 participants (30 international hot air balloons and 6 local hot air balloons). 


The red octopus from Japan was a love at first sight. The color's fun and eye-catching. Also, the face and shoe-shaped balloon (not on the photo). Unfortunately, the sunflower didn't make it. I don't know exactly what happened but I saw some black smoke coming from it. Glad to know, no one's hurt from the incident. Anyway, right after the Hare and Hound Hot Air Balloon flights, we headed to the aviation area where we saw some legit private planes ready for picture-taking purposes. 


I was already feeling tired and sluggish due to lack of sleep so baby and I have decided to take a break and recharge ourselves with food and cold refreshments. We went home around 9:30 A.M so we could still have an hour to prepare for our next adventure. I really had a great time at the 19th Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark Pampanga. It warrants another visit from me next year! 

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