The 16th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival

Packed with love for balloons and other flying objects, some food, money and shirt, I and two of my superfriends went to Clark Field, Pampangga to co-celebrate and witness for the first time the 16th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival.

We’ve been hearing a lot of great stuff about this event, and so, early this year we decided to see it with our own two eyes and enjoy the said flying objects up-close and personal.

At around 9 a.m., we took a Philippine Rabbit bus at Recto Avenue, Manila. This transpo costs us Php120.00 each. It drove us from Manila to SM Clark where we took our next vehicle – a jeepney ride that will take us to the main gate of Air Force City, Clark, Pampangga. This jeepney ride costs us Php8.00 each.

Upon arriving the busy road to the main gate, I texted Miss Kankan, who’s been so nice to give me tickets to this event. The ticket cost Php150.00, so I’m really thankful to Miss Kankan because it saved us some money. :-) Thanks, Miss Kankan and Sir Laszlo!

At the gate of the venue, I saw this miniature balloon that bore the name of SM Clark. Under this balloon, the ticketing booth was to be found. Since we got there at around 12 noon, the line was shorter, but the line for free shuttle service going to SM Clark and Marquee Mall were not.

Air Force City had this huge parking space to accommodate all guests, and I can say that every thing seemed to be well-organized. There were also portalets placed strategically inside and outside the venue.

And again, since it was lunch time when we got there, our tummies were already crying for some lunch, so before we really stepped inside the event venue, we hailed a jeepney with Mabalacat signboard and go straight to El Kabayo, a ranch-restaurant that has this wonderful wild, wild West theme. In here we had our lunch, kindly check out lafanggero.blogspot.com for my food and restaurant review. :-D

After some hours of enjoying El Kabayo, we hailed a jeepney again to bring us back to Hot Air Baloon Festival’s main gate.

The jeepney rides cost us Php21.00.

Upon stepping inside the Clark Field, we saw a lot of people carrying these cute hot air balloon miniatures, and so we decided to see the booths first and stroll around to see the other stuff that we might enjoy.

After some strolling and camwhoring, we took a spot at the field, placed our mats and bags and enjoyed the show that was literally airing. Hehehe.

At exactly 5 p.m., we saw these three dots that made the people gaga.

By 6 p.m., as the night sky embraced the whole lot, the glowing light bulbs gave light and excitement to everyone.

It was so nice. I mean really, really cool! It was so nice to see them up-close. The colors, the heat and the size - really, really wonderful!

There were some people too who lit up hot-air-balloon looking lanterns and let them fly up in the air.

And at exactly 19:00 hours, military time, the show ended.

We were picked up by our friend from Clark Field. We treated her to a sumptuous dinner at Café Mesa in exchange for driving us back to our home.

(again, check lafanggero.blogspot.com for my food and restaurant review of Café Mesa.)

Congratulations to Philippine Air Force, organizers and advertisers of this event. Til next year!
Thank you again to Miss Kankan and Sir Laszlo for the tickets!
And thank you to my super friends who spared some time coming with me to see this awesome event.

Love, love, love!

Rammmpa!