A Day at the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2012 in Clark

I was not supposed to go to The Philippine International hot Air Balloon fiesta 2012 this year in Clark. I decided to just take a rest after my trip in Baguio (watch out for my blog post soon).But I got an email invite courtesy of Chevron Caltex for a media launch and cover the 17th edition of the Philippine International Ht Air Balloon Fiesta in Clark Pampanga Philippines.

We left Manila last February 8 at 2PM together with other print media. Thank good the traffic flow in EDSA is smooth.Travel to Clark via NLEX is fast.

We checked in at Hotel Vida at 3PM. We had a lot of time to rest and refresh. Our next agenda was scheduled at 6PM for the Media briefing. During the dinner program, I won 5 tickets to the Hot air Balloon fiesta. Wooo!

February 9, we woke up very early in the morning. our wake up call was at 4AM. By 5AM we were already at the venue of the Hot Air Balloon festival. There were already a lot of people and the traffic jam at the Clark leading to the venue is horrible.

It was still dark when we arrived. We then headed towards the Airconditioned Caltex Tent where the gyus who would be flying the balloons are having their final briefing.

Later we went to the field to take photos and observe how they inflate their balloons. While at the gate, the security personnel prevented us from getting inside. We showed to him our media IDs issued by the Philippine International hot Air Balloon Fiesta organizers. But he didn’t listen to us. What’s surprising is that while, he prevented us from getting inside the field, a lot of other photographers are already doing their pre nuptial shoot. Kaloka lang di ba…

Later the security can no longer control the photographers, pumasok na din lahat…

then off we went to the fild to take photos. Seeing these humongous balloons getting inflated is a sight to behold. There are a lot of new balloons joining the festivities this year. There’s a three-layered cake, a kiwi, a dog and sliced orange. It was fun!

The wind is a bit strong. So I was a bit worried that the balloons might not be able to fly. But thank God, All of the balloons were able to fly, except for the Kiwi.

It’s really exciting to see one by one these colorful balloons fly across the Pampanga skies.

After the balloons took off, we then took a walk towards the tiangge selling souvenir items. A lot of kids were also flying kites ate the vacant area. There are stuffed toys shaped like balloons. One thing that really caught my fancy was the lamp shade shaped like a hot air balloon. I love it, but the price is just OA. PHP1,200 each. overpriced! Oh, well..

we left the festival site at around 10AM and went back to hotel to pack up and check out.

It another weekend of everything that flies! This is the promise of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon fiesta, and I am pretty sure you too will be amazed at the beauty of balloons, and be amazed at the various activities lie paragliding remote controlled plane exhibition, light plane exhibition sky diving and a whole lot more!

The 17th PIHABF runs until Sunday at the Clark Field Pampanga. Entrance Ticket costs PHP200.

Many thanks to Chevron Caltex for bringing letting us experience this year’s hot air balloon festivities!