The 17th Hot Air Balloon Fiesta – Day 3

This is my first time to witnessed the balloons lifted up early in the morning. Our group decided to leave Manila at midnight and our goal was to arrive in Clark as early as 5am and  'spot' a good place for us to see those gorgeous hot air balloons.  Kuya Azrael went on the first day (you can check his blog post)

It is actually my THIRD TIME to attend this huge festivity wherein you can only see them during the love month (February). My second visit was posted on my blog (read it here), we captured the glowing of the balloons and stayed overnight in a hostel. But this year is different, we did camped out and secure our place at 4am. It was a bit cold on that time and good thing we brought our jackets, hoodies, mats and humor. Yes, from the meeting place (manila) until we left Clark (we shared laughters, jokes and endless stories).

San Fernando, Pampanga was our first destination. Bloopers while we rode the wrong bus. Blame it to the conductors when we asked if the bus will be stopping over at Dau and they said yes. Boo, Five Star and Bataan Transit!

On the road, we were excited on the movie. Hay, It was Final Destination 5. How could the bus played this kind of film while traveling in the middle of the night? As we laughed on each scenes at the same time kept our eyes on the road. We arrived SM Pampanga safely.

It was a laughtrip conversation with the tricycle driver when we asked where is the terminal of going to Dau or Angeles? The tricycle driver 'thought' we would like to rent his tricycle and drove us there. Then, I clarified. Just bring us to the terminal or where we can ride jeepneys going to Angeles.

We had a long trip going to Angeles and Dau. Finally, we reached the terminal going to Clark Air Field.

When we reached the entrance venue, it was so crowded. One thing that I would like to address on this event is that organizers should provide 'signages' wherein where should we line up and where is the ticket selling area. As we walked around the gates, the guards or marshalls were saying different instructions. One said, just go to the open gate and present your tickets. After arriving at the gate, the other marshall said, fall in line over there and wait for the gate to open because it was too dark (around 4am), people got confused and didn't know what to do. Until we reached the ticket selling gate at the same time it was the only entrance gate. I saw how chaotic it was, just like you were watching an open field concert way back in early 2000.

As we secure our place, waited for few hours. Then finally the owners started to prepare their balloons. We witnessed how it is being done and presented one by one. The huge balloons were very beautiful and you can see everyone's excitement and busy taking photos of it. I'm only handling a point-and-shoot Samsung but I'm glad that the photos went out fine.

After seeing the hot air balloons fly away, up up and away - we checked out the booths and also bought our souvenirs and pasalubong. The weather is too hot, and we couldn't handle the heat. We took our brunch at the food section and had our last round of photo and visited several booths.

Oh, that trip is really worth to wait. Next year, we agreed to do the same thing. Hopefully, we can also check on other places so that we can have another set of adventures in Clark.

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Here is the Day 3 Schedule:

Hot Air Balloon Flight - 5:30-7:00AM
Paragliding Exhibition - 6:30-7:30AM
Ultralight Aircraft Flyby - 7:40-8:30AM
Krukspec Airsoft Speedball Competition - 8:30-5:00PM
Aerobatic Flight Display - 8:30-9:15AM
Search and Rescue Flying Exhibition - 9:15-10:00AM
AOPA-P, Wings Over Asia, Thai Flying Club Flyby - 10:00-10:45AM
Skydiving Exhibition - 10:45-11:15AM
AOPA Light Airplane Balloon Bursting Competition - 11:15-12:00PM
Kite Flying Exhibition - 12:00-12:45PM
open - 12:45-1:15PM
Piper Turboprop bly by of Ed/Citation Mustang fly-by - 1:15-1:45PM
Skydiving Exhibition - 1:45-2:15PM
AOPA Light Aircraft Balloon-Bursting Competition - 2:15-3:00PM
Choreographed Kite Flying Exhibition - 3:00-3:45PM
Aerobatic Flight Display - 3:45-4:30PM
Rocketry Demonstration - 4:30-5:00PM
Ultralight Flyby - 5:00-5:30PM
RC Airplane Flying Demonstration - 5:30-5:45PM
Hot Air Balloon Flight - 5:45-6:15PM
Hot Air Balloon Night Glow

http://www.clarksubicmarketing.com/news/clark_hot_air_balloon_festival.htm

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