Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

We were supposed to meet up at 4:30 AM, so we can catch the early morning balloon launch. But...well, I was late. Hehe. I think we left Munoz McDonald's around 6AM already. We reached the end of the North Luzon Expressway around 8AM, where in the distance, we saw some balloons flying out already.

Shocker Note: NLEX toll prices are way too much! Imagine, P163
from Manila to Dau! If the South Luzon Expressway was expensive, NLEX is now
much more expensive! And from Dau to Manila, the fee is P203! Tapos ang toll
para sa bus ay P480+! Pasensya na, ang daming exclamation point ha, pero ang
mahal! E dati mas mura yung NLEX sa SLEX!

Up, Up and Away!

The 9th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta was held at the OMNI Aviation Complex at Clark Field, Pampanga. This was a 3-day event, and we went there on the second day (Saturday). When we arrived at the venue, there were only a few hot air balloons launching/landing. This was almost 8:30 AM already. We had missed the Hot Air Balloon Flight (scheduled 5:30-7AM), and the first Sky Diving Exhibition. We did catch some of the Aircraft Flybys, where the plane does the loops and turns and dips that are frequently shown in the movies. There was even a helicopter fly by and exhibition, and the very *exciting-sounding* "Radio Control Aircraft Flying", which turned out to be an exhibition for remote-control tiny toy airplane models.

We also visited some of the exhibits there, and got excited about flying lessons -- a flying school was offering a weekend course on flying, for only 15,000 pesos! However, it turned out that the course only taught ground basics...you wouldn't really be able to fly a plane then. But for most of the morning, we got a bit bored and just sat by in the shade, waiting for the 2nd scheduled Sky Diving Exhibition of the day.

aircraft flyby	helicopter flyby	sleeping in the shade

Raining Men

Finally, the sky diving exhibition started. The sky-divers were tiny tiny specks in the sky, and while they were falling, I was half expecting them to hold hands and form a circle in mid-air, much like how they do it in the movies. They didn't, which was a bit of a letdown, considering how Hollywood movies have raised our expectations of what's exciting and what's not. But still, it's not every day that you see men falling down from the sky, right?

We left the OMNI field to eat lunch somewhere else. There were a lot of people waiting in line at Chow King. From 1PM to around 3PM, we shopped at a duty free shop in Clark, and passed the time by sleeping in the store's couches. It was a good thing Annette decided to buy some ice cream. We left the Puregold store and proceeded to a picnic place, and what better place to picnic than in the exclusive Fontana leisure resort! Hehe. It was also a good thing that May's family was a member of Fontana. We had a pretty fun picnic in the pretty park grounds, where we ate the yummy ice cream, and the Cheetos, Piknik, Green peas and Cheez Mania we bought. Around 5PM, we went back to the OMNI field, and caught the flight of the hot air balloons (scheduled 5:30-6PM). There were plenty of kites flying around. Too bad though that I missed the Hot Air Balloon Night Glow. We had to go back to Manila, because another friend was hosting a Chinese New Year dinner party. The others stayed on to catch the night-glow, while Tenantz, Beng, Cathy, Arlyn and I headed back to Manila.

More photos at http://pbase.com/xieurx/balloon