Panagbenga Festival 2011

After our learning about this passes during festivals, we made an effort to seek and to have that kind of privilege. (Want to know why? 16th Hot Air Balloon Festival). We emailed to Panagbenga Secretariat (organizer of Panagbenga Festival), requested them issue at least one for us and fortunately, it was granted.

We didn't made any reservations ahead, so it was really an adventure. No bus tickets, no hotel bookings.

After Tracy's work, around 5:00pm, February 25, 2011, she went straight to Victory Liner's terminal station to buy tickets. She didn't expect the volume of people who will come up to Baguio City to witness the event. Posted on the cashier's windows, "NO MORE AVAILABLE TICKETS TO BAGUIO". On her desire to really see the parade, she fell in line for FOUR hours at the chance passenger's row. Luckily, she was able get seats. But unfortunately, since Harold wanted to be in the terminal quickly, he forgot a very important thing, jackets! Hahaha.

By the way, here's a link to Victory Liner's website and they are already accepting booking online, Victory Liner Website.

On our way to Baguio, as usual, we slept. At 2:00am, February 26, 2011 we were already in Baguio. Since, we do not have our jackets with us, we stayed inside Victory Liner's terminal.

Victory Liner's Interior

Victory Liner Exterior

By 4:00am, we decided to drop by the Secretariat office to claim the pass. Then, we walked, though we didn't know where we were headed. Until we saw a sign, Jollibee! We had breakfast for a while.

After then, we walked again until we reach corner of Harrison Road and Abad Santos Drive. We stationed in front of the Chinese school, where dancers usually stop and dance.



Young Igorot



Beautiful Smile

We met some other tourist there and they gave us tips on where to take good photos of the dancers. Though it was already late, but we can still do it next year.

After the parade, we went to O'mai Khan, a restaurant known for Mongolian traditional dishes. Our lunch was great, sumptuously served hot.

We tried to get in to SM Baguio to check out what's the difference to our malls in Manila. But due to amount of people, our feet  headed us directly to the terminal. Getting ticket way back to Cubao was so much easier than to Baguio.

16 Hot Air Balloon Festival

February 13, 2011. It was the 16th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival, but it was our first time.

Honestly, we do not know how to get to Clark Pampanga, good thing we were able to read a blog regarding Discover Asia Travel and Tours (Discover Asia Travel and Tours Website). It cost us Php800.00/head for the van service from Makati to Clark and back, plus the ticket. However, three days prior to the day it self, we received text message from the travel agency, that we were the only couple who booked for the service. They gave options:
1. Back out - NO!
2. Join other groups, which aside from Hot Air, they also have side trip to Subic. It will cost us additional Php500/head if we choose this option. - still, NO!

We didn't chose any of their option, instead we made a deal. They gave us refund of Php300/head for opting out on way back.

It was already 3:00 am when the van left Makati. All the way there, we slept. At 5:00am, we arrive at Clark. Tons of people were there to witness the event. So, we had a hard time finding a good spot and nice vantage point.

We were able to stand near the barricade though, but we realize there were some who were able to get in. We didn't knew that there this pass that you can get for a certain cost. If we only knew about, we must have been there, near those balloons. arggghh!

Anyway, by 6:00am, they started firing up. And there they went, up in the sky.

Fire Up

Giant Balloons

After the balloons rose up, we decided to do a quick roam around the area and went home. How do we got back? We took a free shuttle to Marquee Mall, eat at Reyes Barbeque then took a bus back to Cubao. Haha, that was easy.

Next year, we will surely comeback with the pass!