A Day in the Life: Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

February 12, 2011

The next day dawned bright and early for us. We all headed straight to the buffet breakfast that was being served, excited to start the day. Dana had toast and coffee. Patrick and I had Spam, hotdogs and omelet with rice. I went back for some Korean veggies and Kimchi which Dylan and I shared. For some reason, Dylan loves Kimchi! hahaha

After breakfast, We took some pictures around and along the corridor of the hotel. That hallway was supposed to be empty since I asked Dana to go ahead. I just liked the way the lights lit up the hallway, unfortunately, Patrick came out at the last moment looking for me haha He sorta looks like a ghost hahaha

After resting a while, we donned our swimming suits and went for an early morning dip. Dana was progressing with her swimming skills and was able to swim farther than before. She was already working on her arm movements this time. Dylan was content floating in the water although he can maneuver himself quite well on his floatie :)

Around lunchtime, we headed back to SM Clark and had lunch at the Reyes Barbecue restaurant. Patrick and I were laughing because even when we were out of town, we still ate Manila food hahaha We actually wanted to try other types of native dishes but we didn't really know where to go. So, we went with the safe bets.

We bought our tickets to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta from SM although it took some time to connect with the servers of TicketNet. It was no bother since there were a lot of things to see around the mall. Once we got the tickets, we headed straight to the site.

Apparently, there were a number of people headed the same way and we encountered quite a bit of traffic on the way. We had to park a long way from the entrance due to the crowd. But once inside, there was so much to see!

There were kites of all shapes and sizes everywhere!

I don't know what this plane is called (Sorry!)

These gliders were fun to watch too!

Balloons getting inflated, and the green one was in flight!

At first, the balloons were having a hard time being inflated because of the strong cold winds. Their owners were trying so hard to inflate them and it was actually Darth Vader who, through the Force, actually became the first balloon to get inflated!

As you can see, it was already dark by the time the other balloons were fully inflated but they didn't get to fly anymore. It was still fun to see them, especially in this light!

It was such an exciting thing to see this big pirate barrel balloon getting inflated right in front of us. It was really huge and it made such a huge hissing sound, it was awesome!!

Because it was already late and it was rather dark, the balloons weren't allowed to take flight that night, which was a kind of disappointment. So we were thinking of coming back again the next day.

February 10-13, 2011

When we heard that a Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon will be participating in the 16th Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Clark, Pampanga this February, Patrick and I decided that we won't be missing it no matter what. It was just a stroke of luck that the event coincided with Patrick's birthday and Valentine's day so it was a kind of multi-celebration trip that we were planning.

At first, we couldn't get a booking at our favorite hotel and we were becoming discouraged. We even considered looking for a different hotel but in the end, we got lucky and there was a cancellation and we ended up getting a booking at our favorite New Well Being Spa Resort. It turned out that they had a new hotel built up and we became even more excited to try out this new building. You may ask why we like it there. It's simply value for money. They have large rooms, big comfortable beds (which is very important if you have kids with you), buffet breakfast, a great restaurant, a Korean sauna and spa, a huge swimming pool and great hospitable service. Here are some pictures of the new building and what the room looks like. We were in the Superior room that has 1 Queen bed, 1 Twin bed, a huge LCD TV, a veranda, a hair dryer (it's extremely useful for me haha), coffee-making facilities, a ref, a in-room safety deposit box. Here are pictures if you're interested:

We didn't really make plans for our trip this time. All we knew was that we were going to the Hot Air Balloon. But we did arrive early, having lunch that Friday (Feb 11) at the Original Savory restaurant in SM Clark. We had Hot and Sour soup, Kikiam, Fried Chicken and Lechon with Tofu. Needless to say, we were so full by the time we checked-in at the hotel.

We took our time and rested for a while, Patrick immediately commandeering one of the beds and cocooning himself in the cozy blankets hehehe Naturally, the kids were clamoring for the pool and we indulged them after a while :) After about an hour or two, we got ready for dinner at Zapata's which was one of Dana's favorite places to eat :) After dinner, we went back to the hotel and settled in for the night.