15th Hot Air Balloon Festival

I've been looking forward to attending the 15th Hot air balloon festival for months! The first one I went to was the one in 2008 but sadly it was not a very lucky day for me because the balloons did not take off due to bad weather. This time around, I wanted to be prepared for incidents like this so I booked a room at the Oasis hotel (thanks to the recommendation of my plurk friend, Manila boy) just in case that if things don't go well on our first visit we can always try again the next day.

We love the North Luzon Expressway! The roads are well maintained

We left the house at exactly 4am last Friday and headed to the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga. The drive going there was a breeze! It only took us around an hour and a half to get to the venue. It was still dark but you could already see the outline of Mount Arayat from afar. We were both very sleepy but suddenly felt energized after seeing the crowd. Everyone was happy and excited to see the balloons!Flat as a pancake!

The pilots and the rest of the crew busy preparing their balloons. I was lucky enough to get an access pass which allowed me to get really close to the balloons. Thanks Marquee Mall :)Fire it up!

You can really feel the heat coming from the burners. I am still wondering why the balloons don't catch fire. Is it the material? Will definitely research on this later :)It looks like a colorful onion :)Sky diver with the Philippine flagOld McDonald's Farm balloon and a TurtleThere were 22 balloons in the festival this year. Spot the beer bottle!
Firing up the Sun!Really? An egg a day is now ok? Yay! :) For some reason, this egg balloon is my favorite among the bunch!View from the top
After watching the balloons take off Erman and I got to ride Marquee Mall's tethered balloon. Next time though we plan to ride the other balloons :D