Chasing Giant Balloons in Pampanga

My fascination over hot air balloons began when I made my bucket list.

From then on, I imagine to see a hot air balloon and hop on it even for a minute. And I never thought that I can tick this item off my list on the first Philippine International Balloon Festival in Lubao, Pampanga which coincided with another historical win for Filipinos in the Pacquiao-Bradley flight.

Lubao is far way from the usual site of festival but it is both symbolic venue and great place for different outdoor activities. So, we woke up as early as 4am to witness the sky before being filled with numerous gigantic balloons. With 200 peso worth of tickets on our hands, we hurriedly ran to the entrance by the mere sight of these. Thanks God! We made it to the festival. Taking photos with the balloons was enough but meeting people from different places or countries was a plus factor.

The most precious of all our photos was this one. We ran in the vast field as soon as we saw the angry bird hot air balloon landed. The pilot was so kind to let my sister and I ride for a few minutes and have the balloon be lifted for a while. We were terrified by the unsteady motion but we laughed when the Filipino crew assured us that it was super safe. We were so grateful for the experience that was both exclusive and free. Indeed, our smiles proved our lucky chance that day.

Another highlight was the humongous beer balloons. We did not waste time and we posed in front of our favorite beer. My sister preferred the San Miguel Flavored Beer while I chose Red Horse.

Feeling like a kid, we also got to hug this Mogu Mogu balloon as if we would like to bring it home and have it drank for a year.

Cosplayers were also present on that event. We befriended them and made sure to have epic moment with them.

We were still high from the hot air balloon experience so we gladly took a photo of these cute souvenir items. These were our pasalubong to our loved ones instead of the items itself which were so expensive for simple persons like us. We brought home fun stories to tell.

After hours of running and laughing, our energy ran out and we just sat in the field resting, eating and watching the Pacquiao fight.

In the end, our hot air balloon experience matched our expectations and even went beyond. Given another chance, we will bring our whole family and a bunch of friends to share with us this one-of-a-kind escapade.