Fly Away! Philippine Hot Air Balloon Festival 2012

Did you know that the first passengers of the first hot balloon was a sheep, a duck, and a rooster in 1783. Fascinating how people had developed the hot air balloons throught the years. Now, it has a lot of various and amazing designs.

Last February 2012, the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon was held in Clark Pampanga. My friends and I hit on the road early morning before sunrise, it was a almost 2 hour drive from Manila. We went there on a Friday and comparing with the stories of my friend who went there on a Saturday, there were fewer people on the Friday event than on the Saturday. And we arrived in the event's field just in time for sunrise.

So here are the pictures of the fascinating and cute hot air balloons of the event:

Getting Ready to Fly

All set & fly

A very huge cake hot air balloon which caught the eyes of many. We also saw a couple having their pre-nuptial photoshoot in this hot air balloon. So lovely!

My favorite was the cute Panda!

Here is one shot of the skydiver with the Philippine flag during the skydiving exhibit just right before the opening flag ceremony. The festival includes other air exhibits sky diving, kit flying, paragliding, etc. 

This festival runs annually during February, so if you haven't gone in the past years make sure to plan it out to go to next year's run.