Monday, February 14, 2011

The Unprepared Picnic at the Hot Air Balloon Fest 2011

     Everything was set, itineraries, the accommodation, the activity lists,  even the food i'm looking forward to eat!   It didn't turn out to be the greatest adventure, and didn't turn out to be what i had expected also.   Nevertheless, we made it through.   As I always say, in every problem there is always a solution, it just depends on how one will face it.
     Going back to the picnicking...As the quote goes "It just wouldn't be a picnic without the ants


 So I guess you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about.   Well you see, we planned to go there by car, to leave the house at 4 am and head straight to the event zone and then we would be checking in at the hotel by 2 pm to rest and then head back to Clark Free port zone for the rest of the day's activities.
     The family really love to have a picnic sort of, so what's with the ants?
    Along the process, we experienced a lot of "ant bites" one is having trouble with the car just 2 days before Saturday until we could not really have the car in sound condition.   

Solution:  COMMUTE...Good thing Victory Liner is near us and just one jeepney ride away from us, and that they have rides that would take you to Pampanga via San Fernando route or Olongapo which stops at Dau.   And YES, we took the bus, we were not able to take the 4:20 bus to Dau, so we got the San Fernando stop instead.   Unaware of where this will lead us we it instead, just to get to Pampanga early.  From San Fernando we found a jeepney terminal that would take us to the Main Gate of Clark.    And from the gate we need to take another jeep that would take you to the entrance of the Philippine Hot Air Balloon Fest.

    Another bite from the ant, since my Danica was so excited, she had trouble sleeping the night before, and we had her woken up at 4 am and we got to the Victory Liner at 4:30, travelling with kids is really so hard, and messy!!!  So when you do always prepare a small plastic bag, tissue papers and wet wipes...I guess you know what I mean by now.  

    We did not actually intend to have a picnic, coz my initial plan was to score the different delicacies of Pampangenos.  But when we got inside Clark Free Port Zone, many people have blankets and tents on the ground and people are enjoying the event while picnicking on the ground.  We didn't bring any food, even water, well thinking about the many sponsors of the event, i thought that there would be a lot of vendors and stalls around, and true there were, lots of food joints.

Ceelin man!
    Not only were there many things to buy, there are lots of freebies.   A lot of sponsors were giving away samples and souvenirs.   

SME's of Pampanga were also given a chance to sell...

So we started off by gorging on Yellow Cab Pizza's Manhattan Meatlovers and NY's Finest,
  then, we had ourselves to try, TWISTIX, a new craze in "spud- eating,"   I've been seeing this in some malls already here in Manila.   It is a whole head of potato, that is machine-twisted to perfection and  deep-fried in oil.   If you love fries but  want a better tasting and better looking fried potatoes, you must consider trying this out.  This is served hot and sooo crispy, with flavors such as cheese, pizza, sour cream and pizza.   
   Stalls from Jollibee, McDonald's, Burger King and many more are all over the field!   So you won't go hungry.  For dessert, I tried Strawberry Yogurt Chantilly with Green Apple Jelly. from Dr. Pearl  Coolers and Shakes.  I even asked about franchising, you want to know why?
     I found their booth intriguing, coz many are lined up just to order, I actually craved that time for a cup of blended Frapuccino or fruit shakes, I saw a  tarp carrying their name with Chantilly,  Chantilly known with the Americans as vanilla-flavored whipped cream, usually topped on cakes and now on specialty drinks such as ice-blended coffees and chocolate.

     Different from other franchised shakes and pearl coolers, it is topped with Chantilly cream and caramel or chocolate syrup, and aside from sago or the delicious sugary pearls at the bottom, you can also have jellies in  number of flavors.   I like the cooler which melts to juice and once cream is blended, it creates a very satiny, smooth feel to the tongue and the jellies, green apple is what I had, is chewy and soft.   Yummy!  I should have tried another one to taste other concoctions, but a medium glass (about P7 more from the small size)kept my tummy full and my whole being refreshed.    I guess, I will just be waiting for more branches here in Manila.

     Intrigued enough?
You may visit Dr. Pearl at this website :  www.DrPearlCooler.com and kindly like them also at facebook:    facebook.com/DrPearlCooler
   
  See it didn't turned out the way I expected, however our picnic turned out to be great even with the ants biting.   Life is like that, a picnic, sometimes during picnics, it may rain, or ants come and go, or the food spoils, it doesn't really matter, what matters is how it will turn out to be, and how you will face every ordeal, that is why God gives us wisdom and a sound mind and faith so that we can see everything to be a blessing from Him!

Oh, by the way, here are more pictures at my personal FB page:
16th Hot Air Balloon Fest    


3 comments:

  1. Hi! My name is Happy Perez from Dr. Pearl Cooler.. Thank you for blogging Dr. Pearl, we appreciate it very much. Will you allow us to link this page on our face book account?
    We'll be in Manila soon..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure! It would be my pleasure! My kids and I really enjoyed your shakes last Saturday at the Clark! I actually have liked your page already!

    ReplyDelete
  3. How's a well planned picnic in Tagaytay sounds?

    ReplyDelete

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