When in Yogya, be Yogyakartan. Or Try.

After being recharged by a restful nap and fulfilling lunch, Ayu and I hopped on her motorbike and head for Prambanan Temple.

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple in Central Java, Indonesia. It is located approximately 18 km east (or 20 min) of Yogyakarta center. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is 1 of the 2 main reasons why I'm here (in Yogya). The other being Borobudur, of course. I knew before coming but was surprised that the entrance fee to this temple is USD11, as expensive as the fees in Europe. I'm not saying that it's worth less than Europe's attractions, but being in Southeast Asia, you'd think the cost to maintain the site would be significantly lower. My meal earlier costs less than 2 dollars, know what I mean?

But we had a brilliant plan. Locals only pay $1 and we figured I'm not a bule (blue-eyed, blond tourist). I'm a Southeast Asian, therefore I can pass as Indonesian. They have plenty of Indo-Chinese. We will buy 2 local tickets and will casually enter the gate. Ayu will utter some Indonesian sentences while we go in and I will just have to nod and agree. Simple, yes?

Not. As we enter, the guard stopped us and asked where I am from. Ayu said Bandung, which isn't a complete lie, as I really just came from Bandung. He then smugly spoke to me in Indonesian. Busted. More Indonesian to Ayu. Finally we were directed to a window that sells ticket to foreigners. Oh well, fine!

I have reconciled with it. Truly. It is fair that the locals get huge discount. Everytime they have guests from out of town, they accompany them to the temple. Ayu probably been here 20x, at leasts. So she's already paid $20 so far for the entrance. I don't know when I'll ever come back. So, it's fair. Plus they really needed the fund for the reconstruction.

The temple was severely damaged during an earthquake in 2006, as can immediately be noticed with the debris scattered all over the ground. Before and after photos are displayed showing the extent of the damage. It was closed for sometime but now again open for the public but not fully restored, don't think it will ever be.

Prambanan is a HUGE compound that comprises a group of temples. The three main ones in the primary yard are Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva temples. There are more at the back, smaller but basically of similar pointed structure, said to be typically of Hindu architecture. It is beautiful! It gives you the larger than life feel. Took my breath away imagining that it was built some 2000 years ago and here it was, standing before me.

shiva temple behind

Around 8.30pm, Andri fetch me from Ayu's to show me several more local site of interests including a puppet show, a wishing tree, and kopi joss with the Yogya couchsurfers.

Sonobudoyo Museum

The museum is of beautiful Javanese architecture, situated on the northern side of the city's main square in front of the Sultan's Palace, where curiously there were 2 pet elephants, in the palance, not the museum. We're here to watch the shadow puppet show performed every night even if there were no audience. We came in during the middle of the performance, not that it mattered because it was in native Javanese. Meaning not only I won't understand it, even Andri doesn't. But it's interesting to watch none the less.


Alun Alun Selatan

After the show, Andri brought me to the alun-alun selatan (south square of Kraton area) and challenged me to walked through between 2 giant banyan trees, 20 meters apart. 20 meters? Should be easy, even with your eyes closed, yeah? Exactly. You have to do it blindfolded, 50-60 meters away. And if you succeed, then congratulations, good things will come to you.

It was a lively place with many young people hanging out and trying their luck. We stood by for a few before I took my chance with Andri following me, not helping, just to keep me from bumping or stepping on anyone/thing. I tried to walk as straight as possible towards the middle of the 2 trees. And after like a hundred steps, took off my blindfold and found myself positioned parallel to the 2 trees, instead of walking towards it, I was 60meters away, walking along it. We laughed our heads off. After watching a few more people do it, and failing, I decided to do it again. This time determined to walk straight, fast, in big steps. And wooohooo, I succeeded! :)


Angkringan Lik Man

We're meeting up with the CS people at Angkringan in Togu. This is a famous spot in Yogyakarta for students to hang-out because of the cheap food. And what an interesting and relax environment it is. This is basically a stretch of street with food stalls on one side of the sidewalk and the opposite side, straw mats were laid for people to sit, eat, chat, and drink kopi joss. It was cheap indeed, I paid 12.000 for rice and several sticks of food (fish balls, chicken intestines, etc), rice (wrapped in leaves, Cebu style puso), and kopi joss. This is coffee where they put live coal cube in it (opposite of ice cubes) before serving. I think for the burnt flavor. It's actually good. I met some of the Yogya locals and visiting couchsurfers. They were planning for a beach trip on weekends. Nice.

Bandung: Paris Van Java

The 2nd stop of my short Java trip is the favorite weekend getaway destination of people from Jakarta. Not surprising because it's so easily reached from Jakarta by train, supposedly a scenic 3 hours journey or by mini van, short 2 hours ride via the super highway. I opted for this option with X-Trans for 70,000 Rupiah (Php280).

Bandung was not on my original list but since it is en route Jogyakarta and was highly recommended by the people of Indonesia group, so, why not? They said it has good food, climate, shopping, and an interesting Nu Art Gallery. I thought I could do this all in a day but I think it's to couchsurf for one day so I planned to stay for 2.

Bandung is situated on a plateau and surrounded by mountains/volcanoes, strawberry fields, tea plantations, and has a hot spring, all within one hour by car (and public transportaion) from the main town. I didn't know of this before but I saw photos from Yannie and they're great but unfortunately, it will have to be for another trip.

I took the 2pm trip and was dropped in Cihampelas at 4pm, which luckily is a colorful street and near the workplace of my host Noni. This is one of those popular Jeans Street filled with outlet shops with screaming signages. I stroll the stretch assessing Bandung fashion and quickly decided, not my style. The shops and merchandise looks like those in Tutuban Mall that made me seriously wonder about the shopping hype... But it was good. I don't plan to shop anyway and I'd hate to be tortured with great buys. Then in about an hour I met up with Noni, a doctor doing research and her friend, Stefanus, a student, and my would be nanny/guide for the next day.

I didn't micro plan this trip. I only decided on the cities/provinces I will go to and the approximate number of days per stop. Flexible too as I will be traveling by land except for Bali back to Jakarta. So this means, I will heavily rely on my hosts for my detailed itinerary. The plan for the following day is to visit the old town of Braga and find this art gallery nobody seem to have heard of.

Noni lives 4 minutes walk from the Leuwi Panjang bus station, so in the morning, I leave the house with her at 8.30am so that she can show me which bus to take.

BRAGA is the downtown and central business district of Bandung. This is an interesting place to see because Braga Street and Braga district has a lot of old buildings of architectural merit and historical. Braga street was known as the 5th Avenue of Indonesia during the time Bandung was the Paris of Java in the 1930s. This was where the Dutch socialites came to buy their luxury goods on weekends, as this has always been the weekend capital of West Java.


I arrived about 9am and started going around taking photos of the old buildings. Then I went to Canary Cafe at the end of Braga St to have my coffee and waited for Stefanus. We then covered the rest of the district of Braga and came to the Museum of the Asian Afrikan Conference. It was so hot already that we decided to go in, it's gratis anyway. It turned out to be an interesting stop over. The museum was established to commemorate the conference held by Indonesia here in 1955 to inspire colonized nations, mainly in Asia and Africa, to strive for their freedom. It was very enlightening to know about the mission, preparation, the efforts and the impact of this conference.

The walk ended in alun-alun (square) and we sat down for lunch at one of the hawker kiosk. The noodle soup here is more expensive than in Jakarta, 12.000 vs 8.000perhaps due to the ambiance. I had, after all, the post office at my back and was faciing the grand mosque of Masjid Raya.


I wanted to check the train schedule for Jogyakarta and since the map we got from the Tourist Information Center shows the train station to be near the post office, and because the guy Stefanus asked said it is walking distance, we started to walk. And it turned out to be a pilgrimage. Actually, I'm okay to walk even in my flip-flops and under the frying sun, this should build my stamina for the Condura marathon, he he. But I wasn't sure about Stefano though I didn't ask lest he collapsed. He he.


We found the train station via the area that must be their Divisoria. The shops and stalls very similar to Recto Avenue towards Ilaya part of Divi. I'm wondering about the connection of Tutuban Train Station and Divi vs. Bandung Train Station and their Divi (not able to ask what this area is called). :)

Next destination is the NuArt Sculpture Park. Fortunately, there is 1 angkot ride from the train station. The art gallery is located in the residential district which is far in relation to the size of Bandung City. It's at the opposite end of where Noni lives. It's not difficult to go like I said, one angkot ride away. Angkot being their counterpart of our jeepney. It works exactly like the jeepney. It travels on a fixed route and you can board and stop at any point shouting "kiri-kiri".


But if the gallery were hard to go, it will still be worth the trouble. The Nu Art Sculpture Park is an amazing place! 3.000 hectar of land with steel/copper sculpture artworks scattered around the garden/villa. There's an art gallery/ building of mordern glass and concrete architecture. I love it! I had no idea it's going to be so nice. And it's all by just one artist: Nyoman Nuarta (ergo, Nu Art). Mr. Nuarta is Bali born but grew up in Bandung which explains many of his Bali inspired work. I love his paintings too. He owns this awesome place, but the gallery keeper told me Mr. Nuarta didn't acquire his wealth overnight. He did a lot of huge steel monuments scattered around Indonesia. His current project is the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park: Jimbaran, Bali, attempting to build the tallest statue in the world. He is also building a tall Noah liked statue for the island hit by the recent tsunami. I'm actually very surprised that Bandung doesn't have visible marks of this artis. Ok, let's not exaggerate to compare him to Gaudi of Barcelona, but at least like Kublai of Davao where his sculpture of the giant durian is found at the airport. I don't know if it's because I just saw the film Vicky Cristina Barcelona but this park reminded me of Parc Guell and maybe Jimbaran will be his Sagrada Familia? :p

One of the nicest experience here is that we get to tour his workshop. It's amazing to be face to face with art in progress. This is where the major sculptures were being made in pieces and shipped to the final destinations for installation. So the big face in the photo will be the actual Noah statue and the mold for the Wisnu in Jimbara is the other big face. The actual is made of plastic resin.


Let's talk about shopping or something we now fondly call as "investing".
I mentioned about my first day arriving at the Jeans Street, and so seriously contemplated on joining one of these nature day trips offered by the tourist information center in Braga for 500.000 Rupiah. I didn't take it because (1) I leave for Yogya the following evening and I don't want to be scrambling for time. I hate this type of stress. Ya, there are types of stress that I like. (2) I think it's expensive. Ok, so 2.000 pesos isn't so expensive for tour and transportation, but it feels expensive in Indonesia.

So the next day, I set forth on to the outlet world. I must say I wasn't too hopeful but Noni suggested Jl. Riau and Jl. Dagu where she said have the more interesting outlet stores. I left the house with her as the day before, meaning at 8.30am because she only has one key, and was shown which bus to take. I got off the intersection of Jl Riau and Merdeka disoriented, as it was a big avenue and no outlet store nor signage in sight. I asked a girl for direction, and she pointed naturally, "outlet, that way." It was about 5 minute leisure walk when finally the 1st one came to view: The Secret Outlet.

I walked in and I swear my heart paused for a second, omg. It was a huge one level store with rows and racks of clothes. My feet were cemented as I wasn't sure if I should proceed or retract. Being it's a little past 9am and I am the 1st customer, the staff were all smiley and welcoming. I courageously took the first step and go near the merchandise. Normal me will be zipping around the racks and piling clothes in a basket to try on but here, I was just staring and afraid of touching. Should I even bother? I have a modest backpack and 2 more cities to go before going to back to Jakarta, so technically 3. Then someone handed me a shopping bag and soon, like a possessed woman, I roamed the store. Topshop, Zara, Mango, H&M, Esprit, Gap, Banana Rep, Old Navy, and many brands I'm not familiar with but beautiful none the less. Very soon I filled the bag and went into the fitting room. They only allow 3 items per time, but the woman just smiled and let me in with the full basket. I tried them one by one, happy when something doesn't look good or with bad fit. Ok, the reason I'm so gaga is that the items were all so cheap. It's even better than Hong Kong in August. The price ranges from Pesos 120 (t-shirts) to 500 (nice cotton dresses, sometimes with stretch). My tactic is to feed my gluttony by trying on everything I fancied and then be really critical about each item. I went in the fitting room a few times and spent a considerable amount of time in this shop, the first one, because I need to walk around and debate with myself which to shed from my basket. Finally, I quite proudly walked out with only 4 items, light ones, no twill or other heavy fabric.


I then went into a quaint cafe to have my morning fix and then continue my venture. Maybe I have calmed down or maybe the next few stores are not as nice, but I'd walk in and out most of them in 2 minutes, empty handed, I'm so glad. The next place I spent some time in was at The Heritage. It also carries brands I like but they don't allow fitting of shirts, so I came out only with one Roxy shorts. I decided to quit while I'm ahead and I went into Dakken Cafe & Steak to have my late lunch. It was a very nice cafe, like fine dining with soft light, beige wall with paintings, and comfy couches, but the food are not expensive. A plate of pasta bolognese cost like Php150 and coke at Php30. I sat here for hours because wifi-hotspot is free provided by Melsa Hotspot. You have to register but it's free. Per log in time is 1hour and then you just log on again with the same name and password. Why don't we have this in Manila?

My hosts were mighty protective and great! In Jakarta, when I left on Monday and Yannie had to work, Vivie came to take me to lunch and drove me to the bus station. Here in Bandung, I volunteered to bring my bags with me and put it in the train locker, but Noni insisted that I can put my backpack in her mum's car and then they'll just come and get me wherever I end up and then drive me to the train station, of course, not without taking me to eat delicious native Bandung food first.


View Bandung photos --->HERE<---

Jakarta: Twin City of Manila

I can't believe that I've only been in Jakarta for 2 days, if I'm to recount the places I've been to, done, and seen with the awesome girls of CS Jakarta. 2 months ago I was able to book a really cheap $10 return tickets to Jakarta with one of Cebu Pacific's regular promotions. Beggars can't be choosers (and I'm not complaining), my flight arrives at midnight. Yannie, Vivie and her mum came to the airport to fetch me on a car on loan from another friend of Yannie! Their hospitality is the same brand as ours in the Philippines. Not surprisingly, I connected with them instantly and that Yannie (my host) and I chatted until wee hour in the morning.

Not surprisingly, we didn't wake up until 9am the next day. Vivie came for us an hour later and we set off for a full day ahead (i had no idea), but of course, not without stopping at Starbucks for our caffaine fix first!

Coffee to go because 2 CSrs were already waiting for us at the Monas a.k.a National Monument a.k.a the president's erection. The 137-meter tall marble obelisk is the highest and most popular structure in Jakarta. This is the city's symbol of freedom. It is possible to take a lift to the observation deck to view the city below, but the line is long takes more than 2 hours to wait. So we just took some creative shots with the monument.

Finally around noon time we met up with the other cs Kim, Cicak, and Roman. But no time to eat lunch because we were to hit several museums and it being Saturday, they closes early.

First stop: The National Museum is situated on Merdeka Barat Street. It houses huge collection of pre-historic, archelogical, and historical relics. Unfortunately we only had 20 minutes to roam around before it closes, so only had time to see the stone relics displayed at the first level. They were quite interesting pieces of artifacts from different era and area.


The Fatahillah Museum, also known as the Museum of Old Batavia located at the old town Kota Tua. The structure of Dutch architecture and built in 1710 was used for administration and judicial purposes. Inside the multi-room building displays paintings and old furnitures preserved from the 18th century. In the backyard, weapons and artifacts are exhibited. And under the house are cells used as prisons.


The artistic building around the corner was originally built as a church in 1640. The structure has undergone several transformation and renovation, and has been used for different purposes until its inauguration as Shadow Puppet Museum in 1975. It has a collection of approximately 5.500 puppets and dolls from different parts of Indonesia and of the world. Now, while I find it lovely and interesting, I wouldn't want to be locked inside the building after dark.

At 3 o'clock, the museum tour ended. The quaint old town of Kota Tua that has many important historical sites around. It is touristic but also has many locals, I'm not sure why. But how cool that the wifi is free in this area? There was a concert going on at the square and also a street performance by eastern Javanese called the Horse Dancing, no horse around. Off the side of this square is a canal with Dutch style buildings backdrop that look very much like Amsterdam.


After the photo session, everyone agreed that we will die if we don't eat something soon. And we ate from one of these colorful hawker food stall. They warned me that some foreigners would get sick from these street food, I reminded them that I'm southeast asian.


Cicak and Roman had to leave, and the remaining of us went back to Sarina to meet up with Hellen. This is where we grabbed Starbucks earlier, so this time we went next door to Miko Coffee Belgium. Hellen and I have corresponded at the SEA group about Indonesia travel. I think my trip's itinerary is all based on her suggested route. We sat and chatted like old friends. This scene could be a typical Saturday with friends in Manila.

After coffee, it's Kim's turn to go and 4 of us girls were off to Planet Hollywood and met up with another CS girl, Indah. By now I feel a little bit like a bus driver picking and dropping people along the way. lol. We grabbed a quick bite for we were catching a movie in an hour. It was a dance movie called Make It Happen, starring some unfamiliar actors and actresses which turned out to be okay. It's a movie similar to Julia Stile's Save the Last Dance.


The movie ended about 10pm and the night was young, being Saturday and all, they decided it's Karaoke time. So, people who knows me can tell you I'm not exactly a karaoke enthusiast even if I have sisters and friends who were. And that I'm born and raised in the Philippines didn't help a bit. But I hate to be a kill joy so...

So, guess where we went back to for karaoke, yes, Sarina's. This is probably the Greenbelt in Indonesia. Seems that everyone had the same idea for Saturday night. We had to wait for almost an hour for a room. The karaoke system here is great, but then again, I've not been in karaoke in Manila for a while. The last time I went, we had like a VGA screen menu and a remote control with (A) and (B) buttons. This one has a PC and keyboard that you type in the title of the song. Anyway, these girls sang as well as my Manila friends and even chose songs like Dancing Queen and YMCA.


It was past midnight when we quit and parted with Hellen here because she lives only 15 minutes away, while us, very far. What an activity filled day, yah? monument, museums, coffee, dinner, movie, karaoke. But if I thought for one minute that we were calling it a night...

The remaining four of us went to the car and Vivie started driving, they asked me, so Lil, what do you have in mind? In my mind I said, "seriously?" Lol. Do you prefer to watch a live band or just sit and drink. I chose the later, naturalement. Perhaps perked by the coffee she just had at Dunkin Donut, Vivie missed a U-turn and ran a red light , and at 1 in the morning, still got caught! We were hailed and stopped by the POLISI. I sat behind Vivie and curiously observing how this goes. The police seems friendly and smiling. Vivie was laughing and talking which I later found that they were speaking in Javanese, because they were both from East Java. Vivie was telling him that we just came from karaoke and that we spent all our money. Then Yannie asked Indah for 20.000, and Vivie handed it to the police, who then let us go. Twin City.

We went to an English pub called Eastern Promis. It's a nice place with good dance music and so we drink and dance the night (or morning) away. I just have to note that drinking is very expensive in Indonesia. And finally, the day ended at 4.30am.

Photo c/o Yannie :)

Surprise, surprise. We were dead until about noon Sunday. I woke and fell back to sleep a few times. So did the 2 girls. Indah slept over at Yannie's too. We lay there and alternately use the computer, watch dvd, sleep inside the room. About 3pm we finally hauled our asses and ate something. Yannie cooked some delicious Indonesian thingy. Yum! Then we fell back to the earlier activities of bumming until about 8pm when we met up with Vivie and went to a pricey sports bar called Aphrodite. The girls wanted to play billards (pool) and they wanted me to teach them. Ha! Ha! I wasn't good even during the time I was playing it almost everyday. We thought we could play there at the sports bar but turned out, you have to enlist and then when your name comes up, you challenge the winner of the previous game. Oh, no, no!

And so we went to this pool place at the backpacker's area where you rent the tables per hour, like we do at home. This area is quite dodgy, no wonder I've been warned against coming here. I'm with locals so I guess it's alright, still there were shady characters making cat calls at us, which we ignore of course We played a couple of rounds and I taught them the only trick/tip I remembered. That is when you hit the cue ball in the middle, the ball stops. Below, it retracts. Above, it follows. So! this concludes my weekend in Jakarta. :-)

More Photos Here<-------

Other Note:
Alcohol is expensive (Jack&Coke @Php350, Cheapest beer @Php120)
Gasoline is very cheap (4.500/liter, thats Php18/L).

Festivals and Traveling

Resplendent costumes, colorful floats, abundance of food and alcohol, and manic street parties are the familiar scenes in festivals. From Sinulog to Ati-atihan, from Santacruzan to Aliwan, from barrio to barangay fiestas, Filipinos are no strangers to fêtes. It’s embedded in our culture to find every opportunity for merry making. Growing up, I’ve had my shares of barrio fiestas but I've never attended a famous festival.

When I started traveling, I would find myself running into festivals by chance and they always turn out to be such indulgence of the senses with the assortment of flamboyant colors, sounds, tastes, even scents! The atmosphere were always highly charged and the energy contagious. They also provide awesome subjects for photography, my new passion.

Brazilian Festival in Barcelona, Spain
May, 2007

My then travel buddy, Catarina from Portugal and I went around Barcelona visiting museums (MNAC, Miro, Olympic), then to Montjuic, the hill overlooking Barcelona, and finally, the playa, their icy beach. While chilling and taking photos, we heard riotous drum beats that can only be from a street festival. We ran toward the music and joined in the high spirited parade. I didn’t understand what the celebration is, she said it’s some kind of Brazilian carnival, but some guy did let me beat on his drums.

Horse Racing Festival in Shangrila (Zhongdian), China
June, 2008

Shangrila is a remote town in Yunnan Province where you can get a taste of Tibet without going to Tibet. When I was in China, my friend Raz suggested we travel to Zhongdian (Tibet) and Deqin (Glacier). We read in the Lonely Planet (LP) that there's an annual Horse Racing Festival in Shangrila organized by the Tibetan happens around mid-June. Sounds interesting.

But when we arrived, after 12 hours in the sleeper bus, nobody in town could tell us when exactly the festival is. There were many travelers around also hoping to catch the festival (so, everyone has LP). The Olympic torch was scheduled to pass by there, and with the recent unrest in Tibet, it’s all very hush-hush. Then we met a Tibetan family sitting in their tent while we aimlessly wandered the grass meadow. They invited us to have lunch with them, and then we got some news that the event has been moved to the following Friday. So we decided to leave for Deqin the next day, another 6 hours bus ride, and come back in time for the festival.

The key to enjoying festivals is to not expect so much and take in what is there. With all these secrecy, there really wasn’t much of a horse race than there were donkeys. But it was a colorful event with the locals dressed up in their native costumes, the women, children, even the donkeys. Some of the travelers were disappointed and bored but we were happy taking photos especially since I just got my new LC-A+ then and the Canon G9 was relatively new. It was an interesting experience and certainly more interesting than if there were no festival.



Gion Matsuri in Kyoto, Japan
July, 2008

Our whole family was in Japan for (my sister) Pincky’s wedding reception in Akita. We sisters have been to Tokyo before but it was first time for our parents. Candie and I decided to backpack in Kyoto while Girlie and Pincky remain in Tokyo.

It was a pleasant surprise that one of the most famous festivals in Japan, the Gion Matsuri was taking place when we arrived. It’s basically a religious festival and a month long thingy but we were fortunate to have come few days before the grand parade. You can feel the dynammism in the air, the temples and streets decorated with lanterns, food stalls everywhere, (local and foreign) tourists dressed up in colorful yukatas (summer kimonos). We were thinking of getting yukatas ourselves to fully immerse into the celebration but the cheapest ones were still pretty expensive (JPY_6000), if you’re only wearing it once, that’s it, so we didn’t.

We were hosted by Jerry, a Japanese CS, who's hosting also Marie-Josie from Montréal. It was great to have Jerry around in this huge confusing festival with a billion of visitors with the one mission. He knows the schedule of events, what to expect, what time to get there, and most importantly where to place ourselves to get the best view of the grand parade!

Sinulog Festival in Cebu
January, 2009

The Sinulog, celebrated in the honor of the Sto. Niño, is one of Philippines' grandest and most colorful festival. I've been to Cebu many times but never for Sinulog. This year I decided I'm going to be there and was hosted by the awesome group of CS-Cebu. This is a week long event but I only arrived in time for the grand parade and couple of parties.

The grand parade started its vigorous drum beat as early as 6 in the morning, waking the people in Mango Avenue, where this happens and hasn't stopped when we joined the procession at 7 in the evening. The parade was as lavish and captivating as promised. We were lucky to have a base at Cebu Backpacker's Guesthouse along the said avenue where we ate, drank (get drunk), and cheered endlessly. It also sheltered us from the 2-3 brief showers in the afternoon.

It was a feast for my camera too! I sneaked into the corded area where (supposedly) only official photographers were allowed. I dashed back and forth, from one participating group to the next, taking portrait photos of the beautiful queens, my favorite subjects there. It was sweet to be so close! I think the guards let me be thinking I'm just a crazy but harmless foreigner who probably couldn't understand English anyway. Pit Señor!

Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark, Pampanga
February, 2009

While I frequently run into festivals during my travels, this year, I found myself chasing after them. After experiencing the dazzling Sinulog Festival in January, February, I was in Clark watching the Hot Air Balloons lift off in the first light of the day as recounted by sole sister, banggingay. It was my first time to join this festival too. Now, with one festival per month, I’m really pressured to keep this up.

Festivals come in various forms: religious, harvests, thanksgiving, music, film, carnival, etc. You can chance upon it or plan your travel around it, either way it will give you a good opportunity to see an alternate side of a city and a sneak peak at what they value, not to mention a new experience and awesome photos. World festivals I hope to attend one day are: the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the Burning Man in Nevada. Who knows, it may all happen next year!