Subic 2011

From the 16th hot air balloon fiesta in Clark, we had a quick breakfast and proceeded to Subic.

We arrived just in time for the start of the morning shows.

The hilarious Sea Lion Marine Patrol Show.

A Walk on the Wild Side for a quick jungle survival tutorial and animal show.

The Adventure of Olongapo Jones that features the Basura Boys who are great trampoline acrobats. And lastly the dolphin show that was as good as ever. We finished all shows by lunch time. At 2pm we left Ocean Adventure and went to the hotel for an afternoon rest. The short rest was just enough to energize us again because we were up an about since 1:30am that day when we started our long ourney from Laguna to Clark's Hot Air Balloon Fiesta then to Subic.

Dinner was in Meat Plus for steaks and their banana fritters that I've been craving for.

Le Mans Go Kart was closed so after dinner we went back to the hotel. It was actually my mom's first time to visit Subic and to stay in a hotel for a night and she was very thankful. And this made me happy.

The next day was at a more relaxing to just savor Subic, being out of town, the scenery, shopping, dining and being together.

By 2pm Sunday, we were already in Makati. We were supposed meet my wife there before her afternoon class in AIM but she was still on her way to Makati.

We ate in Pepper Lunch then had gelato for dessert which were first time tries for my brothers.

It was a fun 2-day vacation and a memorable one for my mom.

16th Philippine Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

I brought my mom and brothers to the 16th Philippine hot air balloon fiesta. My dad was not able to join due to stuffs he need to do in Visayas. We left home at 1:30am and when we got there at 4am, there was already a long line in the ticket booth and the parking was starting to get busy.

At 5:30am the jeeps pulling the balloons started to position themselves in the wide lawn of the airport.

The sporadic flames from the burners lit the early morning skies.

There was no flag jump this time from an airplane. Instead there were these powered parachutes that carried the flag to open the Saturday balloon fiesta events.

Then they started firing up the burners to inflate the balloons.

The burners were not turned on everytime. They mix just the right amount of normal air and warm air to control the air temp in the balloons to inflate it and give just the right lift.

Hot air balloons of variety of shapes.

This balloon did not have a gondola. Just a rig to hold the fuel tank and a small chair for the lonely occupant to sit on. No girlfriend allowed.

The rise of Darth Vader - literally.

A couple having their pre-nuptial photos taken.

As the balloons rose so do the frequency of shooting and clicking from the ground.

The Festo balloons were nice. They were the pair of balloons in the upper right that were tied together and where one of them looked like an upsidedown flying balloon.

Tents and picnic mats were everywhere and reminded me of those old Woodstock pictures I see in old music magazines. We left Clark early to catch the morning shows in Subic.

Treveia NUVALI - the GPS Trace

I had to work last Sunday. It's a long drive so to put some spice into it, I decided to pass by Treveia NUVALI. There was no picture yet of Treveia in Google Earth and no roads drawn in Google Maps so I turned on the GPS of my Nokia device and started road tracing from SLEX Mamplasan exit to Treveia. When I got there, almost all roads of Phases 1 & 2 were already open. I took pictures of the lot we bought there then made a long and comprehensive road trace of Treveia by driving on all the roads and letting my phone record my track.

From the GPS trace log, I plotted the elevation from SLEX Mamplasan to Treveia. Good news is that Treveia is on a higher elevation compared to SLEX, Laguna Technopark, Solenad and Paseo de Santa Rosa.

I then uploaded the GPS trace in Openstreetmap and drew the roads in Treveia.

You can now view it Openstreetmap and Wikimapia. I also made a short drive around Solenad and drew the roads here.

I hope Google Earth is updated soon. They already updated Eton's South Lake Village and the islands are already visible. I hope NUVALI is next.