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FireFlyz | 31
announcement and was really happy to be taking home a nice trophy
with me.
The following week, I put up at a friend’s place in Kuala Lumpur while
arranging for the shipping of my truck from Sydney to Malaysia and plan-
ning my route through South East Asia, before I went to The Philippines.
In Manila, I joined a few others and our van picked us up from the
airport. We then made our way to another part of the city to pick up a
couple of pilots who had just arrived from sightseeing in the north of
the country.
We travelled through the backstreets of Manila to reach them and in
the span of just 15 minutes on the road, we went through a mini riot and
was stopped by the police for running a red light. Most people would turn
around and drive the other way if they saw a crazy guy throwing huge
rocks at people, but our driver didn’t. We drove right by him as everyone
ran in the opposite direction. Luckily he thought that throwing a rock at
our van would be a bad idea, so we had no problems going through, only
to be pulled over by a police officer a few minutes later.
After a short conversation explaining that we were on our way to the
Philippines International Balloon Festival organised by the governor of
the region, he kindly let us proceed.
We stayed in San Fernando that night and went in a police convoy the
following day to the site where the balloon festival was held. The road we
travelled on is known for load jacking, hence the police convoy. It seemed
to be a rare event though, and I didn’t feel I was in danger.
Again, it was great to see that the balloon had arrived unscathed from
Malaysia and I met my ground crew for the week. They were volunteers
from the local 4x4 club and were between 12 to 34 years old.
The balloon festival was held in the Pampanga District. The area was
especially designed for the festival paid for by the Governor of Pampanga.
What had been a farm two months before, was turned into a large number
of bungalows used for accommodation, roads, car parks, a wakeboarding
circuit and many other infrastructure. Eventually they hope to build a
theme park and an eighteen-hole golf course. It was amazing to see what
could be done in just two short months.
We flew every morning of the five day event, in an area close to
Mt Pinatubu that was devastated in the 1993 volcanic eruption. The
landscape was completely transformed – the land is fertile and has a
lot of rice paddies as it is wet and low lying. There are large fish farms
closer to the ocean, which dot the landscape. Landing a balloon there
can be challenging sometimes as dry ground can be hard to come by.
Thankfully, all thirty balloons that attended the event managed to land
without any problems.
Another friendly Hare and Hound competition took place and I was
happy to be in first place again for one of the flights.
At the end of the successful balloon meet, we packed our balloons and
went our separate ways. The governor’s husband kindly loaned me his car
and bodyguard/driver to take me to a friend’s house about an hour away.
It was interesting to talk to the bodyguard. He talked about his time in
the Philippines Special Forces and how he couldn’t be afraid of anything.
After visiting a couple of friends, I left the Philippines a couple of days
later and returned back to Malaysia. The Filipinos are very friendly and
hospitable, and are famous for their big smiles. I hope to return there again.
I spent the following six weeks waiting for the balloon to arrive from
the Philippines and the truck to arrive from Australia before continuing
my adventures through South East Asia. More on that in the next issue.
If you like the Flying High For Kids World Balloon Project and would
like to know more or make a donation, please visit our website at www.
flyinghighforkids.com, or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/
flyinghighforkidsproject.