In between visiting the giant lantern makers of San Fernando City, we also went to numerous restaurants where we lunched, snacked, and snacked some more. And yes, we do have an excuse for our food binge—Pampanga’s title of being the Culinary Capital of the Philippines. We’re uncovering the province’s little gems, one plate (or two) at a time.

SUSIE’S CUISINE’S AIRCONDITIONED INTERIORS

One of the interesting places we visited was Susie’s Cuisine in San Fernando. Located at an air-conditioned building along MacArthur highway, you wouldn’t really think much of it. At first glance, it looks like any ordinary restaurant, that is until servings of their famous pancit luglug and tibok-tibok were plunked right in front of us.

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Twilight was almost upon us as we alighted from our van for the last stop of our tour. The day has been filled with the Giant Lanterns of Pampanga interspersed with Kapampangan dishes generously spread in between. We thought we’ve seen and tasted everything until we visited San Fernando City’s The Souq.

Translated from Arabic, the word souq means marketplace. And from the central alley that traverses the restaurant, the name suits the place quite well. The concept, our host said, was to incorporate various mini-restaurants along both sides of the alleyway.

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On an open plaza somewhere in San Fernando City, a twenty-foot freestanding structure mysteriously covered by a tarpaulin stands at the center of the square. It was almost Christmas time, and like a giant gift, a massive Christmas lantern, one of Pampanga’s famous giant parols, was slowly being unwrapped right before our eyes.

I have never attended Pampanga’s famous Ligligan Parul Festival where barangays from all over San Fernando City proudly showcase their giant lanterns, but I do have a somewhat hazy memory of seeing them when I was a kid at the now defunct Paskuhan Village.

Now, decades later, I’m back at Pampanga to witness how these giants are made.

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A huge plate filled with pasta, spring rolls, veggies, and salad was laid down on our star-spangled table. Everything looked familiar, but not quite. Before our host left, I quickly asked her for the name of the dish. She turned back, smiled and said, I usually serve this at home and I haven’t even thought about giving it a name just yet.

It was our first stop for Pampanga’s giant lantern tour and we were at Nona’s Kitchen. Well, we really won’t get to see the lanterns at their grandest and brightest since it was still a week before they were to be unveiled, but what we were here for was to see how Pampanga’s Giant Lanterns are made.

And yeah, we’re here to eat. A tour of San Fernando City wouldn’t be complete without a culinary adventure.

The heat was searing as I tried to conquer the simple looking Aerial Walk Challenge at the newly opened Sandbox at Alviera in Porac. It looked easy, but once I set foot on its obstacles, sweat started to pour from my body like there was no tomorrow.

ALVIERA SANDBOX IN PORAC

Sandbox at Alviera is the newest outdoor adventure park to hit the province of Pampanga.

Like its name suggests, it is a playground of sorts, but with a twist—the games here are really not all for kiddos. Dotting its thousand or so hectares are two sets of giant swings, a rappelling, climbing and free fall tower, an aerial walk complex, a roller coaster zipline, a pump-track for bikes, and an ATV station for a longer rides outside the complex.

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The Smashing Pumpkins rumbled through the chorus of Today on my iPod as I climbed the final steps towards the viewing deck of Mount Pinatubo. I was panting a bit, not really used to hiking for hours. I stepped towards the chasm and looked out upon the crater that has caused so much trouble to people of Central Luzon. I suppressed a gasp.

Everyone knows what a cliché it is to have a view take one’s breath away. But you won’t care about that once your eyes lay upon Mount Pinatubo’s emerald crater.

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I was overwhelmed with joy when I learned that Guagua’s Betis Church is included in Culture Shock PH’s Pampanga Culinary tour. The Sistine Chapel of the Philippines it is dubbed. The Baroque-inspired Betis Church is one of the 26 elite churches in the country that has been declared as National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum and the NCCA.

The group has visited another church in Pampanga, the half-buried Bacolor Church, just a few hours before we disembarked at Barangay San Nicolas in the town of Guagua. The sun was almost setting behind the faded pink façade of the church as we gazed upon its peeling exterior.

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I once was fascinated by furniture design. During my stint as an Architecture student in UST, I used to design furnishings that go along with the houses I draw, believing that both the structure and its content should speak a single holistic language.

And during my still brief course as a traveler, I’ve seen all sorts of architectural gems around the country. But it has only been during my Pampanga tour with the Culture Shock PH crew that I was able to visit something related to furniture design—Pampanga’s Betis Crafts Inc.

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Almost twenty years after Mount Pinatubo’s devastating lahar flow ravaged the province of Pampanga, the San Guillermo Church still stands proud, albeit half-sizedly, along Bacolor’s town plaza. It was the second stop of Culture Shock PH’s Pampanga Food and Heritage Tour and I was excited to explore a church quite different from what I normally see around the Philippines.

Originally standing at twelve meters high, the lahar flow from Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption reduced Bacolor Church’s façade into half its original height. The original door, which has been buried by mud and ash materials, can no longer be seen. What were formerly church windows are now used as main entrances to this house of worship.

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Steam rose as Atching Lillian Borromeo opened the cover of a kawali simmering with fresh ingredients. The delectable aroma of what was to be our lunch wafted through the open-air kitchen. It was almost nine in the morning and together with the crew of Culture Shock PH, we watched with rapt attention as the Kapampangan culinary guru does her magic in her famous kusinang matua.

We were in Mexico, Pampanga. The only time I heard about this small town was during the eruption days of Mount Pinatubo. Little did I know that this is also one of the culinary capitals of the province.

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Our group alighted at one of the ancestral house in Barangay Parian, ready to discover the secrets behind the legendary Kapampangan food, Pampanga being known for being the Culinary Capital of the Philippines.

Three days certainly wasn’t enough to fully appreciate the ecological metropolis that is Singapore. But the choice was not mine to make and on the morning of our third day, we reluctantly boarded our tour bus for the last time and headed to Changi International Airport for our flight back to Clark.

Singapore’s Changi Airport is certainly one of the prettier air hubs I’ve seen. Considered as the main entry point of the country, it is massive compared to any of our airports in the Philippines. The facilities are very modern; well I guess it wouldn’t have won almost four hundred awards since it opened in 1981 if it were not.

It was the last few days of 2012. According to the Mayan calendar, the world was supposed to end so a trip outside the country was the last thing I expected on my own calendar. AirAsia Philippines is launching their inaugural flight to Singapore and I’m one of the lucky few who were invited to take part in their maiden voyage to the Lion City.

Our group would be flying out to Singapore from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga. Getting there however posed no problem as an airport lounge connecting Manila to Clark has just opened. We were however special and an air-conditioned jeepney from Trinoma was waiting for us; it’s gonna be shuttling us to Clark in style, jeepney-karaoke style.

In the tradition of Lakbay Norte tours, we just finished eating at the historic Camalig Restaurant in Angeles City and we were gonna eat again; this time at Prado’s Organic Farms in Lubao. I almost swore off eating until I saw what they prepared for us.

The vibrant yellow walls of Prado Farms’ entrance greeted us upon arrival. The next thing I saw was a gate made from welded gas tanks, it looked so absolutely heavy and very, very artsy. I knew we were in for an interesting afternoon right then.

Our 4x4 emerged from a cloud of dust and was eaten by a narrow gorge. We were rumbling through the lahar-laden wasteland east of Mt. Pinatubo, our destination a lone resort at the foot of one of the most destructive volcanoes of the 21st century.

Looping around North Luzon for a week, we have seen some pretty spectacular places and most of us were really not expecting much for the last day of the Lakbay Norte 3 tour, I mean what else can they throw at us? A whole lot more, as it turned out.

The jump off point to Puning Hot Spring is at Sapang Bato in Angeles City. Dubbed as Station One, it’s where we chose our 4x4’s. We piled on the back of the trucks and within minutes were racing across the road, passing Station Two and rumbling down the dusty landscapes of Porac.

Let’s meet at room 3402 later were words that were being passed around as our luggage was being stowed off the bus and we were being herded to check out the rooms and amenities at Widus Hotel in Clark, Pampanga. It was Lakbay Norte’s last night and a strange bond seemed to link the busload of travelers that were pure strangers just a week ago.
A gurgling fountain set on dark slate rocks in the middle of the lobby surrounded by minimalist white walls gave me a good preview of what this hotel has to offer. Formerly dubbed Hotel Vida, the hotel has now been transformed as the hotel component of the Widus Resort and Casino.

The Lakbay Norte bus smoothly ran through three hours of rolling afternoon landscapes at the SCTEX. The view outside was poetic but inside our bus, all hell was breaking loose; the team had just discovered Pinoy Henyo and everyone was rolling and howling with laughter all over the narrow hallway.
We were all plastered and hungry by the time we reached the parking lot of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club in Pampanga. Dinner was gonna be at The Verandah, one of the restaurants at the renowned tee club.

The trip to our lunch destination, the Historic Camalig Restaurant in Angeles City, took a full hour and for once during our eight-day tour of Luzon, the Lakbay Norte team was actually hungry! The excitement-filled trip to Puning Hot Springs must be the culprit for this strange sensation in our tummy. It was something we haven’t felt for quite sometime, and it was totally unacceptable! So eat, we must!

The heat was intolerable as we boarded down the comfort of our air-conditioned bus. Good thing the grounds at Camalig were well-shaded by huge trees.

It’s been years since I last attended the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Pampanga but the thrill of shooting these colorful giants was still the same as I stepped onto the dry grass fields of Clark one cold morning of February.

Every year, Caltex Philippines and Digital Photographer Philippines host a photo contest for photography enthusiasts during the festival. The theme for this year’s competition is Hot Moves - A Journey Like No Other. It focuses on the joys the event brings to the people attending the fiesta.

With high stakes, Php30,000.00 worth of Caltex Starcash Cards, Sony cameras and an annual subscription for Digital Photographer Philippines, every photographer was vying for the top photos of the day. Ten photographs were chosen each day, which automatically wins the lucky shooter Php3,000.00 worth of Caltex Starcash Card and a chance for the top honors.

It’s 3:30am and we just got off at the Dau Bus Terminal, on our way to the last day of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Still bleary eyed from lack of sleep, we hopped on a jeep bound for the gates of Clark and bargained with our driver for a direct ride to the Hot Air Balloon field.

We arrived just before 4am and were greeted by a long queue of people waiting for the gates to open. Oh man and I thought we were early!
The gates opened at around 5am and everything went to hell. The single line became an almost free for all; I guess the PIHAB admin should have deployed some staff to control the lines as heads tend to get hot in these instances especially those who had been waiting in line since midnight. This can easily spell trouble.

The venue quickly filled up and the trucks bearing the deflated balloons were soon at the field, firing off their flames into the darkness of the dawn. I was lucky enough to secure a photographer’s pass from Caltex and Digital Photographer Philippines and we were soon herded inside the balloon area. Without such, I can only shoot from behind the fence using a telephoto lens, inside I was able to use my ultrawide lens and get really close to the action.

One of the most awaited festival in the country is upon us once again, prepare for colorful balloons to dot the sky of Clarkfield, Pampanga for four consecutive days! 

The first and last time I’ve attended the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta was last 2010 and I’m stoked that I’d be able to finally attend again this year!

For those interested in seeing the balloons fly, you can get your tickets at Ticketnet and at the gate itself for Php200.00