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| trying to get a closer pic to the city's Angry Birds float |
Wrapping up February, here's a rundown of some other stuff we visited during Panagbenga 2012 here in Baguio City:
The Float Parade:
Perhaps the highlight of the Flower Festival, floats of various shapes and sizes, displaying an assortment of flowers and other forms of greenery draws hundreds of thousands of visitors up the highlands. Starting out with a few floats made by local establishments, government offices and schools and universities of the city back in 1996, the number of floats now more than tripled, and have included delegates from media companies, consumer product corporations and even other cities in the Philippines and delegates for abroad.
To get the best view of the parade, head out early. Be there on the streets as early as 6 in the morning to get a pick of your viewing spot. The drawback of getting the best seats though is that once the sun climbs high in the sky, escaping the heat may be a bit of a problem as layers upon layers of people will probably be blocking your way. Wear a hat, sunglasses and brings lots of water. Incidents of fainting from the heat are quite common. Medical volunteers and an ambulance are on standby though for such incidents.
If you're like the rest of my family and don't want to go through the crowd but would want to see the floats up close and personal, you can wait for the rest of the floats to end up at the Baguio Athletic Bowl. It is here where all the floats congregate for the final judging. Personally, we waited till the late afternoon when the event was over and done with as most of the floats are left there to be on display. Taking a picture of the floats in their entirety may prove difficult though as a lot of people are doing the same. So recommending this if you have small kids with you.
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| admiring one of the finalists in the landscaping contest |
The Market Encounter:
As mentioned in the previous blog, the Market Encounter at the Burnham Park Skating Rink gave me the opportunity to buy great finds. We ended up buying various herbs (mint, lemon balm, rosemary, basil) and even a full grown Malaysian Chili plant all for 200 php. Throw in a Bangkok lemon tree for 140 php and 2 silver eucalyptus trees (to repel mosquitoes) for 380/tree, we had our green thumbs twiddling in delight. The landscape entries were quite interesting. It certainly made us want to have a garden that pretty in the backyard :)
Speedlimits Transhow in Bloom:
Perhaps the highlight of this activity at the Baguio Convention Center parking lot was the concert that came at the end of the day. I felt the 50 php entrance fee to view the handful of cars on the lot was to fund the concert's after party. Didn't watch the concert, but we brought MAX(who loves cars) to see the vehicles featured in the show. MAX didn't get all worked up about it. The best car for me was a toss up between this old Plymouth and this shiny yellow truck that reminded me of Mater the tow truck in Disney's Cars. Maybe the can have other features and other "showcase cars" to feature. Even our lil car lover was a bit bored.
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| I liked the old stuff from the '60s that was displayed inside the Plymouth |
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| I'll pick my Maclaren Quest anytime buddy :p |
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| boom boom BASS! |
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| it's not THAT bad son! smile for Papa! |
There were so many more activities that we weren't able to attend, but we were quite happy with all the sights and sounds that we encountered. All in all, the Panagbenga celebrations in Baguio just keep getting bigger and better. Can't imagine how they could top this year's, but they probably would.
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| Off to our next adventure...wherever and whenever it may be! |
From TMW, may all your wanderings be better than ours.
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