Experiencing Panagbenga 2014

Panagbenga is pronounced as "panagbanga" which means " tagsibol" from local term as per our tour guide. It's the season when flowers bloom and you can see it anywhere in Baguio during this season - very relaxing.

My fiance's family planned going to Baguio since last year to experience Panagbenga so his dad already booked 2 rooms at Venis Hotel. It's a good experience though very tiring. When you're planning to experience this kind of local celebration, just hire a van with driver if you're a big group since reserving tickets or lining up on terminals is exhausting and time consuming.

We travelled to Muñoz Nueva Ecija and rode with his parents via a rented van which really saved us from traffic, long ques on bus terminals and still having comfy seats. We arrived early that day, around 9am though we're only able to watch the last street dancing participants on their parade. We stroll around the place then went to Lourdes Grotto which has more than 200 steps if  I'm not mistaken, Burnham Park where you can experience boat riding, tried strawberry ice cream, went to Camp John Hay, The Mansion which is the President's summer house, checked Mine's View Park which is jampacked of tourists and finally went up to buy Good Shepherds products.

We're a bit hesitant 'coz there were long lines for the GS products. Actually, anywhere you go in Baguio, you can see how crowded it was because of the event. Sadly, I no longer appreciate the place that much. There are numerous buildings which made the mountains looked distorted. It's actually my 2nd time to visit the place since 2008 if I remember it right. Before, there are less building structures in the area and you walk can around seeing the beauty of nature but now, everything looks similar with Manila. I just hope Baguio can still accommodate the growing number of structures and people living there. 

Here are some pictures of the floats we saw last Feb. 23, 2014. Some celebrities that joined the event were Marianne Rivera with Alden Richards in Carmela, Ogie Alcasid for ML Kuwarta Padala, Alodia Gosiengfiao, Ms. International candidate 2013 and Ms. Earth 2013. Pardon me for my blurred photos which were taken using my Iphone 5. :)

Carmela Float (Marian Rivera & Alden Richards)

Chinese-Styled Float

Ms. International Float

Jollibee Float

There were a total of 26 floats if I'm not mistaken. As per our tour guide, atleast 200,000 pesos is spent for each float. I forgot to ask what will they do to those flowers after the event 'coz if you saw it personally, you'd be thinking what's next for the flowers.

This short out of town event really helped my mind relax a bit from work and wedding preps and I guess i'll be needing this most of the time :-)