Holy Week (Lenten Season) is one of the most anticipated times here in the Philippines for many different reasons. For the Christians and Catholics, this is a time of reflection and thanksgiving for the suffering and crucifixion of Christ on the cross for our sins. But for almost everyone, regardless of their religious affiliations, this is the highlight of summer for the Philippines, because it is a long period (4 straight days) of vacation. Starting from Maundy Thursday until Easter/Resurrection Sunday, Metro Manila is transformed from a bustling, traffic-filled city to a virtual ghost town as majority travel both domestically and internationally for their vacations.
This year my family decided to travel to Clark, Pampanga for an overnight stay at an Air BnB. We made the decision to leave on Wednesday instead of Thursday to avoid the heavy – almost standstill traffic jam that occurs annually along the highways due to the mass exodus of vacationers travelling to the provinces. Clark Economic Freeport Zone is a former US airbase located 40kms northwest of Metro Manila. It served as one of the two (along with Subic Naval Base in Subic, Olongapo City) strategic military outposts of the US in Philippines until 1991. Clark Airbase, and Subic Naval Base pulled out after the explosion of Mt Pinatubo and the rejection of the Philippine Senate for renewing the military presence of the US in the Philippines. It has since been transformed into a bustling economic freeport zone complete with an international airport and caters mostly to tourism with many new hotels, resorts and golf courses. It’s home also for many multinational companies.
Before checking into the BnB, we had lunch at a nice place called Sage in Clark, after that my son and I checked out some locations in Clark EFPZ before heading to the BnB. We wanted to familiarize ourselves with the place because we will meet up with some friends the next day to bike around the area, and have lunch there with my sisters and their family to commemorate my dad’s death anniversary on Maundy Thursday.
The place we booked is called the Cave. It is a small house located in a gated compound, 20 mins away from Clark Economic Freeport Zone. It’s a wonderful place with a living room and a small bedroom for 2 on the 1st floor and a loft type 2nd floor with 2 king sized beds and a single bed that can fit 6-8 people. The whole interior of the house is fully air-conditioned which really made it nice to stay indoors during the scorching summer heat of the Philippines. There is an outdoors kitchen at the back of the house and a moderate sized pool in front of the house which serves as central bonding area of the guests. We had a lovely time swimming, lounging, playing board games, bonding and conversing. I also had time to catch up on my reading 🙂
As I mentioned, my son and I planned to bike around the area with some church friends who were also staying overnight in Clark. We met early morning (5:30am) on Maundy Thursday and did a 35Km ride in and out of Clark EFPZ. Since my vehicle was not equipped with a bike rack, my son and I decided to bring our Brompton folding bikes instead. It was truly a fun chill ride which ended around 8am as it was becoming too hot to continue biking.
After the ride, my son, and I met up with our family for breakfast at Porch Coffee located along the parade grounds inside Clark EFPZ. What’s nice about Porch is their toilets has a shower for bikers and runners. We decided to eat at the shaded outdoors area overlooking the parade grounds where we can see people jogging, biking and walking. The shade, the light breeze plus Porch’s good food and coffee made it a relaxing and enjoyable breakfast.
After breakfast, we headed back to the BnB for one last swim. After my swim, I had an opportunity to do a mini photo shoot of my Brompton P Line at our BnB before checking out.
After checking out, we went back to Clark to meet my sisters for lunch and then we headed back home to Metro Manila. It was my first time traveling and staying in Clark after more than 20yrs and the change in the area looked amazing. This seems like a nice alternative as a short vacation spot as it has great amenities, it is relatively near Manila and easy to get to. God willing, I hope to be back.
For this trip I brought along the Fuji XT5 and the Fuji 16-55mm f/2.8 XF lens. It was my first and, unfortunately, last trip with the XT5 as I recently traded it in for another system. The XT5 and the 16-55mm performed flawlessly. Almost 90% of the photos shared here are shot SOOC using the Kodak Ultramax 400 film recipe. I only did light edits with Lightroom Classic to straighten some photos and clone out some distracting elements in 10% of the shots. Fuji colors along with its film recipes are truly amazing. Why then did I trade it in and change system? That’s a story for another blog 😊. In the meantime, comment, like and share my blog to allow me to gain more exposure. Thank you for dropping, and God bless.
Daniel's Lighthouse 