Confessions of a 30 year-old: Philippines' Mardi Gras!

You know Murphy's Law? That almost happened to my Masskara Festival trip when I started preparing for it a month ago.
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So you get a picture, here's a gist: my mom offered her miles to be used for the trip to Bacolod (where the Masskara Festival is held). That's a good thing, right? Well, that's the first and last good thing. There were no more available flights to Bacolod that could accommodate us. The only ones offered to me were flights to and from Bacolod 1 week before and after the event. So that's a definite no. My next option was to fly to Iloilo, then take a one-hour ferry ride to Bacolod. The Iloilo flights were almost also fully booked. The available flights were a couple of days before and after the event.. But that would mean more leaves for me. And I can't afford to leave work that long! But seeing that I've got little options left, I booked it. Next was the accommodations: apparently, people book for the Masskara Festival 3 months before the event. So needless to say, there were no more available hotels for us too. I think I spent more than a thousand bucks for long distance calls to Bacolod only to plead to a million hotels who wouldn't even put me on their wait list. And oh, there was also the the Iloilo hotel that needed to be taken cared of! To make matters worse, on the day that I was to leave manila for Iloilo, I found out that I was supposed to make a presentation to an entire department about what my team and I have been working on the past months. I had to leave work by 5:30pm to catch my 7pm flight. And my presentation was scheduled at 5pm. Great! Great, great, great!
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So anyway, fate dictated that I was meant to attend the Masskara Festival.. So, I did.
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All the mishaps that happened until the last minute were all worth it! The festival was marvellous!!! From the smiling happy Bacolod people to the famous Bacolod Inasal to our malayo but very sulit hotel to the luck we had by having front-row seats in the festival's culminating activity to the amazing masskaras to the colorful street dancers to the electric masskara parade to the gigantic masskara puppets and to everything else Bacolod!
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I will not even attempt to understate the Masskara Festival with my inadequate use of words. So I've decided to just let the pictures tell you how fascinating it was.
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Enjoy Masskara!
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*Note: The next 7 pictures were not taken from our camera but were borrowed from someone who attended it as well.

And then who would've thought that it's possible to parade gigantic masked puppets too?

And though it is not part of the Masskara Festival, eating an actual bacolod inasal was very much part of the trip. You cannot.. should not go to Bacolod and not eat inasal the Bacolod way.. with your hands, of course.

Aida's Chicken is one of the best places to eat in Manukan City

The way to eat Bacolod Inasal is with your hands.. Not with spoon and fork, Mea!

Masarap!

Another thing I realized from my trip is that Bacolod really is the City of Smiles. It is impossible not to adore these charming people. And not only are they very very hospitable and malambing, they take Masskara very seriously too! It was everywhere!

..in shops by the streets..

..in malls..

..in the streets..

..outside restaurants..

..outside Red Ribbon!..

.. and by an ambulance.

The happy people of Bacolod!

We even got interviewed by the Bacolod Sky Cable channel. Hehe!

And lastly, the culminating activity. Before the pictures, a little side story: when we got to the plaza, the place was cordoned off. Around the plaza/stage where the performers are to perform, were bleachers of at least 4 levels. Behind the bleachers were barricades. Behind the barricades were throngs of people standing on top of benches, climbing on trees and whatever else they can climb on, just to try to get a glimpse of the what's going on inside. We were behind them. So feeling a bit deflated, we were about to decide on going back to the hotel to continue watching the festivities on live cable. I mean, we would have the best views! But fate once again said that we were meant to watch it live. So miraculously, we were led inside the plaza and got front-row seats together with the photographers. Talk about luck!

Throng of people behind the bleachers..

and people standing on top of whatever they can stand on

And when we were ready to leave....

We got led in the plaza!

And got the best view in the house!

We were really close to the stage.

The band.

Me and my sister with our very own masskaras.

Maybe the best part of the entire trip was me having to spend it with the girls in my family. Our dream of having an all-girls trip finally pushed through. Yey!