Watching Sea Games? Here’s your Travel Guide to New Clark City – The Transport Queen

DECEMBER 7, 2019 – You still have 5 days to watch and support your favorite athletes of Sea Games playing at the New Clark City. Many are being misled that the New Clark City is at Clark, but actually it is located at Capas, Tarlac.

Before heading to New Clark City, read this guide:

THINGS TO DO

New Clark City or NCC boasts of a very impressive state of the art Sports facilities, in this blog I will give you a heads up of things to do at NCC, and how to get there. Read on :

1. AQUATICS – Watch and Cheer for your favorite athletic Swimmers.

Get to see the Aquatic Venue of NCC where the swimming and diving events are being held. Get your tickets online at any SM Ticketnet outlet or get tickets at the venue (but it will depend on slot availability). We got our tickets for FREE at the venue but we waited first for the ticket holders to get in before we were given tickets.

DIVING AREA at Aquatic Center, New Clark City

You can get your tickets at the ticket booth at the Aquatics Venue, beside is the Baggage counter. To avoid the hassle, check out the list of prohibited items to bring inside the game venues. Getting your packages after the games will take you about 30 minutes to.1 hour due to long lines and the packages are not organized. No locker available for 300++ spectators. At the time of our visit (December 5, 2019), despite of me getting past the line (PWD Priority), it took about 30 minutes for them looking for my tumbler but still didn’t find it, so I decided to just go back after visiting all the areas at NCC.

Check out the Game schedule online before going.

sea games — **GATE 1 Entrance to the Aquatic Center**

SWIMMING — ***Photo courtesy of Ms. Dorcas Avendaño – ROADRACTSC***

2. Athlete’s Village

Get to see the Athlete’s Village, this will be your drop off site when you ride a shuttle from the Aquatics. Outside the buildings, you will see different flags where the athlete’s stay. It was hanged outside on the building for every country they represent.

3. ATHLETIC STADIUM – Watch and Cheer for your favorite Runners

At the time we went here, there are no scheduled game for Track and Field. How we wish that they have available games on a daily basis or at least have maximize the venue. Like the place was so big but you cannot see everything. If your coming from the Metro or just like us from the South (Cavite), you will be quite disappointed if you can only watch an hour of games. So better check out the game schedule and go where you can watch at least 2 games. When we visited the place, the games were only for Aquatics (9 to 10am, and 18:00-19:00). It is prohibited to enter the Athletic Stadium or other venues if there are no scheduled games.

athletics stadium — **Athletics Stadium**

**DOH Makeshift Clinic/Hospital is complete with Laboratory Equipment ensuring the health of our athletes**

track and field — ***Track and field outside the Athlete’s Stadium where runners have their training***

4. Take a pose at the sensational 50M Cauldron.

Yes! So, most of the goers here at New Clark City are eyeing for a shot at the famous cauldron (kaldero) of the Sea Games. The cauldron is basically a stainless steel pot built on stainless steel and is meant to lit during the whole Sea Games event. The cauldron symbolizes the game’s competition and Spirit.

cauldron sea games — Conan and the cauldron

5. Pasalubong and Shopping Centers

We noticed that people flock at the Souvenir shops especially that of the store (beside Basic Shop) where you can buy sports t-shirts and jackets with Sea Games logo and free personalized embroidery for every purchase of P2,000. T-shirt price starts at Php 799 for kids up to Php 1,500. As much as we would like to get some for us, we cannot stand the long cue. Yeah, these items are very hot items and Sea Games supporters also support these merchandise.

Across this building (where the Basic shop is), were convenience stores, Food stalls and other Filipino product merchandise and “pasalubong“. Among our favorites were the Go Lokal! Stores, DTI Likha Ng Central Luzon and Tarlac Tourism.

tarlac — **Discover Tarlac at the Tarlac Tourism Office inside New Clark City**

**Of course, we bought something for ourselves at the DTI Likha Ng Calabarzon Store (Woven pouch P35, Peanut butter P125, Toasted Mamon P40, and Almond Tarts P65)**

Sea Games souvenirs

You can also buy souvenirs at the Open parking area, they sell Sea Games mugs, t-shirts and this tumbler.

We Win As One Sea Games souvenir 500 ml. vacuum flask for hot and cold beverage. Sells at P900 at the New Clark City Open Parking area. Try to haggle though, they might give you discounts. You can also order at The Transport Queen fb page and get 30% discount when you use the code “THETRANSPORTQUEEN30”

GAMES Schedule

Check out the games schedule at the official SEA GAMES Official FB page

Tickets for the Aquatic Center were already sold out for December 7, 8, 9, you can still book your tickets for the Athletics games at any SM Ticketnet outlets or at the New Clark City. Check New Clark City fb page for updates.

PROHIBITED ITEMS at any of the Games Venue

To avoid the hassle of getting in and out of the games venue, avoid long cue lines at the baggage counter, read this infographic of prohibited items.

I have summarized for your convenience:

Weapons & firearms
Sharp objects
Bottles, Cups & Cans
Pyrotechnic materials
Stimulant
Large bulky objects
Animals
Large banners
Flagpoles
Propaganda
Flammable objects
Possible projectiles
Noisemaking items
Laser pointers
Video camera
Camera extenders
Drones
Outside Food & Beverage

OUTFIT & Bags

I highly suggest to wear cool and light wear clothing like sporty attire and bring umbrella and caps. Maybe due to the proximity to nearby volcanoes, it is hotter here than in the Metro or the South, heat is so high and there are few shades trees in the area. Apply sunblock and wear rubber shoes as you will walk from sometime to get from point A to another point.

FOOD

Don’t worry to get hungry as food is available everywhere at the New Clark City. Here’s a list of the food stalls available (which I have noted:)

📌Shakey’s Booth

Available at the Open Parking, Aquatic and Athletic Stadium
A slice of pizza costs Php 75
Chicken and rice is at Php 130

📌Coke and other beverages

Bottled water costs Php 30

📌Milk Tea shop

📌Selecta ice cream

📌Jollibee take out stall at the Athletic’s Stadium

📌Rice meals beside Jollibee which offers your typical Filipino food (tocilog, tortang talong, etc.)

📌Carinderia your typical filipino store with coffee, rice and different cooked meals, candies, bottled water etc. located at the open parking

📌Halal Foods are available at the Go Lokal! Store, concessionaires include Asian Food Cuisine, Hen Lin, Magic Melt, Rajput Halal Pak Cuisine, La Rose/ Aqua Panem, Bricks and Copper, among others.

📌Convenience Stores – the presence of these are a big help specially for those roaming the area with kids. Biscuits, soft drinks, cold teas, water, and ice cream were among the goods that you can buy here.

How to get there?

From Metro Manila

1. You can take a bus going to SM City Clark
2. Ride a FREE shuttle at designated areas at SM City Clark going to New Clark City
3. Check out Shuttle schedule

TRINOMA Mall QC straight to NCC – Via GENESIS Transport Service

The following P2P trips from Trinoma will drop off passengers straight to New Clark City — and from New Clark City to Trinoma — for the remaining duration of the SEA Games:

Trinoma Mall, QC to Athletics Stadium, New Clark City:
5:30 AM
6:30 AM
7:30 AM
8:30 AM

Athletics Stadium, New Clark City to Trinoma Mall, QC:
4:30 PM
5:30 PM
6:30 PM
7:30 PM
8:30 PM

Fare is PHP 280.00 per head per way.

*Source: Genesis Transport fb page

Going in and around New Clark City

Free shuttles are available inside NCC, but it prioritizes rides for the Athletes, Senior Citizens, Persons with disabilities (PWD), and those with children. Getting on foot around NCC is suggested for you to maximize your visit at the biggest sports venue in the Philippines.

New Clark City Coaster Shuttle Team

Of course, I would like to have a place here in this article, the people behind your transport team servicing your favorite white shuttle in New Clark City. We thank our guests for the positive feedback we received regarding our Team.

COASTER FLEET — ***1st Batch 14 units – deployed since November 24***

COASTER — ***Behind the scenes as we orient and train our shuttle drivers***

COASTER TEAM 2ND — **2nd Batch deployed December 5, 2019**

fleet 2nd batch — ***with our Transport Partner Lakbay – a very hands on guy, taking care of our fleet during dispatch, their food and accommodation***

Being there at New Clark City for the second time around, especially having seen the City from dawn till night brings feeling of amazement, awe and curiosity. 1st, we are looking at a vast hectare of newly developed land. All of the development -roads and buildings that you can see once you enter the area were all new and was just developed for the hosting of the Sea Games. On some part of the areas you can still see farmlands and vast forestry (which how the land looked like before, which was once a home of Aeta community, and they were moved to gave way to NCC development for Sea Games). It is better if I could see some Aeta’s as crew or workers at NCC just like in a restaurant in Clark City wherein all the staff are Aetas. So that all can really benefit in this development. The facilities are really world class. At night the city shines like a star in its glorious lights, really awesome to behold! But to some extent, especially for me, an environmentalist myself brings also sense of sadness as dozens of trees were cut off, those caretakers of the forest were driven away, a community was sacrificed. We just hoped for the better that this New Clark City will bring fortune to all, as opportunities for Sports Tourism, investments and jobs will come. Hoping that the Aetas will be included in the picture.

Overall, being behind the scenes of any Government events is a proud experience for our team. Watching Sea Games is an experience that will be part of our country’s history. Go ahead and include in your schedules a time to watch our Filipino athletes, and cheer for them. After all, this is just a once in a lifetime opportunity, unless you have the capability to watch it overseas haha! On December 11, is the closing ceremony of Sea Games that will be held here at New Clark City at around 6pm onwards. Mark your calendars and see you there!