Monday, March 22, 2010

Feedback on Hot Air Balloon Experience

Five of us packed into one car and left my house at 6.10am (yes, you read that correct, AM).

We reached the Fiesta in Putrajaya at about 6.45am and got into the queue which already had about 70 people in it.




By the time we got the tickets it was past 8am. Then we had to queue up AGAIN



for the actual ride...

which...

we...

finally...

got...

on...

at....




11.20am!! Yep, it was about 4 and a half hours of waiting. So in the meantime, we could only stand and stare at the other balloons..








The other balloons from around the world did a fly-across-the-lake-and-back demo which was all over in less than an hour. There were supposed to be another 18 balloons but I don't recall seeing that many.



The most outstanding ones were the Darth Vader (yes, he did turn up)




and the pair of Levi's jeans:




and the Orange balloon




An awestruck child.

We should never lose that...looking at the world in wonder..at least, that's what I think.



But the five balloons used for rides were shaped in the form of...well...
balloons. sigh.


First, they blow air into the balloon using a large fan.




Then they burn propane gas into the balloon and it starts to lift..






Each balloon could carry two or three persons and the balloonist (info: larger balloons can actually carry as many as 12 persons).




Two balloonists and two balloonies - can you tell one pair from the other?

hint: The balloonies are bug-eyed and grin like nincompoops.




Even a tethered ride can excite some people...can you see the three other balloonies?




View as we were going up... up...






and un-away.



Hey, how come it's time to come down already? Quick - cut the ropes! (whaddaya mean you didn't bring your blade knife cleaver shears axe sword scissors penknife??)

I think we only went as high as a double-storey house. Ok, maybe a little higher. It was all over in 3 minutes. (What did you expect for Ringgit Malaysian 10.00?)




Did I mention they were TETHERED rides? Remember that word. It means "tied down". I can think of other rides I am on where I feel tied down. But we're not going there, are we? hee hee.


Tethered.



Another awestruck kid.



If you ask me, the man who was selling these battery-operated bubble-blowers was making more money than the balloonists. In the three minutes we were with him, he had already sold two of these at RM15 each!



Was it worth the 4 and a half hour wait? Well, if it's on your list of things to do at least once in a lifetime, yes! I mean I don't wanna go to my grave just dreaming of hot air balloons..




And I don't think my husband will approve of me painting our half-done bedroom walls like this..




And since it took two days for my bones to recover from that trip...maybe next time I should just settle on making this.



P/S

The writer would have you know that she is good at painting walls (and probably coffins, too). Quilt-making she will consider when she is old :)

17 comments:

  1. I wreally like the HOT AIR Balloon.....THE googled ONE......nah not the Malaysian Version of balloon. The one overseas are really innovative and interesting to look and marvel. I wish Malaysia can come up with brighter ideas.

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  2. Muahaha..haha... you guys were 'taken for a ride'... but i do agree it was sooo unfair of them to 'leash' you guys ... it would have been sooo much more fun (funner? funnier?..whatever)if you had 'ballooned' across Putrajaya or Kuala Lumpur..anyway you guys looked like u had some fun. btw, the bubble-gun/blower looks COOL ... :)

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  3. you can borrow from the kid at my house who bought it. don't know if there's a fee, though.
    :)

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  4. paul ratnam, yep, and just for info sake, there are about 7500 hot air balloons in the States.

    how cool is that?

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  5. your 4 hours of wait .... really shows "semangat"!!!! & yeaaaaaaa .... u actually saw Darth Vader ... he looks scarier when u see him hidden partially behind the bridge and when it's still dawn-ish :-) I really had a fright when I saw Darth Vader hehe

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  6. Theresa D'cruz TeohMarch 23, 2010 at 7:36 PM

    Well Val , you did make the build up to the ride so exciting...I was waiting how you feel(your point of view)when you are finally in the air after the 4 hourswait...Aiyoh yo, what a let down. 2 stories high and tied down(sorry, tethered)...but as you said...its the experience that counts. Paul didn't go up???

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  7. theresa d'cruz teoh, it really is one of the things i need to do and do soon cos soon i'll have to resign myself to making quilts with hot air balloons, not flying in them...sigh. (my husbandsigh was on sick leave at home)

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  8. jen, Darth Vader was about the most dramatic thing we saw that morning...we queued so long that even when they so much as tested the gas burner we got excited! sigh.

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  9. 2010/3/23 may cheong
    Hi Val, you should be awarded a column in the newspapers...remember SH Tan? He came to our school during our primary days and gave us a talk. You should have a column like him, where he would talk about anything and everything as long as its interesting and your blog is damn interesting lah (excuse the four letter word). You go girl. Keep on blogging and I am a fan except that I cannot comment on your blog because I dont know how to lah thus this email.

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  10. may cheong, you're not the only one who says they tried putting in a comment and it didn't appear. well, that's fine cos I am struggling putting all this together, too. still learning how to facebook so do not confuse me with twittering cos i am such a bird-brain. get it? bird...twitter? never mind.

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  11. erm..maybe i should write an equation out:

    (3 mins hot air balloon ride)/(60 mins of drive to and back from Putrajaya + 4 hours of queue up + 3 mins ride)

    = 0.99% worth the ride!!! :S

    next time we should have just go to US n fly one across the states ;p

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  12. Val, i believe it was 210 ppl before us on the queue coz the staff were counting the tickets and by the time she reached us, it's already 210 out of 300 available tickets.

    This means that there are lots more of crazy (or crazier) ppl than us in msia! LOL...

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  13. kevin, trust an engineer to work out the math. i was counting 70 persons but each buys more than 1 ticket. anyway, i am waiting for you to build the balloon...i can design it if you want..lemme see, has to be more dramatic than Darth Vader...

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  14. On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 3:42 PM, Lilian L. wrote:
    Hi Val, just to let you know that I’ve read all articles under your blogspot – all I can say that they’re well written with a lot of humor to tickle me “pink”.
    keep up the good work to entertain us more with your writings!

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  15. lilian, thanks so much. i have answered your questions thru email as putting them here would be too long...yes, do try to go to next year's fiesta!

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  16. aunty val! thanks for the info! we (my sis, brother in law and i) are planning to go for this year's. and i was telling her i saw an album somewhere. somewhere! but i cannot rmb where till i finally, dont know how i remembered but glad i remembered! it was in tammy's album. and tadaaaa your blog.

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  17. Jolina - i just saw this comment! yes, do go even if it's a crazy long wait. just be prepared with snacks and drinks and a very long novel to read!

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