3:30am!! That was when our alarm clock rang. I just wanted to bury my head under the pillow, that was just way to early. But NO, I had to get up, the balloon was waiting for me. We got ready in a record time and by 4am, we were in front of the reception office, waiting for our pick up. Everything around us was so still and dark. Everybody else was still sleeping. I kind of had to remind myself of why we were doing this. The air was quite cold at the time and we didn't know what to expect once we were on the balloon. So we had warm cloth on. It wouldn't be fun to be shivering up there. The van arrived. We weren't the first one to be picked up but, we also had to sit through a few more pick up. I didn't want to fall asleep again because I didn't want to be groggy when we got to the balloon. And so, I tried my best to stay awake throughout our hotel tour. After we got everyone, the van started to head toward the mushroom columns. We noticed that we were close to the taking off area because many vans started to come together and headed along the same small dirt road. When we first arrived at the spot, there was very little there, a few trucks with balloon in tow, a long table with some pastries as well as hot beverages and a ticket booth. A bonfire was lit up for warmth and light. There were several companies that offered balloon ride and each had their own set up area. Once we had a bit to eat and drink, the staff ask us to go to the booth and pay the fee. We were pretty much the first group to pay which was good as the queue was getting very long. The cost for the balloon ride was 150EUR per person. It was quite a lot but, from my experience, it was totally worth it.
Each of us were given a code to identify which balloon we were taking. Each balloon can only accommodate 10 people plus a captain. However, we did see a giant balloon which carried many more people like almost 20 maybe. As the time passed, more and more trucks with balloons started to arrive. They were setting up the balloon just about anywhere with flat surface. Before long, we started to see balloon floating up.
Then, we started to wonder, which one was us?? Some groups have already been led away. It turned out that our balloon was almost right in front of us. It was awesome to watch the balloon being prepared for flight. They first had to blow cold air inside to inflate the balloon into shape then, they use burner to shot flame in. It was really intense, the heat and noise. It was very exciting to see the balloon slowly rising.
At one point, there were 7 or 8 balloons rising at the same time. It looked kind of like a giant monster worm, maybe it was just my imagination.
Each tour company had their own balloon pattern and colors. I might be bias but, I like our balloon the most. Ours was very colorful. It was like a quilt of rainbow colors as opposed to other companies with only two or three colors.
When the balloon completely lift off the ground, it was time for us to get in the basket. The basket itself was about my chest level (I'm 5 feet 6 inches or 167cm) which was the right height as it was not too low to be scary and not too high to block the view. To get into the basket, they had put a small ladder for us to climb in. The basket was sectioned into three compartments. The middle one for captain and both sides for passenger (5 per side). Before taking off, the captain gave us a little instruction of what to do when taking off and landing. I just couldn't wait!! the first time in my life!! Then, there we went...We had a lift off!! It was a very gentle lift off. The ground was getting farther and farther away. It wasn't as scary as I thought.
At first, our balloon wasn't rising as high as others and didn't travel as far. I had a little thought that there might be something wrong with our balloon. At one point, when we were circling the same area for sometimes, I got a little frustrated. Would this be the only thing I see for this ride? Well, the captain did actually mentioned earlier that he could more or less control the height but, he had very little control of where the balloon was going. That depended on the wind.
Eventually, we started to gain height and move to different areas. We first traveled towards a small town, not sure about the name though. We circled around a bit and saw, houses, shops, some buildings and some cave hotels.
We also passed a few small mountains with people on top! Maybe because they didn't get a chance to get on the hot balloon so, they climbed up the mountain to get the view. Gotto give them for their effort for that though. I would have the thought over and over and still might not drag myself up there. Then, we started to drift to the opposite direction and straight toward a huge flat top mountain. I kind of looked like the table mountain in Australia but in a different color. That was a moment of awe. That amazing mountain and the rising sun was more than enough the reason to get up on the balloon.
It was beautiful. The mountain was like an art work with layers of colors; white, pink and green. I just couldn't get enough of this image. Better yet, we went higher and over this table mountain. Going over, we got to see lots of strange mountain and rock formation. It just looked like a mountain was being pulled apart. In some areas , it looked like it has been clawed...depended on imagination.
Whatever it looked like, it was really stunning to see. I just couldn't stop taking picture of the mountain. Then, we went over to see its flat top. It really was flat with just grasses. It was like someone just cut it top off, almost a clean cut too.
Once we go to another side of the mountain, it was roughly over an hour since we took off and it was time for the captain to look for our landing spot. However, as the captain had very little control over the direction we were going, it was hard to predict where we would land. There was no landing strip like the airport. Our landing plain was basically anywhere with a flat surface. We saw some balloon landed on a very unlikely place, like on the side of the hill. I just couldn't imagine how they got out off the basket. I was hoping for an easier place. While we were bouncing around, waiting for the balloon to find its place, we got to see more of the rock formation. There was one small valley nestles against the table top mountain. We would pass this valley again during the day but, at the time, we were told that there were caves church in there. It was one of the oldest cave church and one of the most dangerous to go in because there was a risk that the cave might collapse. I saw a few balloons landed inside that valley and just hoped that they wouldn't cause any damage to the already fragile cave.
We finally moved toward a plain next to the mountain and started to look like we were going to land. We saw most of the hot balloons landed and were wondering when would be our turn. Don't get me wrong though, I didn't want to land. I just wanted to float around like that some more but, we had to get back to our hotel and be ready for our tour. We didn't even know where we were and how far we have travelled on the balloon. It could take a long time to get back to the hotel. So, I had a last look at the view and focus on the landing.
It seemed like the captain was teasing with us by pretending like we were going to land then, took off again and again. At the same time, balloon crew were following us around and waiting to assist us on landing. Poor them, they had to stop, prepare for landing then, the captain decided to change the landing place. After a while, it was really time to land. We got an instruction from the captain on how we need to prepare ourselves, to bend our knees a little and hold on to the basket, so that we wouldn't bounce off the basket. We had a soft landing and the crews were there to help us unload ourselves. It was a tall basket so, for some of us, the guys almost have to carry them out.
After everyone was out, we ha a little celebration with a glass of champagne. Then, the captain presented each of us with a certificate. One thing to beware, before getting on the balloon, they had us to write down our name on a piece of paper so that they would know who was on which balloon. Also, they would use the name for the certificate. They would not bother to ask us to confirm the spelling. So, they would basically copy whatever they could read from that paper. If the handwriting was bad then, your name could appear differently on the certificate, like my friend's and mine. We had to ask them to correct it right there.
This could not complete without them selling us some pictures they took earlier today. It was pretty expensive but, average for this kind of thing. I didn't like my pictures too much but, it was once in a lifetime thing so, why not. We each got two pictures of us with the rest of the group and our balloon. We did the picture thing in the van on the way back to the hotel. By the time, we got back, it was around 7am. That gave us plenty of time to have breakfast and get ready for the tour.
To be continue...
No comments:
Post a Comment