Full of Hot Air...Sort Of

A few weeks back, there was a Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Putrajaya. We had missed last years' show so I was adamant in going this year. The fiesta started on a Thursday so I planned with En Rashid to take leave that day. The kids were on school holiday so rather than bersesak2 with the weekend crowd, we planned to go on the 1st day itself. That was until En Rashid later found out he had to attend a workshop. Since I really didn't want to miss the event, I dragged my parents along instead.

The main event was the hot air balloon ride. On the website, it mentioned that the rides would be from 8am until 11am. Thinking we had plenty of time to catch a ride, we headed out from my parents place at around 8am and arrived at the site around 830am. Imagine our dismay when we found out the tickets for the morning sessions were all sold out!! Apparently they only allocated 300 tickets for each session. Peh..melepas la peluang nak naik balloon. I had been on one when I was in the states (a birthday present for En Rashid) so I wasn't all that disappointed.

  

Some of the balloons as seen from the parking lot. A lot of them had already flown off as the organizers were expecting late morning rain.

The Darth Vader balloon!! I took pictures of it as it was about to take flight.

My mom and the girls looking at the rides schedule, disappointed. That was until we saw that the balloons were tied down and only went something like 20 meters up into the air. My dad was like, "I thought we got to at least fly around a bit." Yeah right, for RM10, you get to float around in the basket..that's all. Heee.

So in the end, we headed to the extreme zone. Once I saw the zorb ball, I was like "I need to try that!" It was fun but damn tiring. Both Dina and me were sweating when we finally crawled out of the ball.

Dania trying out as a hamster.

Seeing how exhausted we all got playing the zorb ball, my parents decided to pass. So we headed to the extreme bike section. I've forgotten the name of this type of bike but they have a website. My mom asked the guy in charge how much the bikes cost; I think they retail at RM4k - RM6k, depending on the type of bike. It was fun though and my thighs got such a workout, it's amazing I was still able to walk afterwards. 

Next we headed towards the horse rides. Both Dania and Dina chose a horse and got on. It was RM12 for one round of the track. A bit of a rip-off if you ask me. 

I really wanted to find some activity for my parents to do so I dragged them over to the segway section. I even paid for their rides before they could protest. Heehe. Here's my dad being the dotting husband he is.

 

And here's my dad. mom and Dania getting ready to ride off. They only had three segways available for each trip, so I passed. Furthermore, Dina couldn't ride one as she wasn't heavy enough so I stayed to keep her company.
                                     

The three of them apparently had such fun that my dad quickly looked up the website to find out the price. Let's just say you can get one of these for the price of a Kancil!!