2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2010

The 2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2010 was held from 18th to 21st March 2010, Thursday to Sunday for 4 consecutive full days. The most exciting part was that we got to ride on the balloon! Without much hesitation, I accepted my friend's invitation when she asked me to join her for the fiesta on Saturday.

Right before we started driving, the sky was filled with foreboding dark clouds. It started drizzling soon but it did not stop us from going as we had already set our hearts on seeing hot air balloons for the first time through this rare opportunity. Armed with our digital cameras, we were ready to do some serious photographing.

Even though the traffic was heavily congested, we were delighted to see many hot air balloons floating across the sky as we approached the venue. It was a beautiful landscape view from the Putrajaya bridge, we began snapping photos incessantly from our car.

The place was packed! The drizzles had not dampened the spirits of enthusiastic participants and everything was up and running as usual. We arrived at around 6.30 pm and according to the itinerary, the programme scheduled was ‘SuriaFM Mini Showcase’. Okay…… whatever that means. The next one was ‘Balloon Fun Fly with Media’, followed by ‘Balloon Area opened to photography’. Great, very clear descriptions…

The queue to ride the balloon was crazily long. I gave up after 20 minutes when the queue did not budge at all.

We were strolling along the path when we spotted this. This looked like fun!

And very pricy too. Then we saw this, which seemed fun too.

Why are all of them kids? Am I too old for this? Haha...
Check out the big blue balloon, can you tell what it is?

It’s a pair of Levi’s jeans haha…

One of the main attractions, Darth Vader! Arrgghhh…….

We were patiently waiting for hours for the hot air balloons to fly, but they did not leave the ground at all. Our hopes were thoroughly shattered when they deflated the balloon at the end of the fiesta after the fireworks. Strange… what good is a hot air balloon if it can’t fly?

This is a must-go event for those who are curious and have not seen a hot air balloon before. I believe it is going to be an annual event. However, there are some drawbacks to the event. If you are lucky, you might be able to catch the short period of time when all the hot air balloons are floating in the sky, like when I first reached there. Forget about the itinerary. Yes, it gives a rough idea of what is going to happen, but you know how vague the description is and things are hardly punctual here anyway. If you want to go on the balloon, you will have to be as hard core as my friends who woke up early in the morning before the sun rose or just patiently wait for hours. Oh, and there is definitely room for improvement for the bazaar and games…

Watch out for the event next year if you missed this one and love hot air balloons or photography, hopefully it will be better. The government may be investing more fund and effort in the future to promote tourism in Malaysia. The official website is at http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/.