{"id":1634,"date":"2014-03-29T10:32:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2014-03-29T10:32:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T10:32:55","slug":"putrajaya-balloon-ride-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/putrajaya-balloon-ride-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Putrajaya balloon ride experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our reporter,\u00a0Sheila Sri Priya,<\/span>\u00a0recounts her experiences flying for the first time in a Hot Air Balloon.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was like a little girl after being assigned to fly on a hot-air balloon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My dream came true thanks to the 6th Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2014.<\/p>\n

My wish to ride on a hot-air balloon began after I watched the animated movie Up which featured an elderly widower Carl Fredricksen, 78, and a young explorer named Russell.<\/p>\n

Fredricksen tied thousands of balloons to his home and flew to the wilds of South America seeking adventure. Little did he know that young Russell was on board too.<\/p>\n

I knew that the best opportunity for me to achieve my dream would be at the yearly hot-air balloon festival in Putrajaya.<\/p>\n

Every year, members of the media are given a chance to ride in the hot-air balloons.\u00a0The balloons, from all over the world, come in various shapes and sizes.\u00a0Among the most memorable is the Darth Vader balloon which first made an appearance in 2010.<\/p>\n

Although I was keen, luck was never on my side. However this year my lucky stars were aligned and I was chosen. I was asked to be at Precinct 2, Putrajaya by 6.45am as the balloon would take off at 7am.<\/p>\n

I was so excited I could not sleep that night and was up and about at 5am.\u00a0However, I got lost in Putrajaya trying to locate the hot-air balloon launch pad.<\/p>\n

When I arrived, there was already a long queue of people waiting for their turn to go on one of the three tethered hot-air balloons.<\/p>\n

At the media registration booth, I was told I would be flying on the Darth Vader balloon.\u00a0This was the icing on the cake and I had to restrain myself from jumping for joy like my two-year-old would.<\/p>\n

The Darth Vader balloon is among the most popular and was made with approval from Lucasfilm Limited.<\/p>\n

The balloon was manufactured in Britain and my pilot Benoit Lambert, and his co-pilot and girlfriend Caroline De Vilie were from Belgium.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest balloon, the \u2018Flying Superbike\u2019 was another highlight at the fiesta, as were balloons in the shape of an ice-cream cone from Belgium and a heart-shaped one from Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Participants came from Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the United States. Malaysian hot-air balloon pilot Mohd Sobri Saad also participated in the free-flying hot-air balloon.<\/p>\n

After taking in the splendid sights surrounding me, I hopped into the wicker basket of the Darth Vader balloon.<\/p>\n

The take-off was smooth and we flew as high as 700m. The view was breathtaking.\u00a0My pilot, Benoit, said he was inspired to become a hot-air balloon pilot by his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first flew when I was eight years old with my dad. I decided I wanted to become a pilot just like him,\u201d said Lambert.<\/p>\n

He added that flying in Putrajaya was different because of the many buildings in the area.<\/p>\n

Lambert has four balloons but none are as popular as the Darth Vader.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first flew it, people were screaming and crying,\u201d said Lambert, adding it cost about US$150,000 (RM470,000) to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to have a famous balloon and I wanted it to be a villain. Darth Vader came to mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambert makes a living as a full-time private balloon pilot. He travels on holiday to attend hot-air balloon festivals.\u00a0His best experience was flying in Australia, especially the sight of kangaroos hopping around.<\/p>\n

“Although it was a short, 20-minute ride, the experience was something I will never forget.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lambert also issued me a flight certificate which read: \u201cThe emperor notarizes that Sheila Sri Priya has completed a flight with the Darth Vader Balloon. \u2013 Now you know the power of the darker side!\u201d<\/p>\n

As I was heading back to the office, I heard that the Flying Superbike Balloon did not have a smooth landing.\u00a0It got stuck in a lamp-post near a residential area and the Fire and Rescue Department had to be called. Luckily, no one was hurt.<\/p>\n

For details, go to www.myballoonfiesta.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via –\u00a0The Star Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our reporter,\u00a0Sheila Sri Priya,\u00a0recounts her experiences flying for the first time in a Hot Air Balloon. I was like a little girl after being assigned to fly on a hot-air balloon. My dream came true thanks to the 6th Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2014. My wish to ride on a hot-air balloon began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[973,971,972,352,96,95,970],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiesta","tag-benoit-lambert","tag-carl-fredricksen","tag-caroline-de-vilie","tag-darth-vader","tag-malaysia","tag-putrajaya","tag-putrajaya-international-hot-air-balloon-fiesta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3RIC2-qm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1637,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/1637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/balloonteam.net\/montgolfier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}