1st International Balloon Festival

What a great way to end the week! On the 21st March 2009, Suli, her sister and I went to Putrajaya to attend the 1st International Balloon Festival held there.. The place was packed with people, the traffic was massive and time schedules for the events were out of place..That was how hectic the place was.. Things couldnt have gotten better that day when we even missed the boat ride that we had booked earlier on..Things however,turned out to be blessings in disguise and it was one of those memorable weekend i have ever had

We reached Putrajaya at 530pm that day;giving in to Suli 's wishes that she wanted to see balloons while the day was still bright. However, the balloons weren't set up at that time, so we strolled along the bay and the Millennium Tower for some scenic views from the platform there. We also booked the last cruise boat ride scheduled at 8.00pm.

630pm and there were still no signs of balloons. Running tight on our schedule, we decided to have an early dinner back at Precinct 1(we allocated an hour and a half for dinner; inclusive of a 3km travel). The strange thing about Putrajaya is that their restaurants are all centrally located at Precinct 1; all in one food court..They do have cafes within each administrative buildings back at Precinct 2 but all are closed during weekends. This makes Putrajaya an odd city during the weekends, something like a ghost town.

After dinner that day, failing to factor in the jams, we reached back to the jetty at 8.05pm..we were 5 minutes late and we missed the cruise!..Feeling disappointed but not ready to give up, i was able to persuade the aaneh (brother in Tamil) at the counter to get us to the cruise ship using a rescue boat! It was the best ride ever- it was fast and exciting..arriving at the cruise ship, it really felt as though we were VVIP arriving on a private boat to join the mother ship..everyone was looking at us thinking who are these jokers..Back at the main ship, the boat was slow and calming (unlike the rescue boat), we sat at the deck staring at stars and appreciating Putrajaya lights..It was a real nice feeling..would like to try to rent the whole boat next time ;)
Well, if youre thinking thats the end of it. Youre wrong. That wasnt the end of the night that day. Next on the list was the 'one-of-its-kind' Night Glow event..We certainly had no idea what it was all about actually but was altogether attracted to it since it was promptly highlighted in their adverts.. Never did knew we were in for a pleasant surprise. Night Glow was an event in which they assembled all the participating balloons for a showdown of fire displays! This was of course in rythm of the music..so it's something like the musical fountains, only in the form of Balloons..Check out the video and get ready to be mesmerized..




The Night Glow ended about 10pm that day. We then had gentle strolls at the both the main bridges of Putrajaya; meanwhile also figuring how to take night shots with our compact cams at that time as well... It was a great night that night..A night captured by cameras but to remain in memory in our hearts..Cheers to the memorable night!