Heavy, Slightly Sweet but Traditional: Putrajaya 4th International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta..Yang nak tak dapat, yang tak nak dapat :)

Greeted by this giant sim card hot air balloon and 2 blimps

As the title of this post says, I am going to share about the event held last weekend at Putrajaya which to me is a modern and sleek cosmopolitan city but the whole impression is brought to shame the moment you step into the public toilet...

Being told by the event staff on a telephone conversation that the ticket counter would be opened half an hour before the hot air balloon ride session starts, we got there as early as 7am. There were 2 sessions of balloon rides 8am-11am and 6pm-9pm. So in our thought, arriving an hour earlier than the actual session would be sufficient for us to get the tickets though limited tickets were being sold.

Got there, parked the car and asked my son and nephew to race to the queue just to make sure that we'd have our slim chance of riding the hot air balloon amongst hundreds (perhaps thousands) of hopeful people but unfortunately only 300 of us will actually be floating in the air while grinning foolishly to the people down under :)

Ini sume kes malu bertanya sesat jalan la ni! beraturla...smpi ke sudah x dpt tiket der!!

So, we queued up behind what seemed like 200 people, anxiously waiting to know whether we would be lucky enough to have a ride on our eldest son's 9th birthday. Couldn't wait any longer, I bothered my sleepy looking husband to check at the counter if there's still tickets available but seeing the crowd queuing up I was pretty sure there must be. He came back with heart wrenching news that the 300 numbers were already given out and that's it.So that was it! My dream of sailing in the cloud on hot air balloon with my family especially on my son's birthday while me hysterically shouting " I'm on top of the world!!!" was done. There and then.FULLSTOP.

What the crowd might not know was the fact that only people with numbers could buy the tickets which were already finished by 8am. The highly motivated person who was given out the first number to buy the ticket was already standing there at 1am! 1 freaking am!! You can't be more desperate than I was! Last number given to a lucky lad at around 5.30am. So, don't even bother asking about me and family who woke up at 6am okay? :)

The clowns..try harder next time :)

Yeay,yeay dapat belon!! walaupun x dpt naik hot air balloon!

Though we might not have the time of our life on the hot air balloon, at least we get 2 free balloon swords from the 3 supposedly happy clowns but seemed sadder than people whose dream of riding the hot air balloon crushed to the ground. "Cheer up clown! You're supposed to look cheerful and approachable but darn! go get a red lipstick and draw more smiley shaped lips on your face" I said in my head. Oh, not to forget the 3 free movie tickets that we get just by buying 2 newspapers from one of the booths.

Well, actually if you buy 2 newspapers, you get 1 free ticket. But my 'never tried too hard to be charming' husband did get 2 free tickets from the girl who was selling the newspapers simply by asking "Dik, bagi 2 tiket boleh?" and that was it..2 free 7 Petala Cinta tickets handed onto his hand by the girl who was probably hoping that he would bend on his knees asking her to go watch the movie with him.Huh!! Hubby walked back to me grinning sheepishly with the face impression portraying "aku ade... kau ade?"

I straightened my body posture and walked towards the newspaper booth and asked the girl something about the promotion they were having which I already knew. But, overact friendliness added with over rehearsed effort seemed failing to melt the girl's heart to give me 1 extra ticket. Then, here came the back up plan; asking for sympathy part " Alaaa, boleh la dik, akak dengan anak ni (pointing to my 15 year old nephew), camane nak masuk kalau tiket 1?" With overconfident face she said " Sorryla kak, 1 je free tiket for 2 newspapers"

Now, the mood to watch 7 Petala Cinta was replaced with rase nak tala kepale budak tu 7,8 kali!

All in all, I would say the visit to the event was worth it as we did head home with 3 free movie tickets (to keep mummy and daddy happy :), 2 balloon swords ( to keep the 2 little pumpkins happy) now how about the birthday boy?? Well, he already got his birthday present a month ahead of his actual birth date, plus we did celebrate a merry join venture celebration the night before..

One more that I get to bring home was the horrible images of the portable or mobile toilet that keeps flashing in my mind every time I talk or think about this hot air balloon event. With a spanking modern, sleek and fancy looking building all around Putrajaya, they can do a lot better than providing disgusting portable toilet that surely failed to please and impress people who need the toilet urgently like myself. Investing in a proper toilet wouldn't cost too much would it? After all, this was an international event and what's the point of organising such big event if all visitors get to talk and remember was not the spanking looking high cost building but stinking smelling toilet! Duh!!