Hot Air Ballooning - Abu Dhabi

Make it Happen!

Everyone have dreams.
Become a millionaire,… get a flat in Burj Khalifa,…write a bestseller… travel around the world, or…ride in a hot air balloon!

big canvas

Finally!
3:30AM my alarm rings noisily and my room mate is pulling my blanket calling my name, both of them trying to wake up my brain. Ah time to get ready, we will fly today via Balloon Adventures Emirates! The service van arrived exactly on time to pick us up at Carrefour open parking lot at 5:15am. IT's a long 1 hour journey to Sweihan's coooold desert site. The balloon crew is waiting for us. Rushing out the car excitedly, everyone looked where the big hot air balloon is parked. It is very cold and dark outside, our eyes needed to adjust to the dim surroundings.

Sir Pilot Peter's team filling the canvas with gas

Where is it...where is it? Aha! There are two big balloon linen clothes stretched out in the ground waiting to be pumped up.

We heard a man shouting like Hitler from a distance. We could barely see a group of people coming from another four wheel vehicle, and their leader is Hitler they came from Dubai too. Hitler wears a red coverall uniform like the rest of the crew. We learned later that he’s our pilot and boss of the crew. Hitler shouts a lot but we enjoyed listening to him most of the time! He shouts instructions to us fiercely, sometimes we are wondering if he’s just joking or is ready to hit us! His name is Peter by the way.  We liked Pilot Peter instantly!

up-up-the basket float

The red uniformed crews began to force air into the balloon via two powerful fans! We watched in wonder as Mr. Pilot/ Peter/ Hitler started to release the hot gas into the middle of the balloon. It took him around 10-15 minutes to get it up.  He fought with the wind to inflate it. Finally he yelled at us with his terrifying voice:  “ GET IN THE BASKET!!!” we fearfully run towards him in a hurry,  one by one, we clambered nervously into the small basket tied to the balloon. The basket violently swayed, really, I was scared. The crew fought to steady it.  After like forever, it started to float. And we went up and up more. I looked down when I mustered my fear. The people on the ground already looked so tiny just like small robots.
We are finally flying and floating in the middle of the dessert.

peacefully enjoying the floating view

witnessing the middle eastern sunrise in the desert

Sir pilot Peter planned to go up till 6000 feet, but fortunately the radio signals isn’t working perfectly (when it’s windy, the desert sand is disrupting the radio waves) so he decided to maintain a height of max 4000 feet only. It is already scary floating in that altitude but the view is breathtaking.

It’s so quiet up there, listening to the whispers of our fellow passengers, a few clicks of cameras, and the occasional burst of fire that Hitler-err Peter is discharging from the gas tanks to supply hot air to the balloon to keep it floating.  

mr. sun coming up the horizon

All around and below us is a magnificent view of the browny-wavy -sandy dessert.  We witnessed the beautiful red dessert sunrise from above. And we saw the shadow of Jebel Hafeet in the background.  The city of Dubai is also visible at a distance, Burj Khaleefa’s landmark tower is glistening from the sun’s reflection.  Because of the wind direction, we are moving west. While cruising, we saw down many fields and plantations too with fenced goats and camels. I and most of our fellow passengers are still afraid to remove our hands from the basket’s rope handles. Some are busy taking photos.

fields around Sweihan

We hardly noticed the time. 45 minutes was immediately spent! I don’t want to go down. It felt very pleasant and relaxing just to stay up and just float like the clouds, watching life move below you.

fields-fields-fields

We have to go down. (SIGH!) Landing position is in slightly bend knees and facing opposite the wind direction. We started to land after few attempts of Peter maneuvering the big balloon to land in a flat area. It is difficult because the wind direction keeps on changing every few minutes. We can’t risk landing over one of the fields or hitting one of the new electrical towers in that plantation area. To our horror, we hit the ground lying down, there is no warning, and Peter happily took his photo of us - horrified passengers lying down and grasping the basket for our dear life.  

more lectures from sir Pilot Peter

We went out the basket gratefully and wait for our rescuers err vehicles to find us, as we don’t have a fix landing site. After around 10 minutes, help arrived and we had refreshments of juices and water.

reserved gas tanks

peacefully spent

We left Sweihan around 8:30am and had another long drive back to Abu Dhabi. Great Adventure! 

actually i need to go to washroom but all sand and desert all around us :)

(08-Jan-10)