Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009

What? Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009

Where? Monumen Alaf Baru, Putrajaya, Malaysia.

When? 19-22 March 2009

Who? Organised by Malaysian Sport Aviation Federation (MSAF) and AKA Balloon Sdn Bhd.

I was quite excited about this event when I heard it from Jamie Pang a week ago. I got even more excited when I saw the various beautiful pictures of the multi-shapd balloons on some photography forums. So, on a mighty fine last Saturday morning, I took the ERL transit and then the NadiPutra bus to Monumen Alaf Baru, Putrajaya.

I smiled when I saw this sign on the NadiPutra Bus. Belon Panas = Hot Balloon! The balloons are literally HOT! :)

But.....

I went all the way to Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and all I saw was ONE miserable balloon!!!!

I was told that the featured balloons would only make two flights a day - one in the morning (7am) and one late evening 5pm. What?

Hmmmm...How silly of me to think that the hot air balloons were going to be tied to the fiesta ground for exhibition. Anyway, how do I supposed to know right? That was my first time going for such fiesta.

So what do I do then? Maybe I could take a balloon ride.....

Double damn! It was blazing hot and I really hated the annoying kids and their equally annoying parents who ran around the fiesta ground. So, I decided not to hang around and headed home. (Insert Arnold Schwarzenegger's "I'll Be Back" here)

I went to Putrajaya again on the next day. The sun was blazing hot but I did not complain as the blue sky was amazing for photoshoot!

I found a spot among the SLR firing squad at the far end of the field and waited. The scheduled flight at 5:30pm didn't happen due to some wind conditions.

Finally at around 6:15pm the technical crew started to pump the balloons up.

I was very annoyed by a bunch of SLR carrying selfish pigs (I wouldn't even want to call them photographers) who DISMANTLED the barricades so that they could move into the field and get close to the balloons.

Like a bunch of flies on a piece of shit, they hovered around the balloons, blocking the views of the people outside the field. It was so (insert beep here) hard to compose a photo without having one of them fly into the shot!

Come on, people! The barricades were there for a reason. The organiser should have tighten up the security and chase them out. Now that I got that out of my system, let's move on....

I squealed with excitement like little kid when I saw, one by one, the balloons were inflated from floppy nylon patches on the ground into huge peacock, elephant, clowns etc. It was awesome!

I fired away, alternating between video and photo mode. I love my Fujifilm S100FS. :)

Pump it up!

It's getting hot in here....

Peacock cocking its head.

The only way is up!

Shake ya tail feather!

Wow.......!

I like this shot. Looks like the tiny hot air balloon going to land on the clown's nose. :)

Is that a teapot in the sky?

No....It's Nelly B the elephant! :)

Clown getting pumped up!

Clowns....How come one of the clown comes with a frown?

It's because all the balloons have flown away......

Traffic jam on the way back to KL. The trip back to Putrajaya on the next day was worth it. I smiled as I "chimped" away in the bus. What a day!

I have pasted together some clips I took from the fiesta over a mashup soundtrack. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did shooting it.

Comments are always welcome :)

Please click play.....