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| Woke up very early today (4am) for this must-do in Cappadocia - Hot air balloon ride!!! |
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| The hardworking staff sets up the balloon promptly, while a few early birds has already taken flight. |
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| Okay, so this is how you raise an hot air balloon. Air is blown into the balloon by a fan, while the flame heats it up. The basket is then tilted upright and the pilot enters first to continue blowing flame into the balloon. Look at the solid column of flame! |
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| We passengers (16 in all) then climbed into the basket while the staff holds it in place. The pilot occupies the centre partition to control the flame and maneuver the balloon. The flame does look a little intimidating close-up. The blazing sound and soaring heat can be readily felt too, but it adds to the thrill of the ride =) |
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| And we take off like a butterfly! Yay! |
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| Wow!! As we go higher the vast landscape of Cappdocia comes into sight. |
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| The valleys appears very distinct from the top. At ground level you can't really distinguish the valleys. I think this is Zemi Valley, this first valley I explored on my own. |
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| The 'sunrise line' is pretty clear in this shot. Morning is the best time to ride the hot air balloon due to more stable weather and calmer winds. |
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| Ooh...we are crashing into the rock stumps!!! |
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| Of course the pilot knows what he's doing. He raised the balloon up quickly, revealing another site where many balloons are beginning to take off. |
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| The sun rises proud and bright, illuminating the plains and valleys of Cappadocia. |
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| With the strong sunshine, the rugged landscape looks even more like the surface of Mars haha. |
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| Fissures and cracks, formed during intense volcanic and tectonic activity during ancient times. |
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| A myriad of colourful balloons cruises over the green plains. An incredible sight to behold. |
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| Love Valley - so named because of its resemblance to...ahem lol. |
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| The little town below is Goreme, where my cave hotel is! So hard to identify the 'building' haha. |
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| The Butterfly ventures into the crevice. Anything interesting down there? |
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| The pilot took us into the valley where the ground is just metres apart. I really applaud his skills in maneuvering the balloon so low and close, yet still maintaining safe distance from collision. |
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| We came so close to the other Butterfly that it looks like we are going to collide. But the skilful pilots managed to remain apart without bumping onto each other. |
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| Emerging out from the valley and joining the other balloons hovering in the safe open airspace. From what I observe, only the Butterflies 'dared' to pull off such 'close encounter' stunts haha. Anyway the rock formation looks so surreal haha. |
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| A perfect view of Uçhisar Castle and the surrounding town! |
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| The staff gets ready to 'catch' the Butterfly while it attempts to land onto some farm field. Look at the nice shadow! Haha... |
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| Upon landing, the pilot sets up champagne and cakes to celebrate the success of the 45min balloon flight. Well done everyone! |
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| Million thanks to the skilful pilot - Mustafa - for taking me through my very first hot air balloon flight. I got my flight certificate too! |
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| The staff has to keep the deflated balloon into this huge sack. Out of sudden they grabbed a passenger and dumped him into the sack lol. (Because they need to force out the air pockets in order to pack it more compactly haha) |
Riding the hot air balloon was the most enjoyable time of this whole trip. In fact, Cappadocia is my favourite and most enjoyed place in this entire trip. This is the first time I've travelled so high up in the sky, without a glass between the scenery and I. It really feels like a bird hovering freely in the sky, changing altitude whenever you feel like it. FYI Cappadocia is voted as the best place in the world to ride a hot air balloon. That explains why there are soooo many balloon companies there.
I strongly recommend flying with Butterfly Balloons (notice all the subtle advertising in the above photos lol), even though their prices might be a little higher than the rest. You can be assured by their standards and I'm really impressed by their staff and service. (Imagine the SIA of hot air balloons haha) I felt very safe during the flight, in good hands of the skilful pilot, who also tries to make the flight more thrilling by having the 'close encounters'. Don't let the hot air balloon tragedies, like the recent one in Luxor, deter you from trying out this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Although I spent a bomb on this ride, I felt that every penny is worth it. ^_^
The next morning, I decided to wake up a little earlier to watch the balloons from my cave hotel, since a lot of balloons are flown near Goreme.
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| The entire skyline is dotted with hundreds of hot air balloons! Just amazing!! |
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| Up up and away... (btw the protruding rock looks like it's going to puncture the balloons lol) |
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| After looking at so many balloon designs, I chose this one because it's not very commercialized compared to other designs that show the company name. In fact this one looks pretty patriotic haha. I wonder how it will look like with 5 stars instead of one... |
This finale entry marks the end of my unforgettable 3-week Egypt-Turkey trip report, as well as the TLBT series. Hope you all have enjoyed the time tunnel into the ancient world (though the sights are mostly just ruins, stones and rocks).
It has been more than one year since I made this trip in May-June 2012, so memories might be pretty rusty. Well, this is my own way recollecting trip memories through pictures, while making useful understanding of other different cultures, as well as meaningful comparisons with my home country. Simply put, I don't wish to just travel, snap and forget.
