It took 7 hours fly! FLY, FLYYYY from Canberra to Cairns, with stop in Melbourne but still…. it’s a long flight for a domestic destination….
Arrived at the airport, I don’t think there is a public transportation so we took a taxi to our hotel, lucky for my Mother the receptionist were Indonesian #sudden bond! Since it was a bit late we decided to had first dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, it’s a buffet with no much left pfffff are we that late or the management want to cut cost #devil’s laugh
However, the Australian waitress was so nice, she put some of the food into several plastics for me. Wait, let me correct my sentence, “some” food meaning a lot of freaking food! in the end we gave most of it to our new bestie aka receptionists alas Agnes and Sunny. I feel bad I didn’t catch the name of the Australian waitress #really sorry 🙁
First itinerary is going on a Hot-Air-Balloon trip 🙂
I am very looking forward for it! I have never been on a balloon before. My first question when I saw the advertisement was will it be like in Cappadocia where there are many balloons all flying together? Even if it’s not, still want to try it. The email mentioned the whole tour will takes about 5 hours plus we will be standing at all time. I will be picked up at 4 AM hmmm 4 AM + 5 hours = 9 AM meaning we will be watching sunrise on a balloon, not bad hey!
My sister said “you need to wake up, you’ll be pick up at 4 AM, it’s the most expensive activity in your whole trip that cost 900 AUD” Me, still on jetlag thought maybe it’s better to just not sleep? #Im thinking….how about no…
Mother and I woke up at around 3:30 ish, slightly delay in picking us up which made me panic, I mean 900 AUD is a big money hey…. eventually a small shuttle bus with “Hot Air Balloon” written on it comes to the hotel. It’s not that hard to recognize because at 4AM who else will comes other than a drunk guy haha. We drove 1 hour 10 minutes away from the center to the flying location, it was still dark. Then the tour guide arrange our standing place.
Wait no more, off we fly! The “pilot” turn on the gas from time to time. Although I heard it quiet some times already, it never fails to shocked me, how loud the sound was. We flew quiet high with a nice surprise that not so windy up there #not complaining. Catch the sunrise then back again to the ground.
Here is a bit of video I took when the gas is off and on, the sounds is loud hey 🙂
How do we land? the basket doesn’t have a wheel ehhh. First and foremost we have to embrace in our landing position. I saw our balloon going lower and lower approaching some green wide area as our landing spot. The way the balloon / basket lands back is so funny, we bumped two to three times until it really stops, the “pilot” said could be that the basket turn upside down, it tilted quiet high though 🙂 we (read: he) made it!
Then we helped them tidy up the 500 kg weight of balloon, fold it, walk on it with your whole body like you catch a crocodile then do a snake circle to put it inside a big tarpaulin thingy. I can assure you I really did try to help and hold it as if I’m holding for my dear life but that $h!7 just freaking heavy!
Woagh! we got rewarded by either champage, mimosa or orange juice, after all of the hard works we deserved it hey. Not to mention that we got a “certificate” hahaha for whatever reason it is #wink wink
We finished everything, were back at the hotel at 9AM, never had I ever feel so sleepy, didn’t even had breakfast, snooze off directly.
Woke up again for the second times in a day, went to the Promenade 🙂 had a seafood on the boat restaurant. Indonesian seafood is still the best haha but yes since I’m in Cairns, need to try theirs #not impressed. Just an honest opinions though #wink
Weighing the plus and minus, it’s a good day for us still! 🙂