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Hi everyone
Well it was a very early start for me yesterday as I opted to go hot air ballooning at sunrise! So,I was up at 05.30am and was told pick up would be 6am, but at 05.45am there was a knock at the door and my lift had arrived, good job I was ready lol.
The dodge truck was already full with others on the trip so I climbed in the back and sat on an upturned basket for the short ride to the take off site.
When we arrived there was 5 of us on the flight. We watched the team of about 6 guys inflate the balloon, initially with a fan but then with the burner. We climbed in the basket and when the burner was opened up you could feel the heat on the top of your head and face and it was pretty loud too. It reminded me of a Rammstine gig lol.
We took off slowly and headed off up into the sky rising above theatre tops, houses, bars and restaurants etc. we floated off towards the mountains and continued to gain altitude.
The views were breath taking. There was a lot if must and cloud on the mountains which masked the sunrise but added to the beauty of the scenery. The flight was about 30 minutes long and we drifted over the village to our landing site on the other side from where we took off. We all took loads of photos. It was very peaceful except for the bursts of the burner. Not sure how high we went but it was a few thousand feet I'm sure. when we moved around the basket it wobbled which was a bit unnerving at first, but you got used to it when you realised you couldn't fall out lol.
We gently floated back down to earth but did land with a bump lol. Once safely tethered and held down by the 6 man crew we exited from the basket and watched them deflate the balloon.
They do the trip 3 times a day and I'm sure that if I did the trip all 3 times each set of photos would be different due to the time of day, weather conditions and position of the sun,
but Im glad I did it in the morning as I think we had the best time of day to capture the scenery.
So after my early start I returned back to my bed and slept quite late and then the girls and I had brunch. Gaby and I opted to stay at the restaurant and watch friends whilst them others went to sunbathe by a hotel pool.
Last night was the night of the jungle party so we all arranged to meet up. The girls had some friends coming to meet them from the UK who had been travelling so we met up with them first and then headed to meet the rest of the posse.
We went to a bar called Jaydees some had free shots and there was a crazy barman whom reminded of Nick Cave. He was showing off his fancy bar skills and some alleged tricks with a string of beads. Not that exciting and i thought i would die of thirst before he stopped faffing around and i got to order my drink. I think he was totally off his trolley, and the bar was
openly promoting various substances to help your nights experience. All of which I ignored and just focused on my vodka and 7up.
A thunder storm was brewing again! They seem to happen at night and are pretty spectacular. After being in Jaydees for an hour or so - and one vodka and 7up for me, some of us went to the kangaroo bar. It was playing dance music and even rage against the machine which David and I rocked out too lol. More people arrived and there was quite a party atmosphere with the bar staff dancing, beer ping pong and pool all going on as well as the general chit chat and laughing etc.
Some of the guys ended up playing beer ping pong. This involves placing 6 plastic cups half filled with beer or any alcohol of your choice at each end of the table. The idea is to bounce the ball so that it cleanly lands in one if the cups. You have two goes per round, and each team take it in turns. If the ball lands in the cup cleanly and stays there the team whose beer it is
has to drink it. This goes on until all the alcohol has been drunk. Easy!
We had been there about half and hour and then the heavens opened and there was an almighty down pour for about for a while. The rain was still coming down but had eased off from earlier when we all piled into a free tuk tuk and headed for the jungle party. When we arrived we were the first people there but the bar man/dj said it would pick up after the bars closed at 12. Some of the guys were a bit cynical and I said have faith. We all sat around a fire for a while and then people started to arrive as predicted. The rain came with them and stayed all night but we weren't going to let a little rain stop us from partying!
So we just got up danced and partied in the rain all night, splashing in the puddles and getting soaked to the bone is the cool rain. Everyone was laughing and chatting posing for photos and generally having a great time and enjoying and embracing the whole experience. I think there
was about 150 ish people there. We hired a tuk tuk back 10k kip each. I walked back with the girls and got back about 2am ish. I had to peel off my wet clothes and had a warm shower to get rid of the chill. I think there will be a few sore heads around the town me thinks this morning lol.
Xx
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