Day 4 - Hot Air Balloon Ride over the Fairy Chimneys

* Pumping up the big Sultan balloon.

I was woken up at 4 today by the call to prayer. At 4:15, I got out bed to get ready for the hot air balloon ride. At 5:15, Julee and I were picked up and dropped off at the take-off ground where the balloon with red, blue and white stripes was pumped up by two big fans.

As the balloon inflated, we had breakfast and patiently waited.

*The fan blew about 10 minutes then the fire was lit. Sultan stood up and filled up.

Finally it was up right and people started to climb into its four baskets. The driver passed by me and whispered, "don't go in, we will go into the other one." I looked at where he pointed. Another balloon was on the ground not inflated yet. I thought he was kidding until Julee came by and said the same thing. We got so lucky to switch from an economy class ride of 20 people to a private VIP ride. We waved goodbye to the balloon.

Sultan left with "basket" load of people leaving the two of us behind.

I snapped a shot of Julee in front of our VIP balloon while it's being prepared. She was obviously happy that we would have our private ride.

Some more hot air...

15 minutes later, our balloon was ready. We climbed in. The fire shot up inside the balloon, heating the air and we took off without even noticing the movement.

Shooting up

Taking off

Our captain is Mustafa. He said he did not have any control over the balloon. We'd be where the wind would take us. In the air, we encountered the other balloon inflated from the same lot and plenty of others in vibrant yellow, purple, red, green and blue. They dotted the morning sky of Goreme and floated over the white washed fairy chimneys like jelly fish in the sea. Julee took one side of the balloon facing the landscape and I took the other side facing the other balloons and faraway mountains since we need to keep the basket balanced. Mustafa kept firing up so the balloon would go higher. Every once in a while, I got bumped by Julee's backpack, sensing her excitement seeing yet another amazing rock formation.

The landscape was amazing. The mountains were covered in mist. The sun already rose but was hidden behind the mountains and leaving a golden glow on the mountain top. The layers of mountains showed different shades of blue. We each took a ton of pictures. At some point, we were about 2500 feet up, other times, we were so low, we could almost touch the top of the rock and tree branches below us. I saw a grayish fox running by only for a short second then the tail disappeared behind the bushes. We waved to any balloon that passed by and village people on the ground waved at us.

Before we landed, we were asked to put away everything. A truck was waiting for us as we barely passed all the power lines while Mustafa looked for an open field. Finally he decided we'd land in a field right before the ground would dip again into a valley. The two people from the truck ran out to cross the field to reach us. Mustafa threw them a rope to help anchoring us. The landing was not as rough as Mustafa said it would be but Julee and I held tight to the basket. I especially warned her to be careful so we don't have any Nile mishap again.

We each got a diploma for our balloon ride graduation, celebrated with a glass of champagne. My diploma mispelt my name as "Lou" instead of "Luo". I did not have the heart to tell Mustafa. I was happy either way with our accomplishment.

*After landing in the field with our captain.

At 7:40, we were back at the hotel. Today will be a day to relax.

P.S. Since the balloon basket was not so big, when Julee turned, this was what I would face.