In Diwali vacations this year (2015) I visited Dubai for tourism. It is a very systematic and modern country. The roads are mostly 6 lanes by 6 lanes. Metro system is very efficient. And as you know, they got a lot of oil, so plenty of cars. Transportation in all is awesome.
The buildings are as tall as they can be built. Burj Khalifa is an excellent example for that. The population is very less and majority of workers are coming from countries other than Dubai. New enormous constructions are on the way as Dubai is preparing for 'Expo 2020'.
Ok...enough talking about Dubai. Lets get to the point.
We had planned the famous Hot Air Balloon ride in our time in Dubai. We had to wake up at 4:00 AM as the pickup was at 5:00 AM. To reach the starting place, we had to travel for nearly an hour. The temperature was cold and there was still no sign of the sun.
That's when we saw the 'Hot Air Balloon'. It was a looking like a giant sheet of nylon which had to be inflated by a giant pump. It was attached to a small basket for us to stand in. I had never seen anything like that before. It was the simplest of all flying objects.
Finally we jumped in the basket and took off. It was scary..it felt like the ground just cleared away below my feet. We flew to a height of 4000 ft just standing in that open basket. It was shivering cold up there but the scenery was awesome. We flew over the desert and could see some wild gazelles. For a full one hour we flew in whatever direction the wind took us. Basically there was no steering control to the balloon. It flew with the wind. That's why there was no fixed landing spot.
The captain finally started searching for a suitable landing spot right in the middle of the desert ! The wind-speed was a little more so we had a bumpy landing. My head almost whammed into a bush while landing but somehow I managed to get myself out of the way. The huge balloon got deflated in an instant after the landing.
It was an awesome experience. Really a 'Must Try' at least once in your life.
Hats off to Hot Air Balloon ! Hats off to Dubai !
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