My children had one week school holidays from 14 to 22 March. We did not have any special plans for the holidays – with the exception that we ended the holidays with something out of the ordinary.
When I say “out of the ordinary,” I mean these are not the usual things we do on a normal weekend.
Event 1 – Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009
On 21 March, Saturday, we headed over to Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Precinct 2, Putrajaya, Malaysia. For those who are unfamiliar, Putrajaya is the modern and sophisticated administrative city of Malaysia – with its own distinctive architecture and planning – which you can’t find in other towns in Malaysia.
Watching hot air balloons is something so unique that even myself find it special. Hot air balloons are not a common sight in this country. And this is the first balloon fiesta ever held in this city.
It was scheduled that the balloons would take off at 5.30pm but we only spotted some inflated ones at around 6.30pm.
Having witnessed about 10 balloons taking off from the ground, the one-hour hour wait was well worth it. And the kids enjoyed it. They had the chance to witness how hot air balloons work (from far) and how they take-off from the ground.
You’d get questions from the kids such as:
“Why is there fire?”
“Why is there a basket?”
Among the balloons, you’d see some with special designs and shapes – not the usual round shape: cut orange, elephant, mug, and peacock.
Note: You’ll find some photos at the end of this post.
Event 2 – Disney On Ice: Princess Wishes
Don’t get me wrong. We don’t go to Disney On Ice every time they come to town. This is the second time we watched the performance over the years. And partly the reason is J loves princess deeply.
We were motivated by unknown reason this time that we booked the second most expensive tickets (one rung below VIP seats!). It cost me almost half a grand for 3 tickets.
We took the ring side seats, second row from the stage. It’s so near that we could see the pimples on the faces of those princesses.
K went to the show for free as kids below 3 years old were exempted a ticket.
But for me, as much as I “loved” the price of the tickets, the seats we booked were not ideal as next to them was a passage for people to go up and down. It’s a disturbance for me when there were people walking past while watching the show. To avoid this, I took K up a few rows where the seats were not taken so that I could have a better view – even though the down side was I was further from the stage.
I liked the fact that the show started on time and the sound system was top notch. And the performers were excellent ice-skaters and they were natural actors.
Before I forget, here are some photos taken from the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009. Thanks to Lim Chiaw Yin for the photos and permission to publish.
