Saga Balloon Festival 2012

3rd November 2012

After I saw the poster for the Saga Balloon Festival, I wanted to go there. Me and my friends decided to tour Saga and go this balloon festival. Well, the weather did not agree with us. It was too windy! We reached there before 8 a.m. The sky was full of the hot air balloons, so beautiful. We couldn't get a parking space, had to wait for a long time. Finally, we got a parking lot at around 10 a.m. However, due to strong wind, all the hot balloons were grounded. The sky was so clear with no hot balloon, so disappointed!

(*from this incident, I think it's better to take public transport, don't have to worry about parking and have more time to enjoy the view.)

the only photo I have on the hot balloons on air

Anyway, we walked around the field, there were many visitors. Many old uncles brought huge camera with really big long lenses, professional! I like and satisfied with my bridge camera, not so heavy, have auto mode and have the ability to shoot night scene, hahaha!

By the time we reached the venue, a lot of people were leaving. It's so difficult to walk against the flow. Since the weather was no good, most of the balloons were deflated, some on-going. Luckily, we were managed to see two full hot air balloons. Just minutes after that, they deflated the balloons.

Saga Balloons Festival 2012

 the only hot balloons still standing

That's not the end of story. Some of the participating teams allowed the visitors to sit inside the basket and play with the burner. Well, that's all, nothing else to see. Then, we planned to go to Yoshinogari Remains. Since we still very much intended to see the flying hot air balloons, we planned to come back after that.

playing with the burner

After the visit to Yoshinogari Remains, we went back to the Saga Balloons Festival. This time, we had to wait for parking lot again! Oh, so long and the traffic came to a standstill. I think we had to wait for a place for around two and a half hour. Ahhhh, public transport is better!

Since we missed the morning and the afternoon session (canceled due to bad weather), we stayed until night time for the night session. However, bad weather continues. So, at the end, they provided us (the visitors who had waited for a long long time under the cold and windy weather) with a synchronized burner show!

the PIC preparing for the night show

the PIC preparing for the night show

testing with the burner

testing for the burner

Actually, I felt sorry for the emcee for this night show. People were waiting there for the hot balloons show, but the weather didn't permit it. So, the emcee had to keep yelling the same phrases for half an hour (or maybe an hour, forget). So, the teams just light up and light down using the burner. At first, it's quite interesting, after a while, it's so tiring to stare at that. Then, we decided to left the venue, accepting that it's not going to be a hot balloons show.

synchronized burner show

synchronized burner show

Well, we left just in time. The show ended not long after that. We could see the fireworks display while still trying to get to our car. A small bonus!

fireworks show at the end

Then, we left for our hotel. It's an old business hotel. It's cheap and no bathroom and toilet attached to the room. Toilet is unisex and located on every floor, female and male have to wait for the turn to bath. Well, it's cheap though, so I had to stand for one night only. Yeah!

*well, a scarecrow making competition was held near the Hot Air Balloons venue. Went there to see the scarecrows too, many cute ones!

scarecrow

scarecrow

cute scarecrow! (Totoro and Kumamon)