Hot-Air Ballooning in Putrajaya

It was supposed to be just another Friday when I overheard some of my colleagues talking about a hot-air balloon activity. Apparently, the company organized one for the local employees. I have no idea what time it is, who are coming, where it's going to be, etc., but sign me up, Scotty. Hitched a ride with my colleague, so by 5:01pm we're on our way to Putrajaya. Apparently, we'll be riding our hot-air balloon somewhere near the Alamanda Shopping Center. We got to the grassy knoll behind the mall just in time to see a bunch of guys setting up shop. Some representatives from Traders Hotel came over to greet up. They're promoting their new corporate services, so they got this Australian outfit to fly the balloon, and give us (and other companies) a free ride to get our goodwill. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. Naturally, the gigantic balloon has the hotel's name and logo printed on it for all to see.

The Aussie blokes pumped the balloon full of hot air, and managed to get it upright, but they had difficulty keeping it in place because there's a wind blowing. After some strenuous pushing and pulling, they decided to wait for the wind to die down a bit. They deflated the balloon, and we went inside Alamanda for some snacks. When we got back to the site half an hour later, the guys were already packing up. The wind's still blowing, so it looks like we won't be going up into the air today. Not happy to go home just like that on a Friday night, a few of the guys decided to have a satay dinner. I would've been happy to go McDonald's or KFC inside Alamanda, but petrol must be cheap here. It took us half an hour of driving (at high speed!) to get to Kajang, the birthplace of satay. We ordered chicken, pork, and lamb satay, and all of them tasted quite good.

After dinner, we had a joyride around the area. Our driver for the night studied in one of the universities nearby, so he's pretty familiar with the place. Drove up a hill, where all the rich Chinese have their mansions, and enjoyed the expansive night city views from there. From there, we went back to Putrajaya to take some more pictures. And what do you know, our driver is a photo enthusiast himself, so he's got a nice tripod in his trunk. Good for me. We left Putrajaya around 11pm, and decided to have a nightcap at Station 1. I was told this is the hip place to be. We got there a little after midnight, and the place is still packed with teenagers and tweens trying to look cool. I commented to my colleague that we're too old for this place, but he doesn't seem to agree with me. The place offers a wide variety of drinks and some finger foods and snacks, and you can play table games while listening to loud music. To pass the time, the three of us played Jenga. You start off with some rectangular wooden blocks, and stack them up into a tower. Everyone takes turns taking out a wooden block and putting it on top of the tower. As the game progresses, the tower builds up with fewer blocks at the base, so the danger of it collapsing becomes more and more with every turn. Played for a couple of rounds, then called it a day around 1:30am.