So we had a near death experience with the hot air balloon ride. There were so many of us interested in doing this that we commandeered no less than 3 balloons. The view from above was nothing less than spectacular -- overlooking the rooftops of all the small towns along the river, the endless hectares of rice paddies and farmland, caves nestled high above limestone mountains. Words cannot do justice to the spectacular beauty of the mountains, which stretched as far as the eye can see.
The whole experience was supposed to take about an hour, but we ended up in the air for almost two hours. You see, there simply wasn't enough wind to carry the balloon to a good place to land, so we paced around and around in the air. A few times we were going head-on towards a mountain, and got to see the limestone at quite a close range. Our talented guide managed to steer us clear of mountains, power lines, and rice paddies, and landed us safely in some dense growth at the foot of one of the mountains. We were "rescued" by a cheering group of village children who could not be happier to show us the way back to the minivan. As we happily trodded along the trail, the five of us were simply thankful that we got into the exciting balloon today and lived to tell the tale. As I've mentioned, there were two other balloons that went up. One of them had a perfect landing in the middle of town, and were greeted warmly by the townspeople. I'm not sure what happened to the 3rd one, except that they too had a 100% survival rate.
Anyone up for skydiving?
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