swimming in the blue ocean

The journey for the past months have been like swimming in the middle of the ocean with no chance of survival... at least not stranded!

As you know... ive been working hard in making the balloon fiesta (www.myballoonfiesta.com) a reality!

ofcoz.. it became a reality...
just google putrajaya hot air balloon fiesta... there'll be like more than 30 thousand page on it....

another crazy idea become reality by SF...

of coz i could not have done it if not bcoz of the greenlite from my balloon partner, Din...

Putrajaya have never seen a crowd like that before....like what shev das stated in his Malay Mail article "a sleepy administrative town turn alive...

one of the big battle was getting the support from the government ...name ministry of tourism...

i believe that such a unique event like the balloon fiesta should be given support from the government as to compare with the norm events tht the Rakyat have seen again and again...and frankly with the amount of money gov spent on those events...my god.... might as well we build the second bridge to singapore...might as well the money given to the poor..to the people in GAZA!

well anyway..thts me n my wishfull thinking talking...

the fact that the gov not supporting this fiesta was a big SHOCK to me ......worst the 'NO' letter from tourism was given 2 days prior to the fiesta... talking bout 'adil'...

ofcoz an apeal letter was sent immidiately... and im too busy making sure the fiesta went smoothly and only able to strategise my next action after the fiesta...

but ofcoz...show got to go on.... so many ppl are shock and amaze that the balloon fiesta went as scheduled and it went extremely well...

we received more than 100 thousand crowd during the fiesta...

families from all walks of life, race, religion..even tourist were so amaze n happy being there...

being sad tht the gov didnt help us....

Sudddenly my secretary called me up and relay me a message.... call the king's secretary now!

i was like....ya rite... but its true...

The king acknowledged the fiesta.... he wants to send his kids...

I told the secretary tht she have made me so happy n we will welcome them...

The royal kids arrived on Saturday morning... just in time for our morning flight.... all 4+ 1 friend of them flew... they even take a ride back to the balloon site at the back of the 4 wheeler...they were so happy n stayed for another 3 hours... witnessing the other side events that we have... remote control planes, kids competitions and also waterball,

saturday evening..the evening flight around 5.30pm on 21 march was crazy.... u cant even see the ground.... huge packed crowds surround the gatted area of the balloon launch site (safety reasons)..

at 630pm the crowd breakdown the gate (that was not properly hooked by the authority) and sworm inside the restricted area... as i cant blame them as they were eager to see the balloons from near n if can 'touch' n take photos near it...

Safety comes first.... knowing the fact that the possibility of a chaos.... i asked the authority to provide a patrol car to the site asap but failed... i called the 4WD team leader, jeff to follow me 'pushing' the crowd out from the area as if anyone of them smoke a ciggy... n when the burner releases it gas... well... nothing good can come out of it...

within 20 min we ve manage to 'push' them out from the restricted zone but ofcoz...i know 2 scenario i will encounter...1. people be angry 2. people wanna 'punch' me for 'pushing them away... as aspected on my scenario planning was rite..as usual... 3 huge men stop our 4wd n wanted to punch me for being 'rude' he says.... he was hysterically mad with us trying to push pple away...as he do not care the danger or frankly ignorant of the danger .... some how a rather...i manage to cool him down as ive told him hundreds of announcements made for public to leave the restricted area..... well anyway... i still have my jaw in place n thank god the site were cleared!

the good point on all of this is that... we ve done a good job organising this untill the crowd was way over to be handled...like metalica concert!

of coz SF war not end here.... i will do my best for justice to be served!

i will follow up on my letters to the ministry at the same time another letter will be sent soon to the new PM....

i hope the new PM listens... n care for the Rakyat

one thing for sure.... next year...we inviting the King to be the Patron.... it will be like a kings gift to the Rakyat