Ballooning adventures

The first week i arrived i was lucky enough to have a travel buddy, Melissa! Melissa was here for a week for work training so we made the most of her trip by signing up for hot air ballooning over the Sweihan desert. We were picked up at 4:30am and drove about an hour in the middle of the Al Ain. We watched the balloon, one of the largest in the world, get inflated right before our eyes! Up to 24 people can board the basket and once we climbed in, our captain quickly torched up the flames and the balloon soared to approximately 4,000ft. Shockingly, even though i am kinda afraid of heights, it was not scary at all. Because the basket is so large and floats up so smoothy and quickly, its almost like all of the desert below you is fake! We saw the sun rise over golden sand dunes, camel packs and patches of goat farms. It was needless to say, awesome! Landing was a hilarious experience. Everyone has to get into landing position, which is basically crouching and holding on tight, and then the captain lowers the basket to the ground. The wind is strong so the basket slowly overturns once it touches down - not scary, but ridiculous and funny when you have to crawl out on all fours.

so yes, now i have my official hot air ballooning flight certificate. woo!