“I t has been a childhood dream for me to ride on a hot air balloon and right now I am the happiest girl in the world,” announced an elated Karthika Ramalingam to her friends and followers as she went live on Facebook.
At a height of 2,500 feet suspended in air, from inside the hot air balloon she also made the pilots Geert Piersman and Craig Michelle Farrell wave to the front-camera on her phone.
It is Geert and Craig’s maiden visit to India and they tell me that they are pumped up about it.
“So far I have only seen and read about the enticing country of spices, but being here this time is altogether a different experience,” Craig says.
Geert is from Belgium and is thoroughly enjoying his trip here too. Meanwhile Craig is kicked at the prospect of being in and around excited hot air balloon riders. “I expected a good turnout, but the people here are amazing. It is encouraging for me to see riders who have done this previously also, but are pretty much still in awe of the prospect of flying in Helium balloon,” says an excited Geert.
The third Tamil Nadu International Balloon Festival being held from January 10 to 15 at the Sakthi Mills Ground on the Coimbatore-Pollachi road is seeing a healthy turnout this year.
“We want to put Pollachi on the world tourism map. Even if they are unable to place exact points of interest in the city, I want people across the world to know that this beautiful city of Pollachi exists and that they have the option of paying it a visit,” says Babu Prasath, organiser of the festival.
The festival features events in two segments – early morning hot air balloon flight and even balloon tethering.
“In the evening the winds are rather whimsical due to which we have kept the balloon tethering event for dusk,” a pilot tells me.
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