Riding in a Balloon

I have always wanted to go for a balloon ride. It seemed like a magical thing to do, but I didn't think too seriously about it because it seemed like it would be a long time before we could actually afford it. So it was a little unreal when the travel agent not only offered us a balloon ride at sunrise over Luxor, but also offered a price we could justify. Since the revolution, Egypt has been struggling to bring in the number of tourists they are used to, which is unfortunate for them, but worked in our favor.

We had to get up way before the sun was up and take a boat ride across the Nile to the west bank where the balloons take off. Several balloons were preparing to go up, and my idea of magic was not disappointed. As the balloons fill up, they alternate lighting up as the fire heats up the air inside.

There were about 20 people in the basket with us, not including the crew. As I was standing in the basket waiting for the balloon to take off I suddenly got rather nervous. It occurred to me that I was going to go up in the air in a basket and it would probably wobble and we would all fall out. As I was worrying about this, the balloon secretly took off and before I even realized we were 10 feet off the ground, and then a whole lot more. It's the smoothest take off I've ever experienced. If you closed your eyes (or keep them open) you won't notice. You're just suddenly floating. The basket doesn't rock, no one falls out (even Jordan who's perhaps a little too tall for the height of the basket), you're just floating, like, well, a balloon.

The balloons aren't supposed to cross the Nile because the airplanes fly on the east side, but of course, a balloon goes where it wants and ours wanted to go over the river. So we went over the river.

Of course it looks magical floating over the Egyptian countryside at sunrise.

And then, just like in the all the stories I've read about, the balloon landed in a field. The farmer was actually out plowing when two balloons decided to land right where he was working.

Then a shepherd came by with his flock and I ended up with one of the lambs. I'm still not entirely clear how that happened, but I like to think I look like a natural.