Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2013

Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta has entered its fifth anniversary. Well, the fiesta is now becoming an important carnival for the people around Klang Valley. For 2013, the carnival has attracted about 18 balloonists cross four continents. Previous experience, either be early, or be late. The weather in the middle of the day is a big spoiler.

This year, we went on sunrise. We reached at Putrajaya Precinct 2 fiesta site at around 8 a.m. It sounds crazy on a beautiful Saturday morning, but really, we were not among the earliest. Crowd was gathering, a thousand of them, maybe more. We were lucky to find a car park some 100 meters away from the main exhibition area. Well, car park should be ample, but if you come late (say in the evening), you might need to park your car half a kilometer away. There were 5 zones- blue, yellow, red, purple and green, assigned to the exhibition of hot air balloons, helicopter ride and bazaar area, corporate area, food and beverages area, and the extreme zone respectively. We started from the blue zone- the balloons!

Different zones of the site. Detail information is available at Official site of Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta .

8:15 a.m. visitors are waiting for their turn to board into the hot air balloons. The fee is RM25 for a ride of 5 - 10 minutes.

Our photo with the hot air balloons.

More photos with the balloons. By the way, we went to the fiesta with Kelly. She helped us a lot in taking our photos :)

Cute Cat Balloon. We saw this balloon last year too.

X'treme sports at Green Zone.

9 a.m. We need to pass through the crowd in order to move forward. Monument Alaf Baru can be seen far behind.

The para-motor show started when we were strolling around Green Zone. It was a good place to watch the show, as the para-motors were encircling Monument Alaf Baru.

Different formation of para-motors.

We went for our breakfast around 9:15 a.m. It was hard to find a place to sit. We were not the early birds...

However, the thumbs up, the price for the local food stalls were really reasonable. In fact, we should use the word "cheap" compare to other international carnivals. Local food was available at Purple Zone.

Franchais food stalls such as KFC, Ayamas, Sushi King, A&W, and Pizza Hut were available at Red Zone. 

Some information about Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. It was held on 28th - 31st March. The entrance was free. The weather, warm in the morning and evening, hot and humid on the rest of the day. The easiest way to go to the carnival site at Precinct 2 is by car. Alternatively, you can take KLIA ERL to Putrajaya Central, then hoop into Nadi Putrajaya Bus (bus no 301, 601, 701). The bus will bring you to the carnival site. The site was really big. So a comfortable footwear might be necessary. Drinking water, sunblock, umbrella are necessary in case you are going to the site in the afternoon. Are we going to visit the fiesta again next year? Why not, if we have a Saturday with nothing official to do?

On our way back to the car park, we can see more and more people were coming to the fiesta (right). Well, if you missed a balloon ride, maybe you can buy a balloon from the vendors by the road. :)

By the way, we went back to the carnival site around 8:30 p.m. to watch the Night Glow and fireworks showed. Follow us to see our photos now.

Other places nearby Putrajaya:

[Night at International Hot Balloon Fiesta 2013]

[Agriculture Heritage Park] [Putrajaya Botanical Garden] [Perdana Park]

[Wawasan Park] [Ministry Precincts] [Floria 2010]

[All Our Destinations]

Nice Food in Kampar

Finally we have the chance to stay overnight at Kampar again. Of course, earned the opportunity to try more nice food in Kampar. First in our list, the famous curry chicken bread. We learned that there are a few famous restaurants offering the same dish. Kam Ling Restaurant and You Kee Restaurant are two of them. However, we tried that dish at Restaurant Jia Kampar (家好月圆大饭店）. We really liked that restaurant, because it was fully air conditioned, good service, and easily accessible. Above all, very nice food. We took our lunch with our family there. The price, around RM12 per person. More information about Restaurant Jia is available here. Surprisingly, curry chicken bread was not introduced in the restaurant's webpage. Luckily, we have Bryant and Livien with us, or else we might never visit that restaurant. They knew the place well.

 Restaurant Jia Kampar is located at the corner of a two-storey shoplot at Masjid Road (upper left). The restaurant is clean and fully air-conditioned (upper right). The restaurant serves the famous Kampar Curry Chicken Bread (lower row).

A snap before enjoy our food with family members.

Evening, after we visited Kellie's Castle and Gopeng Gaharu Estate, we went to Kampar old town's market to take our dinner. At night, the area around the old town was quiet, but we were surprised by the happening at the food court. Under the dim fluorescence light, smoke from burning stools, sound of people talking and laughing indicated that we were at the right place. Hot? Nope, but the smoke was everywhere, due to the poor ventilation system. But, who cares? People like the food more than anything else. We really tried many food there with our family. Char kuey tiaw with clam and egg, chu cheong fun (or chee cheong fun), water spinach with squids, porridge with chicken, and wantan noodle were several of them. The wet market is located at Masjid Road, at the northern side of the old town. We learned from this blog that the market has many nice food to offer under the daylight.

Some of the food that we took at the market- chu cheong fun (upper left), water spinach with squids (upper right), char kuey tiaw with clam and egg (lower right) and taro cake.

This is what we saw around us at the market.

After taking our dinner, we went back to Kampar new town and took a walk around our hotel. Well, the temptation was tremendous, as there were many shops offering tempting food. We stopped at a small cart selling "lok-lok". Lok-lok is nothing new to many. But, how about RM 0.70 per stick of food? Well, price did the talking. We took several sticks of clams, water spinach with squid, and pork. The taste, not the best, but the price compensated. We found the cart at Hala Timah Road 1, west to Grand Kampar Hotel. Anyway, the cart might be moving around so, you might need some luck to find it.

 Various choices of food were offered.

 A few youngsters gathered around the cart, enjoying their supper.

Just before we went back to our hotel, we stopped at Black Ball Taiwanese Tea and Dessert at another side of Hala Timah Road 1. The shop was narrow, selling dessert and milk tea. Nice, but just a bit noisy, crowded with youngsters.

Black ball offers exquisite Taiwanese dessert and delighting Taiwanese pearl tea.

This is the first time we tried so many food in Kampar. The experience, great! Never thought that a small place like Kampar could ever come out with so many nice food. There are many more food in our list. We should visit Kampar again to try them all. Check up about food in Kampar by wyyv.blogspot.com. They provided many useful information to us.

Our sharing on other places nearby are available as well, as listed below.

[Tin Dredge in Batu Gajah] [Kellie's Castle] [Ipoh Old Town]
[Limestone caves in Ipoh] [Ipoh's Food] [Short Stay in Kampar]
[All Our Destinations]

Last Tin Dredge in Malaysia

We read about tin dredge in our history class many years back in our secondary school, "kapal korek" we called it in Malay Language. Now, we see it with our own eyes in Batu Gajah, Perak. It goes beyond everything that we had ever imagined. It is gigantic.

Tanjung Tualang Dredge No 5 (TT5) was one of the largest mining machine of its kind. Three storeys high, 4,500 tonnes, supported by a pontoon of 75 meters in length, 35 meters in width, 115 digging buckets which could dig 15 meters deep, once supported 17 workers working in shift, swallowing the marshes and mud to extract the valuable mineral.

Many years ago, these machines were the symbols of prosperity, which had brought handsome revenue to our country. 75 of them in total between 1954 - 1964, feeding 45% of the world's demand. Then, the tin price nosedived in 1980s. When the operational cost rose above the production cost, these giant machines were shut down one by one. Now, it is the last survival of its kind, laying quietly in a small pond at Batu Gajah. Many years back, people believed that it would be a matter of time for this metal giant to be consumed by rust. However, it stands tall and proud as we can see today, result of the preservative works done by many. You can read more about the preservation of this last dredge at Ipohecho.com.my.

Starting from Kampar, we reached Batu Gajah through Gopeng. Then, we followed the sign boards to Tanjung Tualang. The dredge is located about 10 km from Gopeng towards Tanjung Tualang. There was no clear sign showing the exact location of the dredge along the way. If you are driving from Gopeng towards Tanjung Tualang, the dredge should be about two minutes away after Chenderong, on your left. The opening hours of the dredge are 8:30 am - 6:30 pm daily, with a lunch break at 12 - 1 pm. The admission fees are RM6.00 for adult, RM5.00 for student (with student card) and RM3.00 for child.

 This three storey high mining machine lies quietly in this old mining pond.

 Walking around the pond, we can see the dredge from different angles.

 The front side of the dredge.

The ladder with buckets still attached. The ladder can reach 31 meters below the water.

 Close up of digging buckets.

 The entrance to the first level of the dredge.

 One of the workstations in the dredge.

Separated from tin, stones and sand were discharged from these chutes located at the back side of the dredge.

"Safety first" in four languages.

You will have a better idea of how big is the ladder by looking at this photo.

The spare metal bucket in the dredge.

A canvas banner was hung at the entrance of the dredge museum, which is around 100 meters away from the main road (upper left). A small information centre with some old black and white photos and objects on display. Not much that we can learn from there.

We passed by Chenderong before reach the dredge (upper left). The dredge was hidden and we couldn't see it from the main road (lower left). There was a "Jom Teroka" or "Come and Discover" sign board beside the road, facing Tanjung Tualang direction (upper right). We had to look back to see the sign. The overgrown shrubs made the dredge hard to be seen, even from the information centre.

Our photo at the right flank of the dredge. The sun shine proudly during our visit. It was very hot.

The tin mining was a very important activity, not only at Kinta Valley, but it brought a rise to whole Malaysia. For us, the tin dredge visualized what we had learnt in our history and geography lessons, far back to our secondary school. Well, this is the last survived one in our country. Without it, we would have to go to other country to look for one.

No food and drink are sold around the tourist area. The nearest towns that we can look for a meal are Batu Gajah to the north, or Tanjung Tualang to the south. However, in our trip, we traveled further north to Ipoh to take our lunch. Sunny day is good for taking good photo with clear blue sky. However, the blazing sun might be unforgiven for those who wish to take a walk around the dredge. So, we would advise that bringing an umbrella might be necessary. Again, like Kellie's Castle, this site might not strong enough to be your standalone point in your itinerary. Take the opportunity to visit Kellie's Castle at Batu Gajah, Kampar, and Ipoh around the area. We heard that Tanjung Tualang is famous with its prawn, take a look about the food at this site- Tanjung Tualang Prawns. You might like to take a try.

We learned some useful information from these sites about the last tin dredge. Maybe you would like to take a look as well- TT5 Tin Dredge, Dredge up the Past, and Thiffytraveller. Driving your own car or joining a local tour in Ipoh or Kampar might be a good idea to go to both Kellie's Castle and the Tin Dredge at Batu Gajah. As far as we could see, there was no public transport around the area.

Our sharing on other places in Perak are available as listed below.

[Kellie's Castle] [Ipoh Old Town] [Limestone caves in Ipoh]

[Ipoh's Food] [Nice Food in Kampar] [Short Stay in Kampar]
[All Our Destinations]