Lanka Sites

The Hot Air Balloon Festival which was launched yesterday at Sigiriya will continue until April 2 in different parts of the country. The organizers said that the festival has attracted many participants from USA, UK, Italy, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Sri Lanka. It’s the fourth time this event is being held the first being in 2003. The Balloons will fly across the country including Jafna. In all, there will be 40 participants, both local and foreign. "This is a great opportunity for tourism promotion", they said. "This is something special where participants can fly across the country in a hot air balloon".

Participants have the rare chance of flying in a balloon and capturing Sri Lanka’s natural beauty environment while enjoying the hospitality of the people, said Chandima Perera of Ceylon Cold Stores (CCS), one of the key sponsors of the event, It is not possible to fly these balloons in Colombo as the area is highly built up and congested. The balloons have a flight plan, radars, radio set and will be in touch with the control towers so that they would not block commercials roads. Captain Anil Jayasinghe and Jack Klien have designed and produced a hot air balloon called Alaska.

It was the French brothers Motgolfier Joseph and Etienne who first invented a hot air balloon called "Montgolfieres". The first hot air human flight took place in 1783. A special event will be held at the Independence Square in Colombo at 7 pm on April 1 where all balloons will be exhibited.

@ Sunday Island by Coralie Favre