As Ella, Abby and Peter Gardner watched Chinese lanterns floating in the sky on New Year's Eve, they decided to release their own balloon -- one they'd used to celebrate Abby's birthday a few days earlier.
After attaching a note and stamp, the children watched the balloon disappear from view of their home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Then they forgot about it.
Until they received a postcard from a man named Mr. Chang.
Decorated with elephants, the postcard had traveled all the way from the tiny nation of Laos in Southeast Asia -- almost 6,000 miles from their home, the Daily Mail reported Friday.
"We'd totally forgotten about it until the postcard arrived. It took a few minutes to realize what it was," the children's mother, Wendy Gardner, told the newspaper.
"I'm really surprised that the balloon traveled so far. We'd only put a first-class stamp on it, because we thought it might get to Wales or Cornwall. We didn't expect it to reach the other side of the world."
In his postcard message, Chang explained how he found the balloon near the Mekong River and went on to describe the differences in weather and food in England and Asia.
Ella, 7, Abby, 6, and Peter, 4, plan to frame the postcard, their mother said.
The children had released balloons before, but "this is the first time that anyone has replied," she told the Daily Mail. "We'll definitely release more in the future to see what happens."
Get the full story from the Daily Mail.
Girl's Birthday Balloon Travels Almost 6,000 Miles
Apr 9, 2011 – 12:37 PM
Tagged: 000 miles, abby gardner, asia, balloon travels 6000 miles, balloon travels to laos, balloons, birthday balloon, england, laos, science, weird news, wendy gardner
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