Published on: Monday, September 27, 2010

Kota Kinabalu: Firefly, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysian Airline System (MAS) Berhad, in collaboration with Tourism Selangor is sponsoring 30 bloggers from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to participate in a four-day My Selangor Story competition.

This all-expenses paid trip to explore Selangor started on Friday and will stretch to Sept 27. The sponsorship consists of logistics expenses for all 30 bloggers to explore Selangor exclusively during this period.

“Firefly is proud to participate in this community programme by sponsoring a total of 30 tickets for the participants and prizes to the winners of the competition,” said Firefly’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Angelina Fernandez.

“It is an honour to be associated with this event, especially to play a role in the growth of both, regional technology and social media.

“In this strategic partnership, Firefly is poised to be a driver to encourage local and international bloggers through this kind of healthy community engagement. This is in line with our marketing efforts in the area of social media.”

Angelina said they are sponsoring 10 flight tickets for the Indonesian participants on the Medan-Subang-Medan sector and another 10 flight tickets for the Singaporean participants on the Singapore-Subang-Singapore sector.

“Additionally, we are also sponsoring 10 flight tickets as prizes to the winners – four return tickets from Subang to Terengganu and six return tickets from Subang to Langkawi.”

She added that Firefly hopes to contribute significantly to the tourism industry in Selangor and Malaysia overall by meeting the rising passenger traffic demand from the dynamic growth region of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore by providing an extensive cross-border route network.

The event is also seen as a platform of information that would be able to educate the bloggers on the connections from Selangor (Subang) to all other destinations of Firefly within Malaysia.

She declared that the first half of this year has seen more than three million visitors to Selangor.

The 30 shortlisted bloggers will compete by churning out the best documentation of their trip – their own original version of their Selangor story.

They will be judged based on the following criteria – their creativity in presenting their adventures in Selangor, the popularity of their blogs in terms of traffic flow and comments, the entertainment value and quality of the audiovisual uploads of their activities and most importantly, the relevancy of their commentary on their Selangor travel experience.

During their trip, the bloggers will be required to create a daily three-minute video diary that documents their activities for the day, which will be uploaded on YouTube, and its link posted on the official My Selangor Story website.

Readers will vote for their favourite blog on the same website too, and the judges will then decide which blogger deserves to win the grand prize of RM2, 500 plus a return trip for two, to visit Selangor once again, and a Pentax camera worth RM1, 099, among others.

Prizes will also be awarded to the first runner-up and the second runner-up.

Other prizes include the most creative blog, the best write-up, the best video, the most interactive blog and the best photos.

Posted by azuan in :: All Posts ::, Featured Articles, TRAVEL & ADVENTURE on 09 23rd, 2010 | 2 responses

Thanks to all your kind votes and support, I have been chosen as one of the 30 bloggers to be part of Stage 2 of My Selangor Story 2010 (MSS) – a 6 day blogging contest around beautiful Selangor. Spearheaded by Tourism Selangor to promote Selangor’s cultural diversity & rich tourism resource, MSS brings together 30 bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to an exciting, all-expenses paid luxury itinerary for these bloggers to blog about.

Starting today (23th Sept) until (28th Sept), I’ll be visiting many different places, meet many interesting people, do cool activities, eat great food and most importantly blog about my experience.

As the competition kicks-off, here is the first day highlights in a short 4 minutes preview video.

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Bloggers arrive in style for registration at Subang SkyPark where Kapitan Kopitiam kindly hosted a welcoming tea. For fellow bloggers from Indonesia, Singapore, JB and Penang, they were flown in with special treatment courtesy of Firefly with VIP treatment from check in to arrival. Firefly is the official airline of MSS and on top of providing the tickets for participants and prizes, the community airline provides a cool FY jersey for everyone.

Despite not being able to experience Firefly’s in-flight service (obviously does not make sense to fly from Shah Alam to Subang ), I was pleased to be greeted by Firefly’s hospitality shown by the crew during the welcoming tea.

Thank you Capt Anthony Kok, Ms Sofia Sani, Mr Al Haffeez, Mr Bryan See, Ms Harleny and the rest.

Leaving the airport with some new friends The photo below courtesy of James/Firefly.

Am I going to be the 1st to be eliminated? luckily MSS is not a reality show with daily elimination!

We checked in to our hotel for the first day in my home city Shah Alam! The capital of Selangor, a city full with many interesting sights and activities where immediately we were briefed about the competition.

Followed by briefing by Pentax. Pentax is the official camera for My Selangor Story providing each of the bloggers a camera each.

I was assigned this Point and Shoot Pentax Model Optio H90.

It makes sense to have a point and shoot as a secondary camera for a travel blogger. I love the fact that I can take a photo with this Pentax in less than 5 seconds, something my DSLr can’t do. Also I can sneak in this camera to places DSLr can’t go.

But the most important thing is this cute little baby can take video! So my blog post will include both videos and photos

Cameras…. Checked
Itinerary…. Checked
Laptop….. Checked

Time to hit the road!

1st Stop… i-City, No.1 Technology City.

If you have a Facebook, you probably have seen lots of photos of your friends with bright colourful trees with LED lights. Yes, that’s the landmark of i-City

But there is more to i-City than just being the City of Digital Lights. I-Berhad, the developer of i-City has , obtained approval from the Government to turn the city into a knowledge hub with infrastructure facilities such as broadband speed of 20Mbps, fibre-optic network and a full gen-set back-up power supply.
We can soon expect new breeds of borderless technopreneurs to be the product of i-City! In the meantime, this IS the place to be for free lightning-speed internet access!

The free internet access is through wi-fi hotspots around the area and does not involve plugging in your laptops to the digital trees

I-City hosted us for a Steamboat dinner right smack in the middle of the trees under the light of a full moon. There are plenty of choices for visitor to have good food while admiring the beauty of the lights.

Yummy Seafood Steamboat.

I spent an hour walking around the park admiring the couples browsing each other beauty of the lights.

Thaipusam Theme

Chinese New Year Theme

Hari Raya Theme

Xmas Theme

Digital Safari? Reminds me of Mimaland once upon a time.

A good opportunity to try out the cute Pentax. I love this Panoramic Mode available on this camera.

(Photo taken from Pentax Optio H90)

It’s funny that i-City is only 5 minutes drive from my house yet, this is my first time exploring this new attraction of Shah Alam. Definitely not going to be the last one Check out i-City at www.i-city.my

From the bright i-City, we made our way to a happening ‘Pasar Malam’, Shah Alam’s own Uptown.

Located in Section 23, Uptown Shah Alam is a one-stop shopping bazaar selling things that you can usually find in a street market.

From hawker’s food…..

….. to bundle clothing….

….. to pets,

….and everything else you can imagine, you can find it all here in Uptown Shah Alam. He he he

If you’re looking for entertainment, try out the reflexology, playstation, karaoke on stage (no comment) or just chill out over a cup of kopi and watch wrestling on TV…..classic!

I was quite impressed that the whole business model of Uptown Shah Alam is driven by a commercial entity with direct support from Entrepreneurial and Tourism bodies in Selangor. Learning from the ups and downs of Pasar Pagi and Pasar Muhibah, Uptown Shah Alam is currently run by Dataran Usahawan Sdn Bhd.
Briefing on Uptown Shah Alam by En Aizul Hisham, MD of DUSB.

Encik Irwan Shah, the appointed Ambassador of Uptown Shah Alam.

The place is a showcase of local entrepreneurs with some of them have been extremely successful.

Uptown Shah Alam is located at Kompleks Muhibbah, Jalan Taugeh 24/17 Persiaran Sultan, seksyen 24, 40300 Shah Alam. URL: www.uptownshahalam.com

Despite ending the day at 2am, it was an exciting beginning to a 6-day journey Check out my Facebook for more photos of Day 1.

The My Selangor Story bloggers competition had already been launched and officiated by the Selangor Chairperson of Standing Committee of Tourism, Consumer Affairs, and Environment, YB Elizabeth Wong who had hoped that the competition will help promote Selangor as a destination for tourists. She had proudly declared that the first half of this year has seen more than three million visitors to Selangor.

The competition is for all active personal bloggers who are residents of Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia, and who have an interest in travelling and a taste for adventure. To qualify all the bloggers need to do is to upload a 60-second video introduction of themselves on YouTube to convince the judging committee to pick them. Alternatively, they could send in a 300-word (no more) essay. Additionally, they have to register themselves by filling in the entry form on the My Selangor Story website, attach the link to the form, and wait for the call from the organizer.

The 30 shortlisted bloggers will compete by churning out the best documentation of their trip – their own original version of their Selangor story. They will be judged based on the following criteria: their creativity in presenting their adventures in Selangor; the popularity of their blogs in terms of traffic flow and comments; the entertainment value and quality of the audiovisual uploads of their activities; and most importantly, the relevancy of their commentary on their Selangor travel experience.

During their four-days trip, the bloggers will be required to create a daily three-minute video diary that documents their activities for the day, which will be uploaded on YouTube, and its link posted on the official My Selangor Story website. Readers will vote for their favourite blog on the same website too, and the judges will then decide which blogger deserves to win the Grand Prize of RM2,500 plus a return trip for two, to visit Selangor once again, and a Pentax camera worth RM1,099, among others. Prizes will also be awarded to the first runner-up and the second runner-up. Other prizes include the most creative blog; the best write-up; the best video; the most interactive blog; and the best photos.

Firefly has sponsored 10 flight tickets for the Indonesian participants on the Medan-Subang-Medan sector; and another 10 flight tickets for the Singaporean participants on the Singapore-Subang-Singapore sector where their arrivals into Subang is scheduled on 23rd September 2010.

Additionally, we are also sponsoring 10 flight tickets as prizes to the winners – 4 return tickets from Subang to Terengganu and 6 return tickets from Subang to Langkawi.”

The bloggers arrived in style at Subang SkyPark Terminal on 23rd September with Firefly and was greeted at a welcome ceremony at KAPITAN KOPITIAM. The bloggers got a chance to mingle while enjoying refreshments (courtesy of KAPITAN KOPITIAM) before the journey begin.

Plus, we have our best pilots and cabin crew there to welcome them and for them to get a chance to know more about working with us.

Each blogger was also given a FIREFLY JERSEY to be worn during their 4 days tour at Selangor.

Stay tuned to find out more what/who/when/where/why about the My Selangor Story bloggers here!