Friday, 20/08/10 – 10:41AM Filed in Blog by yangching | Views: 1110 | Comments: 0

Many of us love to holiday abroad, but have we really given due consideration to exploring our own backyard? Here’s your chance, in an all-expenses paid trip via the My Selangor Story competition where 30 bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia explore Selangor for 4 days, thanks to Tourism Selangor and Horizon Communications.

To launch and officiate the My Selangor Story bloggers competiton, the Selangor Chairperson of Standing Committee of Tourism, Consumer Affairs, and Environment, YB Elizabeth Wong, said proudly, “The first half of this year has seen more than three million visitors which is very encouraging.” So hopefully, this competition will help promote Selangor as a destination for tourists.

These 30 shortlisted bloggers will compete with each other to churn out the best documentation of their trip – their own Selangor story. They will be judged according to creativity in presenting their adventures in Selangor; the popularity of their blogs in terms of traffic flow and comments; entertaining and quality audiovisual uploads of their exciting activities; and most importantly, the relevancy of their commentary on Selangor as based on their experiences.

As their trip progresses, the bloggers will be required to create a daily three-minute video diary that documents their activities for that day, which will be uploaded on YouTube, and its link posted on the official My Selangor Story website. Readers will be able to 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 and 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, Second Runner Up, and those with the Most Creative Blog, Best Write-Up, Best Video, Most Interactive Blog, and Best Photos, exclusively.

All 30 bloggers will be travelling in style, too. BMW has sponsored 30 cars for these bloggers to drive to their destinations (Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Genting Highlands, Sunway Lagoon, and Ampang Lookout Point, to name a few), Pentax will be providing high-quality cameras to record and photograph their experiences, and for bloggers in Singapore and Indonesia, they will be flown in courtesy of Firefly.

Interested? Then all you need to have is an active personal blog, be a resident of Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia, and of course, have an interest in travelling and a taste for adventure! Get your game face on, and upload a 60-second video of yourself on YouTube that will convince the judging committee to pick you. Alternatively, you could send in a 300-word (no more) essay. Register by filling in the entry form on the My Selangor Story website, attach the link to the form, and wait for the call. The closing date for entries is 5 September 2010, and the 30 selected bloggers will be announced on 13 September 2010 with the travelling period to Selangor scheduled to take place from 24 – 27 September 2010.

Further, these 30 bloggers will be provided with items in the form of merchandise or vouchers from the official sponsors, which they will auction off on their blogs. All proceeds from the respective online auctions will go to charity organisations of Tourism Selangor’s choice.

Visit their official website at www.myselangorstory.com, or visit their Facebook fanpage by searching for “My Selangor Story”, and follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MYselangorstory.

Dear all,

We have the winner for the Malaysia Through My Lens Contest. These 4 people have shown us their love for Malaysia and expressed generously through their writings.

The winners are :

1. Tan Kay Liang :ONE (1) FIREFLY RETURN ticket from Penang to Phuket

2. Cheong Sui Jin : ONE (1) FIREFLY RETURN ticket from Subang to Singapore

3. Kiran Kumar a/l Suraj Kumar : ONE (1) FIREFLY RETURN ticket from Subang to Medan

4. Low Shi Hao : ONE(1) FIREFLY RETURN ticket from Subang to Pekanbaru

Congratulations!!!

Have a great trip with us!

I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the people to join the Ipoh Familiarization trip with the Singapore’s media and travel agents. The trip was set to begin on 12^th July 2009 after the Inaugural Celebration of Singapore-Ipoh flight at Sultan Azlan Shah Airport.

We began our journey right after the celebration held at the airport. The group departs from the airport by bus to Lumut Jetty and we managed to catch the last ferry at 8:30pm to Pangkor Island. General Manager of Pangkor Beach Island Resort, Mr. Jimmy Yeoh was kind enough to escort us to the resort. The sea breeze ride was about 25-30 minutes. Then, we hopped on to a pink van which drives us straight to the resort.

When I reached Pangkor Island Beach Resort, one word says it all, RELAX. I really felt like I am in paradise. We had dinner at Hornbill Restaurant and proceeded to our room individually. We had our room facing the ocean (Ocean Wings). That night the sound of the waves accompanied me to sleep. It was a wonderful experience.

Pangkor Beach

Pangkor Island Beach Resort is certainly a place for you to lay back and do nothing. At the resort, you can relax by the pool or by the beach.

There are also various activities which can be done there such as deep sea fishing, snorkeling, jet ski, water ski, banana boat ride, jungle walk and more. If you are too lazy to get up, you can also get pampered at the Aryani Spa where you can unwind and soothe those aching muscles. Besides, there’s also a mini golf course for all you daddys out there.

The next morning, we awoke at 7am to catch the opportunity to see the hornbills at the resort. These hornbills are wild as they live in the woods around the resort. Animals such as monkeys and peacocks are often seen roaming freely as they inhabit in the nature surrounding the resort.

The wild and smaller Hornbills (as compared to those in Sarawak) are seen near the resort’s pool area

Group photo before we leave the resort

The following day, we went to Cameron Highlands. We departed in the evening from Lumut Jetty and reached Strawberry Park Resort later that night. The highlight of Strawberry Park Resort is the Neo Tudor design of the resort, which is blended perfectly with its breathtaking surrounding. We had steamboat dinner and hot cocoa drink to warm ourselves up!

In the morning, we went for a tour at the resort after our breakfast. There, beautiful flowers and even a strawberry farm, managed by the resort, can be found. The strawberries were then picked by the workers and made into delicious strawberry’ dessert for Jim Thompson Terrace restaurant.

Group with Marie Bark, PR Manager of Strawberry Park Resort. Thanks Marie!

We also visited the fruits and vegetables’ market where we tried the famous fried sweet potato balls, the cherry tomato, the sweet milk corn and the strawberry honey stick. The group also had a chance visit the Bharat Tea plantation. The plantation was vast and the group gets the random idea of how tea was plant and picked.

At Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation

Right after the tour, we made our way back down with the bus back to Ipoh and checked in at Impiana Casuarina Hotel. The hotel is a premier hotel centrally located in Ipoh. The 4-star rating hotel, located at the city centre allows easy access for both business and leisure travelers.

After a sumptous buffet lunch at the Garden Terrace, we visited the Gopeng Rainforest Resort.  Gopeng is a small town located about 18Km south of Ipoh and 16Km north of Kampar in Perak.

The owner, Mr. David Foon treated us to a ‘kampung durian’ feast. The Singaporean was very happy as this is a rare opportunity for them to eat ‘kampung durian’ whilst to visit the resort that is surrounded by nature.

'Kampung Durians'

Gopeng Rainforest Resort also offers various activities which can satisfy the adventure and nature’s lovers such as white water rafting, jungle trekking, Rafflesia trail, etc.  The resort also caters to many teams building activity for corporate team, college students and school children which can widen their scope of knowledge about nature and other moral values such as teamwork.

Before we leave, we also took the chance and visited the waterfall where the white water rafting activity is actually done. The waterfall was magnificent and once again, this was a rare opportunity for the Singaporean to have a view of the beautiful creation of God.

Gopeng waterfall

Of course, we didn’t miss our chance on taking some nice photographs here.

Jonathan, jumping for joy!

Beautiful!

Orang Asli house

The next day, the group had a taste of the famous thing in Ipoh- Ipoh white coffee, of ocurse! We had our typically ‘Ipoh-ians’ breakfast of white coffee, ‘kaya’ toasts, ‘hor fun’, dim sum, egg tart and char kuey teow.

Then, we went for a 45-minutes tour at Gua Tempurung, the limestone hills in the Kinta Valley. The group was amazed by the formation of limestone which has begun over 400 million years ago. However, I would recommend for a longer tour as it is impossible to appreciate and see the cave in just 45 minutes, perhaps we can come here again next time?

For lunch, we were treated by Mr. Yap of Parlo Tours at the award-winning Indulgence Restaurant. Julie Song, the owner and chef at Indulgence welcome us personally. The restaurant also functioned as a  boutique hotel.  Currently, it has 7 rooms (Ildi, Kinnaree, Giulianna, May-Suet, Tzarrah, Beverly, and Qatrynka) ranging from different themes which Julie has been inspired on her visit to other countries.

One of the room

We were certainly indulged by the vast amount of Fusion food served and hospitality by Julie.

Thanks Mr.Yap and Julie!

After lunch, the group then head to the Sultan Azlan Shah airport and was welcomed by Nia, the tame python from the Lost World of Tambun.

With Nia!

This trip has certainly been an enjoyable and wonderful experience for the group before they head back and faced the reality- work!