Malaysia: My Selangor Story 2013 (01) - Let the Adventure Begins!

As some of you might have known, I was recently selected to be among the top 20 bloggers for My Selangor Story 2013 programme held by Tourism Selangor, a tourism body for Selangor, one of the 13 states in Malaysia.

The programme is one of the initiatives by Tourism Selangor to promote "Selangor's cultural diversity and rich tourism resource to travellers around the world" by engaging selected bloggers to compete and write about their personal experience following an all expenses paid 5-day trip around Selangor. I understand that they have at least a couple of MSS programmes targeting different markets but the one that I participated in was opened to bloggers who are residents of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore only.

For 2013 programme, 4 of the top 20 bloggers are from Malaysia while the rest are from Indonesia. They are:

Malaysia
01. Engku Nurul Huda Binti Engku Azman @ Huda
02. Farah Nadiah binti Zainudin @ Farah
03. Umadevi Vengdesh @ Devi
04. Yours truly :-)

Indonesia
05. Andika Setiawan @ Dicko
06. Citra Rahman @ Citra
07. Hijrah Saputra @ Hijrah
08. Husni Fahrizal @ Husni
09. Muhammad Asy Syauqie @ Syauqie
10. Ridha Yusardi @ Ridha
11. Sri Wulan Aprlia @ Wulan
12. Helga Indra Rukmana @ Helha
13. Marintan @ Intan
14. Rika Yudani @ Rika
15. Kasri
16. Muhammad Beni Saputra @ Beni
17. Andi Kusmianto @ Kus
18. Erick Reagan Margayudha Irana Akbar @ Ericka
19. Mujtahid @ Tahid
20. Winny Alna Marlina @ Winny

The programme started on Friday 25th January with the arrivals of participants at Premiere Hotel in Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang, Selangor, in the evening. It was the beginning of a 5-day tour around the state of Selangor, full with excitement and packed with adventures from the first thing in the morning right to late at night, sometimes well past midnight. For the next 4 days, the organiser had arranged the following itinerary for us:

Itinerary	5 Days and 4 Nights
Day 1	Klang + Arrive in Klang in the evening + Visit Medan Muara Ikan Bakar, Tanjung Harapan, Klang after dinner + Hotel: Premiere Hotel, Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang [ Check rates & availability ]
Day 2	Klang/ Sunway/ Kuala Lumpur + Klang Heritage Tour in the morning + Depart for Sunway Lagoon Waterpark in the afternoon + Depart for hotel in Kuala Lumpur in late afternoon + Briefing on AstuteXperience at hotel + Visit Petaling Street (Chinatown) + Hotel: Arenaa Star Luxury Hotel, Kuala Lumpur  [ Check rates & availability ]
Day 3	Batu Caves/ Sepang + Visit Batu Caves early morning for Thaipusam celebration + Depart for Sepang for hotel in the afternoon + Hotel: Golden Palm Tree Iconic Resort & Spa, Sepang [ Check rates & availability ]
Day 4	Sepang/ Kuala Selangor/ Kuala Lumpur + Yoga, cyclying at resort in the morning + Depart for Kuala Selangor in the afternoon + Visit Bukit Melawati + Depart for Pasir Penampang for dinner at River View Restaurant, Kuala Selangor + Depart for Kampung Kuantan for firefly watching + Depart for Kuala Lumpur for hotel in the evening + Hotel: Vivatel, Kuala Lumpur [ Check rates & availability ]
Day 5	Kuala Lumpur/ Sepang + Visit Kenanga Wholesale City in the morning + Depart for LCCT Airport.

Over the next couple of days I would be writing about activities that we have done, places that we went to, as well as reviews of the hotels that we stayed at throughout the programme. In the meantime however, here are a few photos of some of the things that we did during My Selangor Stay 2013.

We visited a few old and historical temples...

We ate and ate and ate lots of delicious food...

We joined hundreds of thousands Hindu devotees (and thousands of tourists) at Batu Caves on Thaipusam Day...

We relaxed (or did we? ;-) ) at some of the coolest hotels and resorts...

We cycled around villages and, thanks to a yoga session, we managed to jump for photos...

We also played with silver-leaf monkeys and their babies...

And yes, we ate some more with some cool backdrop...

Would like to read more about what we did? Watch this space ;-)

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