Visit of European friends to Malaysia

Recently there were 35 people from Europe have visited Malaysia. The majority were from our HQ (Germany), 6 from our sister company in Switzerland and 4 from our sister company in Italy. This is the biggest tour event organized by our HQ for all the European plants. They have chosen Malaysia to be their destination. The itinerary included 4 nights in Langkawi at Frangipani Resort and Spa, one night at Strawberry Park Resort Cameron Highlands and 5 nights at Grand Millennium Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

I was lucky to be chosen by my boss to accompany the group to Langkawi and Cameron Highlands. Idayu has been allowed to come with me the join the tour. We met our European friends when they arrived KLIA on 22 May 2008 morning. Then we took the flight at 8:30 am to Langkawi together with them. A tour guide from Holiday Tours & Travel Sdn Bhd already waiting for us when we arrived Langkawi airport.

The leader from Germany for this group was Mr Christoph Esser. He came with his wife, Mrs Mahnaz Esser. They were both very friendly and so nice. There's also Mrs Petra Schmidt. Also Mr Mittermair and his wife Mrs Traudl Mittermair. They became good friends to me and Idayu. They enjoyed the stopover at the rubber estate, seeing the normal life of Malay kampung pasar malam or night market. The got the chance to see the local fruits like rambutan, durian, mangoesteen etc.

Treasure Hunt 2007 to Malacca

On Saturday 8 Sept 2007 recently, the sports club at my office (KSSE) had organized a treasure hunt to Malacca. This is the 3rd treasure hunt for club. The committee work together with our event consultant FG Network Consultancy Sdn Bhd. They can be contacted through www.fgnc.com.my. Our company has engaged them a few times for our events and the results were also good.

Twenty four cars flagged off from Elektrisola in Janda Baik at 8:12 am. My car was the first to be flagged off because I arrived so early that morning so I have to be the first in line. My team members were Moorthy, Idayu and Hana. We get Moorthy's expertise to drive, I was the navigator and Idayu and Hana were reading the questions. This is the first time for Hana to join a treasure hunt. But not bad for her, she's quite alert on the clues. Moorthy is the experienced driver. Idayu also was always quick to absorb the clues and get the answers. I sometimes was lost with the tulips to navigate the route for our team. But we have had a good team spirit.

We have to take the old road to Malacca. We have to go through Tampin and all the kampung area. It's nice to see the villages. But we spent too much time in Tampin looking for four answers that was close together. It was hot and finally we got headache due to walking under the hot sun. And we could not find the exact answers. Only two confirm answers, the other one we guessed and another one we just left blank.

Finally we arrived at Putri Resort, Ayer Keroh, Malacca around 4:25 pm. We were a few minutes late and three points have been deducted as penalty for being late. We should arrive there by 4:12 pm in order to be on time (8 hours was given to complete the hunt).

All participants gathered at the ballroom for dinner and questions and answers presentation by Mr Baskaran and his teams. We did not expect much for our team, which we named as Spongy Orange (because our t-shirts is orange this year). During the presentation, we found that our team made only five mistakes out of 35 questions. But we did not get any treasure - the two items that we bought was not right. The other 3 questions for the treasure, we could not find the answers. But to our surprise, Spongy Orange was in the top ten. We managed to get no. 6th and won RM500.00 cash! That's not bad. 1st prize is RM2,000.0 cash. It's always nice to join a treasure hunt because the tricky questions can re-charge your mind.

We spent a night at Malacca and the next day after breakfast, we went to A'Famosa for some pictures. I've been to Malacca many times already but I don't know where are all the old pictures taken in Malacca. This time I'll try to keep the photos properly.