For six days and five nights, twenty teams drove a total of a thousand kilometers along the southern highways of Peninsular Malaysia for the recently-concluded Malaysia Tourism Hunt 2013. Tourism Malaysia held the event for its second year in time for Visit Malaysia Year 2014. Along with five other Filipinos, I was very lucky to be part of it. Read more…
Our team composed of me, another Filipino blogger Kirk Acebron of Kirk Anatomy, and our two Malaysian friends, Wan of Leisure and Incentive Tours, and Kadir of Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). Since Kirk and I are unable to drive at all, Kadir did the driving on an impressive Proton Preve, the first global model of the Malaysian carmaker.
From Malaysia’s administrative capital of Putrajaya, our team drove through Sepang in Selangor, Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, as well as Muar, Kluang, Nusajaya, and Johor Bahru in Johor. In all stops were challenges that truly tested our mental capabilities and physical endurance. I must say almost all of the tests were no walk in the park, so we had to work hard together and show team spirit all the time.
Going head on with us were teams comprised mostly by members of the media from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei. In the end, the team of Juliana Jamaludin, William Koong, and Salman Ahmad from Malaysia won 4,000 MYR in cash and a Star Cruises trip from Penang to Phuket and back.
The delegates from the Philippines did well overall. Our team finished seventh by number of points, while the team of Edgar Yap of EAZY Traveler landed at the second runner-up spot and the team of RP Ocampo from Philstar.com at sixth place.
The Malaysia Tourism Hunt 2013 was organized alongside a number of private partners to encourage local and foreign tourists to “fly and drive” for their next journeys across Malaysia, in visiting all the attractive destinations the country has to offer throughout.
Watch out for more Malaysia Tourism Hunt 2013 posts! In the meantime, check out the social media buzz about the event by searching #MTH2013 on both Twitter and Instagram.
Next year will be Visit Malaysia Year 2014 with the theme, “Celebrating 1Malaysia Truly Asia.” Visitors can expect a series of year-long special events and activities. For more updates on VMY 2014, check out tourism.gov.my and like Tara Na Sa Malaysia on Facebook.
