MySelangor Story| Day 2 - Royal Selangor + Genting Highlands

Day 2!

(vote here!!)

*ringgggggggggg*

Wake up call at 6.45am >.<

Picks up the phone and left the recorder at the side.

*rings again for another 1-2 minutes*

@#$#%#

Yes, that was the start of my day after me going to bed at 3.45am! Why did I sleep so late? Cause I was busy selecting pictures to upload

Thankfully for most of us, we got some shut-eye time as we made our way from Shah Alam to the Royal Selangor Visitors Center in Setapak Jaya.

Well, for you guys living in KL area, I highly recommend you guys to pay a visit to the centre not only because admission is FREE *really la, don’t need to ask again* but also because it’s a really cool place for you to learn more about the pewter industry.

The staff of the Royal Selangor Visitors Center are extremely nice and brought us around the place while patiently explaining the facts to us. *royal treatment wehh :D*

Employees who've worked with Royal Selangor for more than 5 years get to have their hand prints hung on the walls of the visitor center :)

I would say we’re a little "unfortunate" as we didn’t get much time to walk around the all of the centre as we were running short of time. So if you guys do visit the place, take your time and walk to your hearts’ content :)

Below is an extract taken from the official website Royal Selangor Visitors Center indicating the many sights to be visited.

"The tour begins at the Gallery. Learn about the company's pioneering past and its transformation to a world-class company. Its fascinating Pewter Museum and astonishing two-storey high replica of the Petronas Twin Towers created out of 7,062 pewter tankards will delight you. To further excite your senses, there are interactive exhibits at the Chamber of Chimes, Hall of Finishes and Giant Weighing Scale.

The Factory Tour shows you live, the different pewter production processes - casting, filing, polishing, soldering, hammering and engraving, as well as the intricacies of making Selberan's fine jewellery.

The tour ends at the Retail Store where a wide selection of Royal Selangor pewter, sterling silver by Comyns and precious jewellery by Selberan can be purchased."

I know I lack pictures of the place, so to those who are really interested in seeing more pictures you can view it on their facebook page here.

The best part of the whole visit in Royal Selangor has got to be the School of Hard Knocks!

Hard Knocks?

Yes, it’s a half an hour workshop in pewter-smithing whereby you get to knock the hell out of the pewter sheet given to us! *note: this one, is NOT free. There's a charge of RM50 for the whole experience where you get to look sexy in an apron and make to your own pewter bowl, or if you’re not as skillful as me, you’ll end up with a distorted saucer, at the very least. Lol :P*

The starting material:

A flat piece of pewter sheet for you to emblem your initials on it.

WY for Wen Yi^^

Step 1:

Knock the hell out of the sheet using the curves on side 1 of the wooden block as a guide.

Results from Step 1 gives you this shallow saucer-like thing.

Step 2:

Knock MORE on side 2, the deeper side of the wooden block till you get this!

Me and Spectre with our final product!

After the completion of my masterpiece: a stylish pewter bowl with the initials WY below it (eh, don’t play play okay, my bowl can be used for meals!) we were treated to light desserts served at the Royal Selangor Visitor’s Center Café, and of course sponsored by Royal Selangor themselves.

The café’s cheesecake was AMAZING! It melted in my mouth! *nyam nyam*

I really like the cheesecake sio much so that I joined their facebook page[here] LOL~

Owh, and we got certificates for completing the School of Hard Knocks. *whee*

The certs were given out by:

This sweet old lady in a pinkish dress.

Guess who is she???

She's none other than

...............

..........

......

....

..

The grand-daughter of Royal Selangor’s founder, Yong Koon!!

She is a sweet old lady who passionately told us the story of the Melon teapot. The story goes a little like this.

There was this young man, who was born in an era in Malaya where war wasn’t uncommon. One fine day as he was walking, he saw a teapot on the ground and thus bent down to pick it up. Little did the young man know, that this action saved his life. For at the moment he bent, a shrapnel flew across his head. Coincidence? I think not. Not especially when a little action saved a life of a human being, right?

What makes this teapot so special is the fact that it was beneath it was the seal of Royal Selangor

This indicates that the teapot is a work by Royal Selangor almost a 100 years ago! Sweet story isn’t it?

Once again, I would like to thank Royal Selangor Visitors Center., the official souvenir shop for MySelangor Story.

For details on how to get to the Royal Selangor Visitors Center click here.

Address:

#4 Jalan Usahawan Enam, Setapak Jaya

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 53300

Alternatively, you can visit the official website for Royal Selangor or join them on facebook and twitter.

***************************************************

Up to Genting Highlands

After that we were rushed all the way up to Genting Highlands for lunch with YB Elizabeth Wong, Selangor’s EXCO for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and Environment. * Well, I know that some of you may associate her with her past political scandal, but that’s another issue all together, and as you know, me no like politics :P So hush hush*

YB Elizabeth Wong, Selangor’s EXCO for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and Environment.

I personally think that the organizers did a great job in getting a VVIP like YB Elizabeth Wong to grace our event! Plus, the great team from Resorts World Genting, the official Resort for the MySelangor Story, put up a great work in hosting the bloggers for My Selangor Story.

Okay, you guys must be wondering why on earth are the bloggers of the MySELANGOR Story sent up to Genting Highlands, PAHANG (which for my lovely non-malaysian friends like Myke and James, is another state all together)?

I had the same thought as well, and figured to myself

"Oh, it’s because Resorts World Genting are one of the main sponsors for the MSS event (Resorts World Genting is sponsoring RM25 000 worth of prizes to MSS!!) so yea, it’s logical that we the bloggers need to be here to blog about Genting.”

But after listening to the welcome speech by Dato Anthony Yeo, Senior Vice President of PR & Communications Genting Malaysia Berhad.

I realized that 20% of Genting Highlands belongs to Selangor (2461acres) while the remainder 80% (8157acres) belongs to the state of Pahang. So in other words, Genting Resorts pay taxes to the state of Selangor too! So Genting is technically PART of SELANGOR :P

*Random shot of myself while listening to the talk.

I was still listening to the talk okay~~ this is called multi-tasking >.<*

Once the formalities were done with, we savored the sumptuous lunch by Coffee Terrace at the lobby of Genting Hotel. *food food food!!! >.<*

Starters: Grilled Chicken and Beef Satay

Soup Kambing *slurrps*

Main:

Sayur Lodeh, Lamb Masal, Chicken Tandoori, Venison Italian Stew, Kong Po Squid, Deep Fried Beancurd Thai Chilli Sauce & Stir Fried Assam Fish

Dessert:

Assorted French Pastries Platter

(I only took this cause I was too full for desserts in the end >.<)

After completing our lunch we were given a short tour to the Visitors’ Galleria, located at Genting Hotel, whereby visitors can learn more about the founder of Genting, YB Lim Goh Tong, and how Genting became what it is today through pictures exhibited in the Galleria.

We, the MySelangor Story bloggers, were given something extra, a short presentation by Mr. Philip, about Resorts World Genting. Basically the talk was all about the development of Genting Highlands. I learned a lot about Resorts World Genting (loads of facts & figures were given out, so much that if I wrote it all down you'd be sleeping right now >.<)

So I shall give you what I think is the most interesting fact from the whole presentation:

Did you know that First World Hotel, the brightly coloured three-star hotel, is the LARGEST hotel in the WORLD! Yes…I was kinda amazed especially when I found out that First World Hotel has a shocking total of 6118 rooms!!

*shocked or not??*

**hmm..somehow wiki says this instead:

"It was the largest hotel in the world until The Palazzo, an expansion of The Venetian in LasVegas was opened in January 2008." **

Okay, I am starting to feel that I am writing a report for the trip, instead of…well..just blogging. :S ( Let me know if this style bores you, because I would seriously freak out if someone tells me they fell asleep reading my post *sobs*)

Now, here’s the best part of the day!!!

I got a SUPERIOR DELUXE ROOM with two super single beds, ALL to MYSELF! Lol!

Not only that, I’ve got a rather nice view of Genting Resort, as opposed to the usual view of windows when I stayed in the standard room in First World Hotel.

I am literally blown away at the extent of hospitability given by Resorts World Genting.

I also liked this bit about First World Hotel:

You CAN drink water straight from the tap!!! *reminds me of Glasgow :'( *

And owh, Resorts World Genting gave us all these stuff as well.

-> A really thick and heavy book called the Splendour of Genting.

-> Several pamphlets of coming events (e.g. Fong Fei Fei Concert coming 20th Nov 2010)

-> Genting’s own in-house magazine: Berita Genting.

Those are peanuts compared to this next gift….

the best present from Genting to the MySelangor Story bloggers is a

-> RM100 prepaid Holiday Card by Resorts World Genting

+

-> 10000 World Points(WP) in the World Card, which can be redeemed for Rm100.

In other words, each blogger received RM200 to spend in Genting itself! *woots*

As we were also given vouchers for a free welcome drink at the Patio, we headed down, and treated ourselves to a refreshing glass of fruit punch :)

*The brightly colored fruit punch in the fancy glass*

This was then followed by us “lepak-ing” or loitering at the indoor First World Plaza as it was drizzling outside.

Fancy light decorations around First World Plaza in conjunction of the chinese Mooncake Festival :)

But once the weather cleared, we headed to the Outdoor theme park.

Look at me, I'm wayyyy above the minimum height for rides >.<

** Matahari **

*TheFlying Coaster*

(RM10 charge. Not included in the standard outdoor theme park ticket)

I took this ride when I visited Genting in 2004. It’s really cool as you get to lie down, and feel like superman flying through the air!

There are 30 rides and attractions in the outdoor park, but by the time we were in the park, we only had half an hour left in the park as it closes at 7pm. So we rushed, and I managed to get on three rides!

*Pirates Train*

The first ride that we took was Cyclone.

That's Thristan and MsXeroz on Cyclone!

I took a video of me, Jac, Spectre and Feeq on the ride, and it’s very noisy. Lol. Plus my face looks like a big fat obese lady’s face >.<>

Next was the Spinner!

I’ve taken this ride every single time I visited the outdoor theme park and I can never get bored of it. It’s just one of those rides that everyone, young or old can enjoy. To feel the cooling wind on ur skin as the seats spin mid-air, is just refreshing :)

The final ride was Corkscrew with one complete 360 degree loop! This has to be my top pick for adrenaline rush in the outdoor theme park behind Space Shot (used to be Sollero Shot)!

A pic of Jing Yi (a great blogger who blogs in chinese! Plus she was the only girl other than myself who had the guts to sit for Corkscrew!) and Denise.

We then had dinner at Hou Mei Restaurant using the credit that was given to us i.e FREE dinner. Lol~

For night time entertainment (Club?? No lah…it’s something better!) Genting sponsored us VIP seats for the performance Dazzle!! We got front seats for the show and were given special privileges to take pictures while the performance goes on, which is normally prohibited at all costs. *so proud of being in this contest..lol*

Dazzle is actually made up of several short performances. The show started off with the act called Unbelievable Sculptures by Jerome Murat *he’s really cute in person~ hottie alert :p*

Then there were 14 HOT dancers clad in sexy outfits warming up the stage.

I really enjoyed the Mesmerizing Magic show by Ernesto Planas, who is a master in getting umbrellas to appear magically! Really entertaining!

I also loved the Presto Quick Change! The lady blew my mind when she managed to change her outfit in less than 5s!!

There was also an act called the invisible man, performed by Sonny Fontana, which I found to be absolutely lame and boring. Thankfully, Mr Sonny has other tricks up his sleeves, or in this case, he can work magic with his hands by forming hand shadow illusions!

So once again, thank you to Resorts World Genting

You guys can join their facebook group here

And owh, the picture album of the MySelangor Story blogger's visit to Genting Highlands can also be viewed here! *Go on and spot me in the pictures :D*

Alternatively you can read their blog here.

More details on how to reach Genting Highlands can be found here.

I seriously feel like a journalist now. LOL~

Anyways, PLEASE vote for me here^^




Stay tuned for Day 3~~

XOXO

Wen Yi