SELANGOR, MALAYSIA – Exploring the popular destinations in Selangor , one of the 13 estates in Malaysia, will never be more exciting without celebrities like music icon Jim Paredes joining the adventure.
Paredes of the popular 70s music group, the Apo Hiking Society, and former child actor Charles “Chuckie” Dreyfus, now a travel blogger, were among the 15 journalists, bloggers, and lifestyle columnists invited by Selangor Tourism and AirAsia Zest to a three-day familiarization trip in Selangor during the weekend.
At 7:30 a.m. last Friday, April 25, the group flew in to Malaysia from Manila via AirAsia Zest, a low-cost carrier based in the Philippines.
(AirAsia Zest flies daily from Manila to Kota Kinabalu; twice daily from Manila to Kuala Lumpur and four times a week from Kalibo to Kuala Lumpur. Starting July this year, the airline will also fly from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur via Malaysia AirAsia.)
Saad Mahsah, product development manager of Tourism Selangor, welcomed the visitors, including this reporter, when the plane arrived at the Kuala Lumpur LCC terminal past 11 a.m..
Wasting no time, the group, on board a tourist bus, went directly to its first stop, the Sultan Alam Shah Museum, to take a peek at the history of Selangor.
On the way to the museum from the airport, Raj, the tour guide, prepared the guests for heavy traffic as it was the day and time when men in Malaysia trooped to mosques to pray.
To keep the attention of the group away from the traffic, Raj started to tell stories about Selangor and its people, pointing at every historic establishment that the guests could see from the window of the bus.
The popular Blue Mosque was the first sight that greeted the group when it reached the museum, which was established in 1887.
“Exhibits at the Sultan Alam Shah Museum portray the historical aspects of culture, arts and the natural environment in Selangor,” said a description outside the museum.
“It is hoped that the museum institution would play an important role in preserving Selangor’s rich cultural heritage and cultivate a sense of devotion among its people,” it further said.
Most of the exhibits in the museum used dioramas to depict the significant stories of Selangor—one portrays how a sultan, with the help of 2000 followers, staged a night attack on the Dutch in 1785 to recapture Bukit Malawati and another depicts a rubber estate during the British colonial era of the 18th Century.
One of the exhibits that caught the attention of the guests was the portrayal of “Bersanding” or the “sitting-in-state” ceremony, which is described as the “climax of the marriage ceremony.”
According to the short brief description of Bersanding, marriage is considered consummated only on its fourth night.
“At nightfall, the bride is clad in white. The bed is covered with white bed-spread, and the pillow is encased in white,” it says.
“On the next day, the bridegroom shows the ‘mak andam,’ a while cloth stained red as a sign of her wife’s pre-marital virginity. After that, the ’mak andam’ shows the handkerchief to the groom’s family. With this then, the marriage is considered complete.”
After exploring the museum, the group went to the Blue Mosque. Unfortunately, the guests could not enter the mosque and had to appreciate its beauty from the outside.
It was already about sunset when the group checked in a hotel in Shah Alam, the state capital of Selangor, for a nap. At around 9pm, the group went out to have dinner before proceeding to the latest attractions in town.
I-City is the third and last stop of the group on its first day in Selangor.
The 72-acre theme park developed by I-Berhard was located along the Federal Highway. Its tourism component boasts four main themed attractions: City of Digital Lights with over 1 million LED lightscapes and outdoor theme park rides; SnoWalk, a 50,000 square-feet Arctic environment below 5 degrees Celsius; WaterWorld, featuring the first tornado ride in Southeast Asia; and FunWorld (for family-oriented activities and games).
FunWorld’s main features are Malaysia’s first Trick Art Museum, and the Red Carpet, the country’s first interactive All-Star wax museum.
Because of the lateness of the hour, however, the group managed to experience only some of the attractions like the Trick Art Museum, the Red Carpet, the SnoWalk, and the House of Horror.
Still tired and sleepy from the museum and i-City tours, the group had to wake up early morning the following day for a more exhausting but exciting adventure – the jungle trekking and a canopy walk.
It was a long walk and rocky steps in the jungle before the group reached the 150 meters canopy walkway. They had to walk another 15 to 20 minutes to finish the trek.
After eating its late lunch, the group immediately proceeded to Bukit Malawati, which is located in a coastal town of Kuala Selangor. A tractor train carries visitors to the top where the lighthouse is located and a number of monkeys are fed by the tourists with string beans.
From Bukit Malawati, the group had dinner and travelled again to another popular destination in the area, the Firefly Park.
To watch the fireflies, tourists have to pay 50 ringgit to ride a boat, which can accommodate up to four persons only.
The last stop of the group for its second day in the estate was at the Homestay Sungai Sireh, where the group spent a night. (Please see previous story: Malaysians’ rule of thumb: Respect very important)
At the age of 62, Paredes braved the heat of the sun to enjoy the jungle trekking and canopy walk, as well as the visits to a vegetable farm and a rice field as part of the homestay program.
The long walk in the jungle and the tiring tours of the museum and theme park also did not dampen his energy. During lunch time or dinner, Paredes would talk about almost everything under the sun—his love for music and sometimes even the latest buzz in politics.
He has also never lost his humor—and his charm that women whether at the airport or inside the plane would approach him to have a picture with him.
A journalist, for instance, noted, how a female immigration officer at the airport giggled when she realized that she’s in front of the music icon, processing his documents.
Even the female staff of the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur could not help but express their admiration to the singer/song-writer especially when he sang the popular song of his group, “Panalangin” while playing the piano during a simple dinner prepared at the embassy for its guests.
Once he held the mic, there was no stopping Paredes as he sang his own music he brought on his phone.
“It’s my life” – his last song in a medley he performed for the group and embassy staff – says it all about the musician.
“I wanna write a song, I wanna sing what I want to sing,” Paredes later told some journalists after his impromptu performance at the embassy, which capped the three-day adventure in Selangor.
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