I had a very good night’s sleep in the Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie. In the middle of it, i felt a tap on my shoulder and a voice calling out my name. It was Andi Kus‘. I asked him to wake me up right before he left for the airport so i could say goodbye. It was around 5 am and his flight leaves in about an hour.
Still groggy from having just woken up, and eyes still only half open, i sat up. He came and hugged me in the way that guys hug each other ( warmly but quickly although i must say i remember that he did even this stylishly) as i bid him a safe journey and wished him good luck for everything that lies ahead. We thanked each other, he left his room card on the table and then he was out of the door. For the first time since MySelangorStory 2011 started, i found myself alone again.
I didn’t really sleep after that. I lied in bed thinking about a lot of things. Like how these 5 days absolutely blazed past me so quickly. I had flashbacks of the things i did, many for the first time, and i re-laughed at the funny things that were said as i replayed them in my mind. I really had a fantastic time in MSS 2011 and it was definitely one of the best traveling experiences i’ve ever had. And what’s funny is that it was all really only in my own backyard. Everywhere i’ve been to during MSS is at most 2 hours drive away from my house yet the experience i’ve had was really out of this world.
The iconic 'couple' hahaha i also love that Feeq's laughing in the background
The same can be said i think, for the contestants of MSS 2011. I don’t think i’ve ever met such a warm, friendly, easy going and fun loving bunch of random people. Every one of them is ‘pelik sikit’ or unique in their own way and when i think back of their antics i can’t help but laugh fondly. From the iconic scandal going on between Bella and Zaid, to Dwi Andi‘s randomly breaking into dance/song, to Daniel‘s bunny hops while rappeling, to Andi Kus‘ rockstar poses, to Rizma‘s incredibly infectious laughter, to jokes about being’s Hijrah best friend only within a certain radius, to Suzan‘s colourful clothes and matching smile.. the list really is quite a lengthy one. Even now, a week after MSS has passed, the madness of fun and laughter still continues online through facebook and twitter as we share our photos from the trip and our rush to meet the blogging deadline (which is today!). What’s also amazing and probably less apparent is that within the madness, there is a lot of love and support for each other. When some of the bloggers are feeling down and close to giving up on meeting the deadline, the rest give support and tips to help them cope. Photos and videos are shared freely for use in each other’s blogs as long as credit is given where it’s due. In fact, if you didn’t know it, you would never guess that this was a competition. But then again, maybe it isn’t so surprising. I mean these people signed up for the journey, not the end result. After all, the actual prizes for MSS has never been announced, not even now. I wonder if that’s what the MSS organisers had in mind when they decided to keep the prizes secret.
Insane(ly fun) people
My aim for this competition is to produce blog entries that does justice to the wonderful time i’ve had in MSS 2011 while visiting the many treasure of Selangor. To be completely honest, i don’t really care if i win anything at all. And that’s not just loser talk. I really do feel like i’ve already gotten so much through the experience that wanting anything else or more would just make me feel greedy. I’ve done things i’ve never done before, seen places i’d otherwise never see, ate suuch gooood food, made friendships with wonderful people, established links with other bloggers and travelers that are actually fun to be with, learnt about other cultures and so much more. No, i’ve already won, just like the other 23 bloggers. So like i said, my goal for making these, let’s see.. 13 blog posts is just to make justice to the MSS experience. To accurately tell and express a great story that happened to me. I’m not sure i have done that just yet really but these really are the best that i could do given the deadline and having to juggle that with office work. Hopefully, if i have time, i’ll continue to update and add to these stories from time to time. It’ll give me a chance to relive them again anyways 
I guess, there’s nothing left to say but goodbye for now and thanks. But what a long list of people to thank there is so i’m just going to make a general one here. A milennia of thanks goes to Tourism Selangor and Horizons Communications for taking us bloggers seriously and taking us on this unforgettable trip. Also thank you for taking care of us and our needs throughout the tour. I know it’s not easy. Thank you to all the sponsors, Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur Glenmarie, Genting Awana Hotel, Golden Palm Tree Resort and Spa, Firefly, The Mix and The Cube. And most of all thanks to every MSS contestant for your kind friendship. I hope that we will continue keeping in touch and that this is just the beginning of something much greater for us all as friends, bloggers and travelers.
- Deepest thanks to the organisers & all the sponsors involved !
On a more personal level, i’d like to thank my old friend, Dian for inviting me to join MSS 2011 in the first place. I was quite tempted to after seeing the fun adventures she had in her blog last year but i never would have joined if she didn’t push me to. But aside from that, i want to thank her for really just being Dian. They really should rename that TV show to Everybody Loves Dian, because seriously, i’m sure everybody does. She is always full of spirit and positive energy that you would have to be quite an evil deity to dislike her. How nice is Dian ? She went through the whole week after MSS checking each entry from each of our blogs for spelling errors, broken links etc. Assuming all 24 bloggers make 10 posts each, that’s 240 posts ! She even offered to give wake up calls to bloggers who needed to nap in the middle of blogging when more than half of the bloggers are overseas. There aren’t many girls out there like Dian i think. Thanks Dian for taking care of and continously inspiring all of us, during and after MSS, when you could have so easily not cared and gotten a lot more sleep hahaha Thanks for being such a great part of our story.
Last but not least, a special thanks goes out to my roommate turned best friend Hijrah Saputra. It always takes me a while to warm up to people but with Hijrah it was very easy because he is such a nice guy. There’s a cool warmness to Hijrah i don’t see in a lot of people. He opens up to you in such a way that you just have to reciprocate and then you just bond. I never realised it until Dian said it, but it really was Hijrah that helped me to have such a great time at MSS. When he persuaded me to go kayaking with him that morning, it built my confidence to try and do everything else from sailing, to biking, to rappeling, to dancing and so on. He was even seriously offering to teach me to swim that very morning after the kayak actually and the only reason we didn’t was because they had a ‘swimsuits only’ policy at the pool. But what that really shows is the friendly and helpful nature of Hijrah since at that time we’ve only really known each other for less than 12 hours. What’s more, our small and silly jokes about being best friends, being ‘lebai’ and ‘pelik sikit’ and Sudirman’s ‘Balik Kampung’ kept my spirits up throughout MSS. I really was very lucky to make such a great friend so thank you very much Hijrah and i hope that the best friend bond will always remain regardless of the radius this time. Hope to meet up with you again soon either in Sabang or Kuala Lumpur.
So that’s it then. All entries finished. If you’ve read them all, thanks to you too and sorry for being so draggy or wordy. But i hope you liked the story. The story so far anyway .. Till next time you guys 
Image courtesy of Dian
