Sunway Memories with AMBP

Selamat Hari Raya! Hope you have had a nice week of rendang, ketupat, kuih and plenty of ang pow! Those who own events businesses will realize that the Ramadhan month tends to be quieter than most months so we creative types (as if!) usually have more time on our hands than we would like. We're also more desperate to make an income and will think of all kinds of ways to do this. I decided that I would teach craft lessons to kids and start hand-painting tea sets. But that's another story!

As I was flipping through the Star one day, I came across the column mentioning a Sunway Memories photography contest where a day trip to Sunway Lagoon, and a 2D/1N excursion to Sunway Lost World of Tambun would be organized by the All Malaysian Blog Project (AMBP) and Sunway Group. There was also and an opportunity to be a Travel Ambassador for AMBP. I quickly pulled out the page and applied for both opportunities once my hubby could spare me his laptop (our land line and Streamyx was disconnected as we were moving and TM "efficiently" reconnected us to cyberspace after 2.5 weeks and daily reminders).

I got the first good news in an e-mail from Andy of AMBP stating that I made it for the Sunway Lagoon tour hence qualifying me to be a part of the photography contest (and a chance to win prizes worth RM140,000!). Yippee! We were to meet at 9.30am on 26th September at the Surf Beach Entrance, Sunway Lagoon Water Park.

Me being afraid that I would get stuck on the Federal Highway during rush hour, left the house at 8am on that day only to find an unbelievably clear highway and reaching Sunway at 8.45am. I went to the bank, did my thing and still had 40 minutes to spare so I slowly made my way to the meeting point.

No welcome committee was there until 9.40am. As photographers trickled in, the ones who arrived earlier started mingling and getting to know each other. We were pretty anxious to start the tour as the grey skies weren't very encouraging. We were ushered to the Zazu Beach restaurant for the mandatory welcome speech. Next up was a Photography Workshop by Shamshahrin Shamsudin, a veteran photo journalist whose works have appeared in Herald Tribune, the local papers and such. Unfortunately, the workshop turned out to be us (about 20 of us) viewing his slideshow of photographs for 30 minutes due to his inability to talk as he was fasting. Poor guy. Lucky thing, the rest of us who were also fasting were able to yap the rest of the day!


After the "workshop" ended at about 11.30am, we were brought around Sunway Lagoon where we were shown the World of Adventure, Wilk Wild West, Waters of Africa, the Wildlife Interactive Zoo, Surf Beach and a glimpse of the Extreme Park. I liked the Interactive Zoo the best as I love animals much more compared to rollercoasters and water rides.

On the left, is the "cowboy" indicating we had reached the Wild Wild West.














The "interactive" iguana

The very "kecoh" bird which kept rushing up and down the slope for any photo opportunity!

After lunch, we were brought on a tour around Sunway Pyramid hotel. The soft-spoken staff (we could hardly hear them) must have been nervous bringing so many of us around. It was like bringing kids on tour as as every single thing would capture our photography attention delaying the speed of the tour. They finally rid of us at about 3pm when we were then very well treated by the Sunway Pyramid Customer Service staff at the Thai Thai restaurant. The non-Muslims had a scrumptious tea session while the Muslims were given vouchers. After a short brief about the newly renovated Sunway Pyramid with their many, many nice restaurants, fashion outlets and interesting decor influenced by moorish and Egyptian elements, we were then shown the various services not found in most malls eg the automated wheelchair service for the elderly and disabled and the very comfortable Baby room. For those who have visited the mall, you would surely have noticed that in the parking lot, each bay has an individual light which indicates whether a bay is taken up or not thanks to the red (bay taken) or green (bay available) light which you can see from a distance. Talking about lights, Sunway Pyramid and the hotel had many interesting lights and ceiling decor in their premises!

On the right, is a piece of art found in the Thai Thai restaurant. The huge "table lamp" on the left was also placed in the restaurant.

As we were about to end the tour, one of the customer services suddenly zipped away when she noticed a man and his family looking lost at a stairwell. She immediately assisted them and they gratefully made their way to their destination. Now THAT's what I call customer service. She was also very knowledgeable about all aspects of the mall and had her spirits up the whole way. You know how some customer services agents ie HP, Astro and TM read from a script? Well, she was completely natural and professional. Kudos to Sunway for hiring such a fine example of a good employee!

The photos I took that day turned out satisfactory so hopefully we'll get another chance (preferably during a weekend when there's more people) to take better photos. Hey, it won't hurt to win some prizes!