Showing posts with label Homestay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homestay. Show all posts

Thursday, October 7, 2010

My Selangor Story - Day 4 - Fun the Sun way

Hi peeps, vote 5 stars for me for Day 4!!! Click here:


Here is a video of what happened in day 4!

Don't miss out on the details and nice pictures below and do visit the sponsors! Learn how to eat a buffet and see what is nice in Sunway!
A Kampung Affair

Ah the fresh air, the sound of the roosters and the kampung sunrise! The little children were already up finding thier own form of entertainment in the peaceful settlement. How about the place I spent my night at? Interestingly enough, It was a nice house, with plenty of room! I had a double bed but sadly, there was still sign of modernisation! See the satellite dish? Yesh, these people are no stranger from satellite TV.

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and do not worry, they have cars!

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Breakfast was served after I did had my morning bath. There was rice, fish, chicken and morning tea! We packed out bags and managed a group photo with my host, En Azizan, his son and his grand children! To the right is Abang Ben! Smile!

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Tips for the photographer: The kampung is surprisingly a good place to get many nature shots! Get the sunrise overlooking the kelapa sawit plantation or the sunset by the sea! There are also many faces and flowers to try your macro! Don't forget that you can also get up close with the Pentax X70!

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Compared to normal DSLR, the shooting range of the X70 (1cm-outer space) is superior! I can attest that any decent lens that can do what this camera can do will cost you in the excess of a few thousand USD! If that doesn't make your jaws drop, I challenge you to find me a mini DSLR that can stand up to the X70!

Bidding farewell to En Azizan, the bloggers assembled back at the place we met where our bus was already waiting. Everyone I talked to shared with me their experience! Some of the bloggers were caught sick, while others learnt how to make the ketupat!

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For me it was a nice experience to come out here into the place where not many people go. The only thing I wish that could make this visit more memorable is to actually spend more time there. From other reviews, I read that you could actually learn many things like kite making and flying, fishing, working the fields, harvesting the crops and also cooking your own traditional rendang OMG! Oh well, this is definitely a destination to visit! But if you prefer the comforts of home, but still yearn for a traditional setting, there are still chalets available next to the water front!


Sunway City

Our next destination takes us south back to the heart of Petaling Jaya where me and Bb first arrived. Our next destination has some connection with Royal Selangor. Yes, Sunway City was nothing more than a tin mine decades ago. In fact, Sunway Lagoon was itself a tin mine.

Next to Sunway University College, lies a reminder of the city's humble beginnings. The main attraction we will visiting today is Sunway Pyramid! Complete with its very own Sphinx, Sunway Pyramid is indeed one of the best places to be in Selangor!
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Located in between 4 highways, the New Pantai Expressway, the Federal Highway, the Kesas Highway and the Damansara Puchong Highway (LDP), Sunway has become a very central location in Selangor.

If you did not already know, Sunway Pyramid is a shopping mall dedicated to high end customers. The facilities are in tip top condition. Hehe, me checking out the gents!
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Inside, there are loads of shops and entertainment outlets including an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, karaeoke, bars, clubs, pubs, Sunway Lagoon and a cineplex!
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Sunway Pyramid is also host to some interesting areas. Best of all, the WHOLE PYRAMID HAS FREE WIFI! Thats hard to beat! In case you get lost:

Main Atrium - Main entrance where you have the Sphinx and the Pyramid
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Ice Rink - Connected to Hotels and many restaurants, back entrance to Sunway Lagoon
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Digital Center - For computers and gizmos
Asian Avenue - View of Sunway Lagoon, Eastern food and shops
Marakesh - Middle East Themed area - Restaurants
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South Entrance - Front entrance to Sunway Lagoon, Interstate Bus
North Entrance - Banks and the Cinema, public bus stop
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East Entrance - Bowling, more restaurants, Karaeoke, Hotels, fountain
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Anyway, if you remember the Genting World Card we got, Babe and I decided to redeem our points for Baskin Robins!

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The other place you can redeem free stuff using your Genting Card is Starbucks and BHP Petrol Stations! 100 point = RM1. The view from Baskin Robins was pure artwork! Right up there is the cinema and arcade!
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Ice Cream! If you can picture it, there we were, Babe and me in the middle of the crowd, feeding each other ice cream and laughing away as we exchanged stares! As we finished our ice cream, we were greeted by the many events that Sunway Pyramid hosts. The first unlikely character to greet us was the Michellin Man!
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Die all you evil petrol pumps! I've got tyre man! Further down the path, there was a hair cutting marathon going on and there were also public make up shows:
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In fact, you will get free make up if you are lucky!  Next up, a waxathon where they will wax you over! An so with that thought, we left in seach for more. Making tracks, we caught up with the other bloggers! Like any good bloggers, we could not resist a photo opportunity! Indeed, do not miss the opportunity to take pictures at the entrance of the pyramid!
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I almost forgot, lunch! Yes, the most important meal of the day, right next to breakfast, dinner, supper, tea and snacks! Okay, Sunway Pyramid is host to many, when I say many I mean more than the fingers and toes on your hands and legs! Lets see, local, westerm, eastern, Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, American, Italian, Spanish you name it! Time to put on the food hunting hat and search for food!


Mantra @ Sunway Pyramid



Blogging is a tiring business and so, in our Sunway Pyramid excapades, we bloggers decided to try out Mantra which is located next to the ice skating rink!
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Besides the beautifully furnished interior, the restaurant has one of the best views of the lagoon and the hotels.
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Lunch is served! Today: a selection of curry, vegetables, steamed rice, and rendang! We enjoyed the traditional buffet just to wash it down with some orange juice!
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Not forgetting dessert!
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The final verdict is:
Food: Its alright, serving local dishes.
View: Great atmosphere overlooking the lagoon

Check in Pyramid Tower


Today, we will be checking into Sunway Tower Suites! (Sigh, no Spa) Anyway, here is how your visit would go: Upon disembarking the bus you will be greeted by the funkiest lobbies:
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Check out the room! Today Dylan will be my roomie! First thing he did was mess up this picture! Here is how the rooms look like before Dylan:
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The first thing about the room I noticed was: no windows!!
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All the facilities you need are already there including fully stocked bath, widescreen TV, hangers, a minibar and the likes.

However, the only thing I did not like about the place was the noise at night due to the air conditioning ducts! Photobucket

Perhaps my ears are over sentitive but it was really annoying to sleep with the background noise!
Other interesting things include the rooms are connected! So you can get a group of friends to join in! The other wierd thing I noticed was soft drinks dispensers in the hallway and ice dispensers... Wonder why? Ah well, time to get some dinner!

Dinner @ Sun and Surf


Here is what bloggers do: Wake up, eat, blog, sleep. Eating bloggers particularly like, second only to blogging! Anyway, after our excapades in Sunway Pyramid, the MSS Top 30 bloggers were treated to a buffet dinner at the Sun and Surf! Located on the ground floor of the Pyramid Hotel and Spa, the public is actually allowed in!


The lights were dimly lit... giving you that romantic feeling... plus it saves electricity. As you enter the restaurant, you will be awed by the amount of food there! Dang... writing this post is already making my mouth water. Oh no... worse, here come the pictures!!

A display of assorted cakes and pastries!

A selection of different flavored Mooncakes just in season! If you did not know, moon cakes are made for the Chinese Mid Autumn festival and is a festive goodie!

Roasted Lamb with biryani rice! Tips to bloggers: This picture was hosted in Picasa. I think photobucket does a better job!

Salad bar, including all the dressing you will ever need.

Fruits including dragon fruit, honey dew, pineapples, water melon and papaya!

STOP HERE!!!
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Okay, after getting my first portion, I noticed that many people do not know how to get the best out of a buffet! First let me point to you that the average human stomach can hold about 4.5 litres while an asian one will hold about 4 litres. Women have even smaller "reserve space" which might be really sexy but not good for buffets! So let me take you on a tip on how to get the most of your buffet line! Find the tips all inserted among the pictures!

Kebab sliced and prepared by an expert chef:

For a healthy meal, get some vegetables and fruits 30 minutes before your main! Uncooked vegetables and fruits actually help you develop your immune system if you actually eat it first rather than last. This is because by the time all the fruits go through the 8 hours in your gut, all the nutrients and proteins would have been oxisied!

Wide varieties of oven baked bread:

Baskets for 5 choices of keropok!

Ease up on the carbs. Carbohydrates like rice, bread and noodles are the ones which will fill you up quickly! Take small portions of this not only to ensure that you don't have excess energy lying around,  but also to allow you to get more out of the buffet!


Sharksfin soup and mushroom soup ready to go!

Get as many kinds of meats as possible! Okay, here is some biology, you immune system and body is built out of 20 different amino acids or "building blocks" if you want to call it! The building blocks become the foundation of your immune system which keep you free from infection and heal your body quickly! For those who do not do biology, a healthy diet allows your body to build defence against cancers!


Seafood including prawns, oyster, and fish!

But not all the 20 building blocks are available in every type of food. Some are found in fish, others in lamb, chicken, duck and different animals that store these building blocks! Get some of those and be promised a healthly life!

Sushi and sashimi!

Next tip, ease off the water. To get more value out of your buffet, drink less water to allow more space! Beer, juice and cocktails are fine!

Besides the well decorated interior and the presentation, the restaurant features and outdoor grill where you can enjoy your meal in the tropical night! Stuff from the grill, lamb, prawns satay, and all sorts of mean including seafood!

Traditional kuih-muih!

Next to get more value out of the buffet, be adventurous, try new food that you do not usually find on the street or at home!

Strawberries that you would not find on the shelves,

Finally dessert was a finely crafted fruit float in a cup!

Also, take your time in a buffet. Eat slowly as the time may allow so that you can digest as you go along!


Finally, enjoy yourself! After all, you have all your friends around! After dinner, the top 30 bloggers decided to play those annoying table games! The highlights which are too lame to explain include the "Telepathy Link", "How many sheep?" and the most annoying one which i just got was the "Black Magic" lame trick. Next time I'll get them back!
The only thing lacking in this place for me was the fact that we only had ice water to drink. Boo... Perhaps the people organising the buffet would be so kind to provide drinks as well. After all, who would want to wash down a good buffet with plain iced water?

Anyway, this post just made me hungry for some dinner! End of day 4! If you want to arrange a visit or for more information on Sunway, do contact:

Adelene Wong
Head - Brand Communications
Sunway city Berhad
adelenew@sunway.com.my
+6 03 5639 8797

Sunway City Berhad
Level 1.2, Menara Sunway, Jalan Lagoon Timur
Bandar Sunway, 46510 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia

www.sunwaycity.com


Also, if you are driving there and need to find the city in the sun, here it is:

View Larger Map

Monday, October 4, 2010

My Selangor Story - Day 3 - Kampung Boy

Vote 5 Stars for Day 3!!! Click here:




Wow, what a wonderful night it was! I sloppily got out of bed and I realized something was different... I wasn't in my room... I was in Genting First World Hotel! Oh Yeah... Day 3 of MSS starts now!Wasting no time, i got up and got ready. A long day lies ahead as you can see in this video!



Breakfast at First World Lounge

Breakfast was at the tallest point in Genting. Situated on the 28th floor, the view was second best in the resort highland. The best view is coming up soon!
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I decided to see what the Pentax X70 can do and I was in awe.
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The First World Lounge is only one of the many places to eat in the world's largest hotel. There is one restaurant on the 8th floor of tower 2 and the big terrace on the 3rd floor. Breakfast was delicious in the private lounge! Eastern and oriental quisines were lined up in a buffet!
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Word of caution: do not eat too much before you descend Genting or you will lose your breakfast faster than you ate it! After breakfast, it was down to the lobby and off we go with Mr Phillip and Ms Amelia sending us off. We even managed a group picture! Smile all you fresh faces!
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Bon voyage to Genting Resorts! Really had a bomb there!
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Pray for Fortune @ Chin Swee Temple

Only a few minutes into our journey down the peak, my eyes caught sight of our next destination. The best view at Genting is supposedly here:
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Down the hill was the majestic Chin Swee Temple where Lim Goh Tong had has vision years ago. Our bus parked by the grand archway that welcomes you in.
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The story goes:
One day while Goh Tong was up in Genting, there was a storm. As a contractor developing the roads up, he and his crew seek shelter in a cave nearby. That night, he a a dream of Chin Swee, a diety from China. In his vision, he was told to develop the area and it would prosper.
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Following his vision he developed genting and made his success there. As a tribute, he built the Chin Swee temple at the very spot he had the dream. Construction took 18 years because of the rocky nature of the area, where most of the temple was built without heavy machinery. To date, the temple has hotels or anyone looking for a more spiritual visit to the highlands and is a popular place for people to garner luck from above.

Lets see, if you did not know, this is a Buddhist Temple, and for any proper temple, it must have 3 things,

1. A pagoda
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2. A statue of Buddha
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3. A Bhodi Tree (The tree that Buddha meditated under)
Hmmm.. did not have time to find it... but it would be interesting to see such a tree grow here. Do tell!

We did have some time to pose around though:



Our visit there was too short indeed. In a matter of minutes, we were in and out of the temple. However, we were lucky that the view from there was unobstructed by the thick clouds. Must go again!

For more information contact:

Amelia Anne Martin
Executive
Public Relations and Communications
Genting Malaysia Berhad
amelia.martin@rwgenting.com
+603 6105 9427

Genting Highlands Resort
69000 Genting Highlands
Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia
www.rwgenting.com

or you can get to Genting by bus from KL or drive there:


View Larger Map


Today, We will be having a more rural experience. We will be heading north west to the shores of Sabah Bernam close to the border of Perak. But first, we took a short visit to the forest!

Kanching Forest Reserve

Welcome to Kanching Forest Reserve. This park, run by Tourism Selangor, has several hiking trails that overlooks the scenic waterfalls.

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Good to be one with nature! Here, the top 30 bloggers took a 10 minute hike up the trail and we immediately recognised the sound of water churning. Just 500m from the carpark, we have reached the base of the waterfalls.
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Here, some of the bloggers prefer taking photos while others prefer just enjoying the ambience.
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Indeed, it was a scenic route that invites you to hone your nature photography skills. A good time to try out the Pentax X70

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Luckily no one was skinny dipping. All kinds of flora and fauna still exist in the pristine forest, albeit the occassional pieces of litter.
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Indeed, Kanching would be a great place to enjoy the cooling waterfall breeze or to dip in after a good hike up the soring waterfalls. It's tall, trust me. After being one with nature, we adjurned to the riverside for lunch. Under the cloudy sky, we enjoyed out lunch with a little bit of sunlight. It was quite stuffy and if there is any thing that could be done, I would recommend having better facilities for people who actually visit the place. Toilets and canteens included!

One very stark problem was the amount of rubbish around and I discovered why after we disposed of our stuff in the bins provided:
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They are many and they are hungry! These monkeys have turned scavengers and were behind the mess in the reserve. The bins should be removed and signs reading "Take your rubbish home" should be in place. That way, the monkeys would not scavange for leftovers and return to the wild whilst keeping the reserve clean.

Time was short and we moved on to our next destination as an afternoon drizzle followed us to the waiting bus.

For more information on Kanching, contact:

Tourism Selangor Sdn Bhd

Address:
Lot P7, Jalan Indah 14/12
Section 14
Shah Alam
Selangor
40000
Malaysia

E-mail: info@tourismselangor
Telephone: +603-5513 2000
Fax: +603-5513-6268
Information: Business Hour: 8.30am - 5.30pm, Monday - Friday

Still free from development, the forest reserve is easily accessible by car.


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Kampung Boy @ Durani Homestay

Driving two hours, the 30 bloggers became witness to the changing of settings. The cityscape transformed plantations to forest and eventually we ended up in the middle of a paddy field! As reached, I could already see a welcoming party for us! We have been expected and we were treated to a selection of traditional kuih-muih and some coconut juice! Yummy!

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After that, there was a traditional performance - the Kuda Kepang - means horse dance - which was performed by the youths of the village.
Man you should have heard the whip snap! Scary!
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Our bloggers even joined in the fun and went to learn how to do it! In my opinion, the reception was great! The only thing that was amiss was the performance after the kuda kepang. It feature four guys behind scary masks and two more in a makeshift tiger suit. I feel that the impression less than pleasing and one should do your best in a performance. Recommended reviewing the tiger thing!

Anyway, we were grouped and assigned to our foster family for the night! Abang Ben, a lecturer at University Teknologi Petronas, and I were assigned
to En Azizan, a retired police officer:

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The crowd disbanded and I was heading to my home for the night!
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Was more modern than I expected but oh well! The inside looks surprisingly cozy. The wooden floors were lined with rugs and the windows were softened by curtains shielding the afternoon light.
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If you did not know, kampung houses are built raised. This allows any flood waters to pass under and it also acts as a natural air conditioner for the house by keeping a reserve of cool air below!

Seeing me interested in photography, En Azizan suggested that we go for sunset at the beach! Why not! It was a 10 minute bike ride from here to the beach!

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At the end was the jetty which fishermen would sail from. There were also chalets at the edge of the water. The sun was fast setting as I got one of the best shots of the trip.

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Heading back, I thought to myself, "Isn't this peaceful? The village, the beach, no civillisation, no traffic jams, no polluted air. I'm a kampung boy for a day and I am enjoying it. The sunset and dinner was served! Could not get any better! Beef rendang! Sorry, I thought it would be rude to take pictures of the food in front of my foster family! Oh well, I enjoyed the meal as I recalled how i got here.


Time to freshen up, kampung style. Don't worry, you still get piece of civillization:


PS. You might need to bring your own toilet paper! Another thing to be aware of:

After dinner, we gathered to see some of the most amazing bugs in the house!

To find out more or to experience the Homestay programme here, contact

Contact : Encik Abdul Rahman Daud
H/P : 6 013 6077 025
Email : doranihomestay@yahoo.com

and here is Kampung Sungai Dorani:

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Fireflies at Kuala Selangor

56 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur lies one of the only places left in Malaysia to see fireflies! In actual fact, fireflies are beetles! These beetles live on the berembang trees which span the river. When the adults come out to mate, they will emit light from their tails to signal potential mates! Wow, one light stand! To actually see the firefles on the river, you need to get on a sampan! Fireflies don't like the noise and the light. I mean would not want a huge human making noise and shining lights on you when you are trying to get it on would you? Off we go to the boats!
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Unfortunately for us, the moon was bright in the sky
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and so only a handful of fireflies were out that night:
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Walau wei! So dark one! With 3 girls on the boat better not touch touch later let Bb smack!

Nonetheless, we were happy that we got to see at least some fireflies!
There is also a visitor center there that teaches you about life as a firefly!
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The centre is well organised and looks clean enough. However, the most obvious thing that is wrong around there is how the jetty is lit up like the brightest firefly in the river. Even with banning construction at the river, the jetty should be darker to attract more fireflies! Also, silence should be observed! We left the place and headed back to our homestay!

In a surprise gesture, out sponsors took us to Satay Hut for a midnight snack!
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Its an okay place so me and Bb decided to take some pictures!
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The satay was amazing! There were so many people that they had two grills!
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For me, I thought it would be a good time to try out the Pentax X70 and it was awesome!
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For more information on fireflies, contact:

Zulkifly bin Samad
Pegawai Pembangunan Mampan
zulkifly@mdks.gov.my
+6 012 285 1103


Majlis Daerah Kuala Selangor
45000 Kuala Selangor,
Selangor Darul Ehsan,
Malaysia
www.mdks.gov.my

and here is where we are!

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Goodnite Peeps! Tomorrow: Free and Easy day!

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