Treasure Hunters Equipped With Tech-Gadgets

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- The National Press Club (NPC)-Celcom Visit Perak Treasure Hunt 2012 was flagged-off here on Saturday with each participating team equipped with tech-gadgets in the form of Huawei MediaPads and Celcom Broadband SIM cards to assist them during the hunt. NPC President Mokhtar Hussain said the latest communication devices would assist treasure hunters surf the Internet for answers to clues. "Through this programme, we will also help encourage domestic tourism especially with this year being Visit Perak year," he told Bernama after flagging-off the 82 cars involved at Menara Celcom, Jalan Semarak, here. Also present were Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Editor-in-Chief Datuk Yong Soo Heong, NPC vice-president Muharyani Othman and Organising Chairman M. Govind Nair. Some 300 participants are involved in the treasure hunt from Kuala Lumpur to Pangkor, Perak, which also attracted participation from the public and families from Johor and Penang under the 'open category'. Mokhtar said the hunters would also be able to enjoy the experience in terms of voice, video, music, e-mail, surfing or multimedia messaging via Celcom's enhanced network throughout the journey. Meanwhile, Yong said the programme would help to strengthen the ties between the media fratenity and non-media apart from promoting Perak. "This activity is good because through the interaction between media and non media people both parties would understand each other's responsibility...people outside the media line will also have the opportunity to understand on how the media works," he said. He said the activity was also a fun way to promote tourism to the locals and tourists as the interest in treasure hunt activities had not deminished until today. The 25 teams in the media category and 57 teams in the open category stand a chance to win cash prize of RM5,000 (US$1,631.06) for first place, RM3,000 (US$978.633) (second place) and RM2,000 (US$652.42) (third place). All participants, sponsors' representatives and guests will stay overnight at Pangkor Island Beach Resort and Perak Chief Minister Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir is scheduled attend the prize-giving dinner. -- BERNAMA