AirAsia #AABC2015 Photo Rally Hunt | Bangkok

For those who are following me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, you must have known that I was one of the lucky bloggers from Malaysia that flew to Bangkok under AirAsia to celebrate the AirAsia Blogger Community 2nd Anniversary Party! Prior to the event, I managed to dig some information such as what are we going to do there and I was told that there will be some sort of "Amazing Race" kinda activity on our Day 2 in Bangkok! I was thrilled and nervous, didn't know what to expect too. 

In conjunction of this celebration, AirAsia flew fellow AABC members from all over ASEAN including Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea! I was first thought that we are going to have a battle with other countries which turned out something even more awesome! We reached Bangkok and checked into our hotel around 2pm and it was awesome because we get to spend the rest of our Day 1 on ourselves, free and easy. There's really nothing much to talk about for Day 1 because I've been to Bangkok 3 times already and I love to just go back to my usual favorite places, mostly for the street foods!

Right, let's back to the main topic - Photo Rally Hunt. To my surprise, we were all divided to few different groups and gosh! NO, we are not with our own Malaysian buddies! Instead of sticking to our own flocks, we were grouped with few other AABC members from different countries! I remember how I actually stalked the hashtag #AABC2015 to look for my group members before we officially meeting each other! How silly! 

Well, say hello to my awesome group members! 

Ilin from Thailand, Kanako from Japan, Ying from China and Ebent from Indonesia. 

We know Illin gotta be the BEST leader because he himself originated from Bangkok and familiar with the places more than us, with some secret hidden places that we never know existed!

It was kinda funny because Ying doesn't speak English and understand little English only and none of them speaks Mandarin, which resulted in myself as the translator for the group member! Though I can settle that, Kanako who also speaks and understand little English, we ended up having some hand language sign throughout the entire rally hunt! It was fun, really. 

Before the game began, we were all equipped with the information including rules and what do we have to do in order to complete the tasks. They also told us that THE FIRST 3 GROUPS THAT BACK TO THE HOTEL AND SIGNED OUT will be the winners. Upon hearing this, I thought and told the group that "Hey there'll be 3 winners, let's be the top 3 and win!" 

So, it began. It wasn't a good start for our group because we were separated from each other at the lift. Thank goodness for the group chat that Ebent has created for us, that somehow allowed us to communicate and reunited back before start our mini adventure! We ran as fast as we could to the BTS station outside our hotel and took the train to Siam station. You'll know why we chose Siam area for this rally hunt. 

No.1 - Thailand Shopping Paradise. 

For this one, basically we have to find a shopping mall and take a selfie while jumping in the air, with all members inside the selfie picture. Of course, then we have to post up the picture on Instagram with the necessary hashtags. 

To be honest, I still think we had the BEST JUMPING group picture for this task! It didn't take long to snap this because everyone jumped according to the queue! BIG YAY!

No.2 - Thai Shrine

For this, we have to find any Bangkok shrine and take a selfie, with all members inside the selfie picture. Again, we have to post up the picture on Instagram with the necessary hashtags. 

Although I've been to Bangkok 3 times already, I never know there's a shrine nearby Siam Station! Thanks Illin for this one! Glad that we didn't need to walk further and stick to Siam area to get this task done in short time!

No.3 - Thainess

For this, we gotta find something considered "Thailand Only", something that makes others immediately think "Yes! That's Thailand!" and take a selfie, with all members inside the selfie picture. After that, we have to post up the picture on Instagram with the necessary hashtags. 

We overheard a few groups that planned to take a selfie with a Tuk-tuk and we thought we can choose other choices! After all, Thailand is definitely not only about Tuk-tuk and there's more to explore! Well, we settled ourselves in front of a row of Massage Parlour center. Seriously, if you come to Bangkok and never pamper yourself at least once a day with their awesome Thai massage, please do it! I still remember prior to my first visit to Bangkok, all of my friends were telling and reminding me to enjoy Thai massage ONCE-EVERYDAY because it's so blardy CHEAP, which is TRUE! I've paid RM30 to enjoy 1hr 30mins full body massage at Pratunam area, it was SOO GOOD! I mean, they are everywhere and they are well known for their skills and reasonably cheap prices! 

No.4 - Thai Food

For this, we had to hunt for any Thai dishes and snap a selfie, with all members inside the selfie picture. After that, we have to post up the picture on Instagram with the necessary hashtags. 

At this point, we were all exhausted after running here and there. Talking about authentic Thai food, we know Illin is the best person to ask for! He actually brought us to another hidden gem at Siam area, with plenty of food stalls selling authentic and delicious Thai foods. Illin ordered drinks for each of us and a plate of Kapi Rice (super yummy!) for us to share. Why we decided to share? The reason simply because we do not want to waste time stop at a place, we rather finish it quickly and back to the hotel. We knew if we get back early, we'll have plenty time to enjoy lunch later on. 

Y O L O

No.5 - AirAsia

This one is a little bit tricky because we have to find the AirAsia logo anywhere in Bangkok and snap a WILDEST selfie possible, with all members inside the selfie picture. After that, we have to post up the picture on Instagram with the necessary hashtags. 

We ran back to Siam Paragon just to go up to Kidzania to snap our wefie together with the AirAsia logo at Kidzania. I know we gotta be fast because there's group after us already. We remain calmed and tried to snap the word YOLO that formed by the group member with the huge AirAsia logo up there. It was difficult. At that time, I wished I brought a wide angle lens with me so that we could capture that perfect wefie together at one shot. We took several shots and thought probably we could give a shoutout for the current event - AirAsia Runway Ready Designer Search in Malaysia - by getting all the group members to pose like a supermodel, again with AirAsia logo in it too! 

After we completed our final task, we ran as hard as we could to the BTS station to find out there're another two groups waiting for the train too. At this moment, we knew in order to win, WE JUST HAD TO RUN, RUN AND RUN back to the hotel and checked our time up. Just imagine, 3 groups with at least 5 members ran out from the train to the hotel and then there's not enough space for a lift. The worst part that upset me was, when there's another group actually BLOCKED the lift for not letting other group members to enter or out, it was NOT cool at all. Thankfully, Illin and Ebent managed to run fast and reached the checkpoint followed by us, the girls. 

And, being one of the earliest to reached the checkpoint, just when we thought we somehow manage to placed our group at the Top 3, we didn't. The group that checked their time after our group won the third place, we were puzzled. Somehow, it makes me wonder is it because our photos weren't good enough? Or our captions were too detailed instead of just putting the hashtags like some others did? Or perhaps, we were timed wrongly? It then hits me that it doesn't matter if we won or not, what matters was we've just become friends! We were all from different countries and get together, the friendships that I've gotten from this trip were priceless.

Love them!

After we went back to our own home, we didn't delete nor abandon our group chat, we updating each other and sharing travel photos, and some funny stuff. WINNING the competition is just a BONUS to the friendship that we bonded during that short period of time. I would never exchange the friendships for any prizes, well except that we get to meet each other again! (つ´∀｀)つ

Next, it will be ALL about the highlight event for this particular trip! It's PARTY time!

p.s: AirAsia flies 11x daily from Kuala Lumpur - Bangkok!