Last week, Yan Arief told me that we’re invited to join an event called FAM Trip Journalist. Yan Arief got the news from Pak Octo Lampito from Kedaulatan Rakyat, the biggest newspaper in Jogjakarta. Anyway, what is FAM Trip?
A FAM (familiarization) is a trip offered to meeting professionals (including planners, journalists and travel agents) in which event venues and destinations highlight–and, thus, give attendees first-hand experience with–their products. FAMs may be fully or partially sponsored by venues or destinations. (source)
We’re invited as bloggers. Yes, as bloggers. Yan Arief already knew Pak Octo for long time, but I just met him (Pak Octo) when Yan Arief took me to Kedaulatan Rakyat in last February. At that time, we introduced our unofficial TransJogja.NET website. (Read more about it — in Bahasa Indonesia). Luckily, Pak Octo already knew a bit about blogger and he told us that there would be an event that would involved bloggers. Great!
So, on May 20th we had our first trip to Borobudur. We went to Melia Purosani Hotel first to join with other participants for the first time. There were journalist from The Strait Times Singapura, Metro Malaysia, TV3 Malaysia, ASEAN Affairs Thailand Magazine, Bernama (Malaysian National News Agency), Jakarta Java Kini and Hello Bali Magazine, and many more. Other participants already had a short trip few hours before. Later, I found that there were many bloggers, too. For example, Pak Ahmad Suroso from Tribun Batam already has a blog. There, I met Pak Octo and Agung, a journalist from Kedaulatan Rakyat Around 5 PM, our journey was started: to Borobudur Temple. According to the officer from Konferensi Agung Sangha Indonesia, this year Vesak (or Waisak in Indonesian) is very special, because they got the opportunity from the Indonesian govt to hold an event for 24 hours. Before, Borobudur is not open for 24 hours.
In Borobudur, I did not use my camera, even we got permission from the event organizers. There was a small incident — but I believe it was because a miss-communication between the ogranizers (from FAM Trip and Waisak Ceremony Committee). But, after having an explanation from committee, the participants could understand the situation. We went back to Jogja (Melia Purosani Hotel) from Borobudur around 9 PM. After having confirmation about the agenda for next day, Yan Arief and I went back home — after having (another) dinner with teh poci gula batu and jahe gula batu at Angkringan Lik Man.
As bloggers, we’re lucky to have the opportunity to join the event and spread the information about the event using our media: blog. We will publish more stories at My City Blogging Yogyakarta later, and — of course! — we will write them in blogger-style stories. Currently Asia Blogging Network’s server is under maintenance, so I will post my stories here first. We had a great experience from this event. Thank you for the organizers and committee, really appreciate it.
