Recently, I was part of an entourage of Advertlets Bloggers together with Paul Tan and crew to test out the new Honda Freed.

Our day started off at Souled Out, in Sri Hartamas. Bloggers gathered there before our drive, and we had a good breakfast before we set off to Putrajaya.

We’ve put together an awesome video of the trip, check it out. Featuring sound bites from a few familiar faces and an interesting look at the journey:

Motoring journalist and Malaysia’s Jeremy Clarkson Harinder Singh was our guide throughout the trip, together with Paul Tan of Paultan.org.

Each car was outfitted with a walkie talkie for the trip, which was useful in discovering the features of the car and inter vehicle communication (for example - “eh, someone sesat already! turn back!”).

Honda bills the Freed as a “premium 4 seater”. However it technically can fit about 6 people (and 8 if you REALLY squeeze As someone who is used to driving a 1.8 liter car, I’m used to a quick pickup. The acceleration power seems to be in mainly in the lower speeds, tapering off at about 100-120 km/h.

The Honda Freed is powered by a Honda 1.5L i-VTEC engine, and the car had about 165KG of people + cargo at the time of driving. So I would say that the acceleration is okay, I can’t exactly compare it to a sports car but its satisfactory for the vehicle class and the number of people that were in the car.

The dashboard has a blue backlight. Interesting material - it doesn’t seem to be a ‘light’ in the conventional sense, but rather looks like e-ink as in its not glaringly bright but its visible quite clearly, as if it were printed on.

The fuel efficiency meter is also a welcome feature, it actually measures how many kilometers you are getting out of your drive - useful for fine tuning your driving habits to squeeze more distance out of each drop.

There are two major differences in positioning - the gearshift is on the dashboard, and the ‘handbrake’ is on the floor. The second one takes a bit of getting used to, but having the gearshift on the dashboard actually makes quite a bit of sense, it frees up some space for you to either store stuff, or be able to walk through to the back of the Freed. The dual layer dashboard is a good idea, and it does give you quite a bit of room to put stuff. I wish it wasn’t sloped downward though - it would be slightly better at a 90 degree flat angle.

One of the Honda Freed’s selling points is the walkthrough cabin. It’s useful if you have kids and need to crawl to the back and change a diaper, for instance.

The Freed starts from RM112,980. The units involved in this test drive were fitted with a sports kit that included door visors and a tailgate spoiler. If you’re considering the long term cost as well, Honda has helpfully put together preventive maintenance rates and costs per thousand km.

More info can be found here. Overall it was a good trip, bloggers had fun in addition to learning about how to do a test drive. Thanks to Honda’s PR company & Honda Malaysia for giving us this opportunity. Meantime, if you’ll like to check out what the rest of the bloggers in our entourage wrote, check it out: -

(yes, there were lots of us! Advertlets FTW!)

http://opstupe.blogspot.com/2010/08/all-new-honda-freed.html
http://www.diyanazman.com/2010/08/03/freed-and-terberanak/
http://www.diyanazman.com/2010/08/06/the-all-new-honda-freed-%E2%80%93-a-yummy-mummy%E2%80%99s-review/
http://www.placesandfoods.com/2010/08/hondafreed.html
http://rames.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-out-in-all-new-honda-freed-with.html
http://www.rebeccasaw.com/honda-freed-the-test-drive/
http://www.rebeccasaw.com/sneak-preview-a-day-out-in-the-honda-freed-with-paul-tan-advertlets-bloggers/
http://euveng.com/2010/08/honda-freed-the-latest-utility-mini-mpv-in-town/
http://www.ridzuanrichie.com/pemandu-honda-freed-mudah-melambai-mat-rempit/
http://hanzbr.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-out-with-honda-freed-and-paul-tan.html
http://www.leonardchua.com/2010/08/cruising-on-brand-new-honda-freed.html
http://spinzer.us/2010/08/first-test-drive-with-the-all-new-honda-freed/
http://www.feeqsays.com/2010/08/day-out-in-all-new-honda-freed-with-30.html
http://www.feeqsays.com/2010/08/honda-freed-car-photos-camwhor-photos.html
http://www.botakai.com/2010/08/05/test-drive-the-new-honda-freed/
http://mynjayz.com/2010/08/advertlets-day-out-in-all-new-honda.html
http://theclippingpoint.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-out-in-freed.html
http://walauweiwalauwei.blogspot.com/2010/08/test-drive-review-all-new-honda-freed.html
http://www.missycheerio.com/day-out-with-the-new-honda-freed/
http://howmanthink.blogspot.com/2010/08/honda-freed-bloggers-day-out.html
http://ruzenchung.blogspot.com/2010/08/honda-and-adverlets-pres-all-new-honda.html
http://arystle.blogspot.com/2010/08/honda-freed-mpv-dream.html
http://eforericyong.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-out-with-paul-tan-in-all-new-honda.html
http://bolehland.net/post/singlepost.php?id=69
http://www.cutecarry.com/2010/08/02/cutecarry-test-drive-honda-freed/
http://undercoverproject.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-out-in-all-new-freed.html
http://www.ewinee.com/2010/08/all-new-honda-freed-test-drive-outing.html
http://naomitham.blogspot.com/2010/08/all-new-honda-freed.html
http://www.hanep.org/archives/2010/08/freed-in-saturday-with-the-all-new-honda-freed/
http://youresty.com/2010/08/chapter-21-test-drive-the-all-new-honda-freed-with-paul-tan/
http://www.paeh.net/ada-apa-dengan-honda-freed/
http://shamhardy.com/2010/08/16/sehari-bersama-honda-freed/
http://www.advertlets.com/weblog/2010/08/02/389/

Just a few hours ago, we Advertlets Bloggers attended the launch event and premiere screening of Toy Story 3, sponsored by TM at Mid Valley Megamall! It was quite a blast

The event started with an introduction by Azura, Disney Buzz host.

Followed by a short speech by TM Net CEO Jeremy Kung. TM was the presenting sponsor for the event.

Then, the CEO of Disney Malaysia came up.

Then of course, the highlight of the event: Woody & Buzz Lightyear!

The costumes were very well done as you can see from the pictures - I believe this were the official costumes imported from overseas.

Since everyone was shy to go up to take pictures, I went up first.

And of course, all the bloggers got to pose for an EPIC shot!

Leonard Chua on stage with girls (as usual…*shakes head*)

Representatives from Disney & TM.

And of course, camwhoring after the event!

From left - Advertlets Bloggers Dila Ariff, new recruit Kimberley Ng, Ridzuan Richie & Sham Hardy!

From left: Hanie Hidayah, Esther Ng, Josh Lim, Wai Yan & Yvonne Tham.

Stay tuned for more pics and my thoughts on the movie. After all, we did get to watch it ONE WHOLE WEEK earlier!!

Check out posts from other Advertlets Bloggers:

1. http://yasminetran.blogspot.com/2010/06/toy-story-3-sd-screening.html

I don’t always go to three different parties in a night, but when I do, it’s good to share it here.

I first headed down to the Johnnie Walker Black Circuit Party at Ciao Restorante.

I brought along my Canon D1000 which I had just gotten recently.

Surprisingly, one of the first few people I saw there were Advertlets Bloggers - they were apparently contracted to take pics of the event. Didn’t know till then!

From left: ?? (will fill this in a bit), Eu Veng, and the Sony Alpha Gang: Bryan, Jason, Ewin.

Yes I know you guys damn pro, this photo above is too grainy, color balance out, etc etc. Will take some time to get as good as you guys k!

Got inside the venue…

There were plenty of drinks all night, it being a Johnnie Walker event and all…

Dot com guys in suits in the house (from left): Hong from The Malaysian Insider, Chak from Foldees and Josh from Advertlets (duh).

The ladies (Elena’s friend), and Elena Hong from Che Che New York which you may remember from this post.

Clubbing queen Vanessa Gan was there too…

This pic is too cute to pass up putting up here. Elena was very entertaining throughout the night.

Click for more party shots…

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not everyday that you meet nice people clubbing, or have decent conversations with them that lead anywhere and not everyday that you then get invited to an event, and get free goodies, free skincare products, and free lunch all in the same day!

…but that happened recently! Thanks to Kengyew of SocialWalk.com, fellow dotcom entrepreneur who introduced me to the lovely girls below:

From left: Josh Lim (Advertlets.com), Arina Kok, Kengyew Tham (of SocialWalk.com), Elena Hong. This was at Phuture, Zouk.

Turns out that Elena has a pretty interesting day job - she manages marketing for Che Che New York. I remember commenting on her bag when I met her (it was pretty cute, it had this HUGE flower on it), and she told me that she actually works on marketing and promotions for the brand! So she invited me to come by with bloggers to the launch of the Che Che New York x Hello Kitty collection at Mid Valley…

So I went with Hanie, Rebecca, Jeremy and his friend (will get her URL in a bit)…

(Photos mainly by Jeremy, with some from Che Che New York’s PR department)

The storefront.

Below: Elena giving her opening speech to the members of the media. Poor thing, she was rather nervous beforehand, as apparently her GM was supposed to speak, not her. But she did very well indeed, with an erudite and well-delivered opening talk. English also very powderful. She used some words I don’t normally use in daily conversation.

Notice how her dress matches the backdrop very well. She has a pretty infectious smile. I’m still trying to figure out who she reminds me of.

Since it was a Hello Kitty branded product launch, we found that it was necessary to act cute. Here’s my try:

Here’s my try. Hanie has all ten fingers up, not just two, so she wins the act cute contest.

It’s a Hello Kitty coin purse!

A close up of some of the Hello Kitty x Che Che New York collection…

And more…

Some of the celebrities who were there at the event…

Celebs with their bags.

This is the only pic you’ll ever see of me with a Hello Kitty bag:

Here’s a pic of me and Yasmin Hani Richardson - we first met years ago at Sazzy Falak’s birthday party years ago and it was nice seeing here there. I like this shot - we both look good here.

Above is a picture of Leonard (who works on Business Development with Che Che New York and other companies with the group) with the celebrities. He has a blog too. Leonard has what you might call a dream job - he gets to test drive lots of imported cars, and owns a Nissan GTR), and general fun stuff! Had a good time talking to him about cars, and looking forward to him arranging some exotic test drives. And yes, I’ll blog about it here when that happens.

Must say that Jeremy Choy takes very nice photos. Here’s some portraits he took of the awesome girls I’m lucky to work with everyday, Rebecca and Hanie. They help me with arranging events for bloggers, as well as advertising sales. Remember to check out their blogs, they are dedicated bloggers that update pretty often (We at Advertlets make sure we set aside some time to blog).

Anyway, after the launch and a chat with the owner of Che Che in Malaysia, we went down to Himalaya Herbals store a floor down…(apparently they also own the rights to Himalaya Herbals in Malaysia as well!)

There we learnt a few things. The brand manager described this as his favourite product - ever used grey toothpaste? Himalaya Herbals has this Dental Cream that is pretty natural, the grey color is due to the fact that no bleaching agents are used, which is apparently better for your teeth as it is more natural.

We spent a few minutes there, and we learnt about the benefits of the Neem plant (they had one in-store). I even ate one of the leaves after recommendation from the brand manager (yes, you can). It’s meant to freshen breath, but it’s an acquired taste la. It’s a pretty impressive plant - you can use it as toothpaste, to clear acne, to repel mosquitoes…and as a spermicide. I’m not making this up!

From Wikipedia: “In India, the tree is variously known as “Divine Tree,” “Heal All,” “Nature’s Drugstore,” “Village Pharmacy” and “Panacea for all diseases.” Products made from neem have proven medicinal properties, being anthelmintic, antifungal, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fertility, and sedative. It is considered a major component in Ayurvedic  medicine and is particularly prescribed for skin disease.”

I must especially thank the staff - not only did they give us all of us personalized recommendations based on our skin condition, they also gave us free products for us to try!

Jeremy (bboyrice) enjoyed the days events so far, and remarked that he learnt a lot. He also learnt something else - somewhere in between, we found the time to help Jeremy discover his natural beauty as well. This guy has eyelashes that would make some girls jealous. So pretty right?

After that we headed down to Warung Cafe, also part of the group. The food served there can best be described as Malay food. It’s kind of like the Malay version of Old Town White Coffee.

This is one of their specialties - I think it’s called Nasi Gulung, a variant of Nasi Lemak. It’s an interesting mix of Indonesian and Malay recipes - apparently the proprietor travels a bit, and combined recipes. It’s served rolled up, like a cone, and then you open it up and it has various layers of ikan bilis, sambal and lard rice.

Here’s a close up of some of the food - basically local favourites. Reasonably priced - you can have a full meal with a drink for less than RM15.Most menu items (if not all the dishes) are under RM9, and drinks are RM2-RM4.

It’s pretty filling - most dishes are quite carb-based (eg bread or rice), and portions are good without being too much. If you work around Mid Valley it’s a pretty good place for lunch.

Nice variety of drinks…kopi, air bandung, teh tiga lapis, barley…

Thanks again to the staff and management of Che Che New York, Himalaya Herbals & Warung Cafe! We had a great day. And of course, thanks again to Elena for arranging this!

PS: Elena Hong, you need to start blogging VERY SOON!

Hello people. Quick update… so this week, I’ve been planning Ellie’s 21st Birthday Party at Heritage Mansion, Asian Heritage Row. It’s this Friday (9th October 2009!) Come!

Party With Ellie Chee!

Ellie from missycheerio.com is a sweet girl. Emo at times, but always nice It’s her 21st birthday, why don’t you join in the cheerio-ness?

Ellie Chee of missycherio.com!

Details:

Event: Cheerio Day : Ellie Chee’s Birthday!
Date:Friday, 9th October 2009
Time: 10PM onwards
Venue: Heritage Mansion, Asian Heritage Row (not to be confused with Maison, which is in the same area)

The awesome party venue, Heritage Mansion's upstair lounge.

RSVP here on Facebook: Cheerio Day, Ellie Chee’s 21st Birthday! If you know me and I’ve partied with you before, you’re welcome to come! Or if you’re a hot chick that reads this blog and wants to see me in real life. Haha. Advertlets bloggers are welcome to attend as well - but please note that we have a max capacity of 100 people for the venue.

In other news…

Run with Amanda Choe & Jason Goh!

Amanda Choe is the girl. On the left. Jason Goh is the guy in red, on the right.

Advertlets Bloggers Amanda Choe & Jason Goh have recently been chosen for the Nike+ Ambassador Challenge. They are on opposing teams (Sambal Sprinters vs Rojak Runners), I’m not quite sure who to support yet, lol.

Here’s how you can join in (taken from Amanda’s blog):

If you’ve got Nike+ technology, just head on to the website, sign in with your Nike+ ID and select a team that you wanna run for. Teams are Sambal Sprinters (comprising of Malaysian footballer Zaquan Razak, Rudy from Hitz.fm and yours truly, Amanda Choe) against the Rojak Runners (made up of Zher Peen from 8TV, Nana from ERA.fm, Niki Cheong a.k.a. the Bangsar Boy and JasonSmashpopGoh). Then clock in your run after you’ve finished your workout! The whole shindig is a build up to the actual race day on the 24th. The top three runners from the team that successfully clocks in the most miles will stand to win loads Nike Running prizes!

Go tweet them if you’ll like to run with them: @amandachoe and @jasongoh. The Sambal Sprinters are having a session this Sunday, if I’m not mistaken. (Help Sambal Sprinters, their team got only 3 ppl, the other team Rojak Runners has 4! How can wei!) See more details here on the official Nike site.

…

And…lastly, also, in other news, we closed a big blog advertising campaign for Advertlets today. You’ll see it around soon. I is happy. Yays!.