Grand Winner of SilkAir Explorers Contest Revealed

A heartwarming journal of a son’s quest to bring his mother back to Penang to rediscover their roots together has been selected as the top winner of the SilkAir Explorers online journal contest.

The man behind the endearing journal entitled “In Search of My Mother’s Heritage” is Mr. Dominique Chin, 38, who wins the grand prize of a year’s worth of air tickets to further explore SilkAir destinations, as well as SGD2,000 cash.

Mr. Chin’s entry was selected from over 900 entries submitted by participants from Singapore and around the region, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, who have travelled to SilkAir destinations. Depicting interesting stories, personal photographs and fantastic travel tips, the entries had a myriad of themes ranging from personal discovery, cultural immersion, humanitarian work to finding love abroad. Journals were judged on their creativity, originality and quality of information, amongst other criteria.

Commenting on the winning entry, SilkAir’s Chief Executive, Mr. Marvin Tan, said:
“We found Mr. Chin’s journal very personal and heartwarming as he describes his experience travelling to Penang with his mother and visiting the places she had been to as a young lady, including her old family house. While describing his journey, Mr. Chin also took the opportunity to capture the many unique facets of Penang’s culture and history, through colourful photographs and trinkets.”

According to Mr. Chin, a show producer who is also an avid traveller and diver, his mother had left Penang in 1965 for Singapore and had a lifelong dream of bringing him to her hometown to show him the family’s roots.

In his journal he wrote:
“45 years later, her dream came true. This is a journey about rediscovery – of her past, and mine. My mother’s world was revealed to me for the very first time, and through my eyes, she rediscovered Penang, its beauty and charm.”

Launched on 23 June last year, the contest ran for six months until 30 December 2010. Besides the Grand Winner, SilkAir had awarded prizes of a pair of tickets to six monthly winners. Mr. Chin was also the December prize winner of a pair of tickets to Danang. (To see the winning journal and monthly prize winners, please refer to the attachment).

Added SilkAir’s Mr Tan:
“Overall, the quality of journal entries we received was quite impressive. It was fantastic to receive such a high level of interest in this online journal competition, which was launched to increase awareness of our SilkAir destinations as well as provide SilkAir travellers with travel tips as revealed by other travellers.”

The SilkAir Explorers campaign is intended to celebrate the spirit of exploration. Recognising that every traveller has a unique story to tell, SilkAir sought to uncover these experiences by setting up a dedicated online platform where travellers can share their travel journals, personalized through photographs, trinkets, drawings and insiders’ travel tips.

To read more of the hundreds of journal entries posted by travellers, log on to www.silkairexplorers.com.

For more information on SilkAir, including its destinations and services, please visit silkair.com.