SOMs Plus Adventures

SOMs Adventures was birthed out of two separate groups of people ‘driving’ outdoor activities on their own. The first was formed when a few friends decided that they should promote the joys of climbing to the people around them. It was a message of health and wholesome fun for the family and so the regular weekend climbs up the 12 or more beautiful hills around Kuala Lumpur started and this group

of fun weekend seekers decided to call themselves SOMs. Heading this group of climbers were well-known corporate figures like Tan Jee Tien, Stephen Liu and Bonnie Bautista. At the same time, Ong Hock Siew who had been climbing Mount Kinabalu since 1979 and had by 2012 climbed Mount Kinabalu 63 times decided that he would enlarge his activity to promote Mount Kinabalu actively to more Malaysians and to encourage them to go for the seemingly improbable objective of climbing the magnificent Mount Kinabalu. Hock Siew who had been combining climbing Mount Kinabalu with training programs such as the "Classroom In The Sky” program discovered that there were actually plenty of Malaysians who wanted to do climbs not only up Mount Kinabalu but also the many other beautiful mountains in Malaysia as well as the region. At one of these climbs came a couple who were casual at that time that Hock Siew worried about their ability to make the climb up Mount Kinabalu. Their sojourn up hills and mountains would change their very attitude over the next year or so after their climb. They found that the climbs made brought them great health and their love affair with mountain adventures began. This couple is Dato Lee Hwa Beng and Datin Lee Soo Soo. Their continued climbs brought them into contact with the SOMs group of enthusiastic hikers and somehow the connections were made. Hock Siew had also much earlier met Khoo Swee Chiow when they both shared a speaking platform in Singapore to about 500 youths. Hock Siew and Swee Chiow became good friends and spoke about their crossing of paths somewhere into the future. In 2012, the SOMs group with Dato Lee & Datin Lee as patron, Hock Siew and his friends Linda Bruijnen and Kelvin Kee decided to cast their nets further to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, that magnificent highest mountain in the continent of Africa. This group came together to climb the mountain with Swee Chiow. During the climb, the dream of a company that would bring "convenience, good service, quality and comfort” into Adventure and climbing was spawned. After some discussions, SOMs Adventures was conceived on their return to Malaysia. It was an exciting journey at the start of SOMs early formation and all the initial founders of the company decided that the Primary objective would be to touch the lives of ordinary Individuals and to bring health and vibrancy into their lives. It was also decided that SOMs Adventure would focus on bringing the "Outdoor Value Proposition” to corporations and to combine Adventure with soft training skills to enhance development programs that would make "Excellence” a hallmark of their corporate development programs thus, "Classroom In The Sky" as our OVP.