KK City Tourism Treasure Hunt 2009—Preliminary Information

I have been asked about the status of the KK City Tourism Treasure Hunt 2009 by some friends, especially those from West Malaysia. So this afternoon I decided to make a visit to my cousin-in-law's office in the Municipal Hall to get more information. She's Fauziahton Ag. Samad, the Co-ordinator of the hunt.

Well, the hunt is confirmed on Sunday, 22 February 2009. However, as of this afternoon, they have not decided on who's going to clerk the hunt. She said they have short-listed several West Malaysian Clerks-of-Course, but without revealing any names. However, apparently they still favour the Time Out Solutions (TOS), because "it is easier to runding the terms of engagement with them". I think many hunters favour TOS too.

Interestingly, there will invite some media celebrities—whatever that means—but if I understood correctly, the folks from the NST and Astro will send teams this time. A new sponsor—which I am not at the liberty to reveal at this time—has also more or less been confirmed, thus indicating richer prizes, although I have a feeling that most of them will be in terms of merchandise rather than cash. As usual, the number of teams will be limited to 120 only, and I am convinced that that figure is quite easily achieveable, considering how desperate we KK hunters are for treasure hunts! There will be only ONE category, i.e. open to all. I suppose that means those media folks will also hunt in the open category.

We also discussed briefly about the format of the hunt. I was trying to influence Fauziahton to at least reduce the games. In previous years, the KK City hunts have always been leaning towards the "Amazing Race" format where the score for the hunt questions and treasures did not even come up to 50% of the total score. However, Fauziahton said they're going to maintain such format because (i) to promote tourism; and (ii) to give a chance to the new hunters to beat the regular hunters. What can I say, this is after all the "Boleh Land". So what could potentially happen is that one will have to work extremely hard to solve 3 route questions, yet a single roll of the coconut can easily win in terms of score.

As in the previous years, the hunt will start and end at the Nexus Karambunai Resort Hotel. Many people have asked if it's possible to choose another venue which is closer to the city centre. It is indeed strange that teams are flagged off so far out of the city, and then come all the way to the city, just to make all the way back to Nexus again. However, Fauziahton said that they found the Nexus is the best venue because (i) Nexus Karambunai is the official resort for this hunt; and (ii) they have enough space for the cars to line up; and (iii) their banquet hall is large enough to accommodate 500 people. So those of you who've been bugging me with this question, now you have your answer!

Incidentally, we also talked a bit about the Sutera Harbour-Angkatan Hebat Hunt which I clerked in 2007. That was a pure hunt where I did not include even a single game. According to Fauziahton, some of the regular hunters from the Municipal Hall joined that hunt too, and interestingly their comment was that that hunt sucked! I guess they didn't win anything (smile). I remember shortly after the Sutera, I received quite a fair bit of compliments from most of the regular hunters I knew; even from 2 KL teams which took the big risk to come all the way to KK to join this first-timer CoC's hunt. But I suppose I can't expect to please everyone.

I will make further announcement when I get more information. See you on 22 February 2009!