Sunday, February 28, 2010

KK City Tourism Hunt 2010

What a day! Shortly after my team members assembled at my home in the ungodly hours of the morning, we started out to Nexus Karambunai Resort at about 5:35am to beat the queue for the KK City Tourism Hunt 2010. We arrived there shortly before 6am. And then my brother, Harry, and his team, Cili Padi, arrived just a minute later. We spent the next several minutes pasting on the numerous stickers of the sponsors in the dark. Then we walked the short distance to the lobby to register our team.

It was not after a good hour later when the usual warming up session began in the banquet hall with the dances for about 15 minutes or so. Having done my 21km run yesterday morning, I decided to opt out. After the warm up, Dominic spent the next few minutes to give us hunters a final briefing. Teams were soon flagged off.

Mia was unable to join us this time, as she wanted to spend the time supervising JJ with her revisions for her exams. I brought Vivian into my team. She has hunted with us in the Palliative Care Hunt last year which we won.

As a common feature of the KK City Hunt, it was mainly a case of organizing the team to complete many tasks including the so-called passport challenge, a walk-hunt, motorised hunt, and of course the annoying games.

As soon as we were flagged off, the first thing we did was to read all the instructions—all the tasks to be carried out, the challenges, the respective time windows etc. We quickly realised that we had insufficient time to perform all the tasks unless we split up the team members. Since Vivian and I are the strongest in the cryptic sense, Edward and Dennis dropped us off at the first walk-hunt sector at Gaya Street.

Those of you who know Gaya Street would know that we have the Street Market every Sunday morning. I don't know about the other hunters, but I simply loathe that sector for hunting. Apart from the thousand of people rubbing shoulders with each other, today was exceptionally annoying because there were also a lot of those lion troupes going around for their last bid to earn money. It was such a stressful experience—the noise from the drums, the many huge umbrellas which blocked the views and so many other distractions.

Viv and I spent quite a long time there looking for the location of a picture clue. It was very, very frustrating, but in the end we had no choice but to give up. In hindsight, I don't know if we could've found the answer had we lingered on a little longer. But I think it's certain that that question cost us dearly in the end.

At more or less the same time as we had abandoned our search of the answer to that picture clue, I received a call from Dennis, saying that they're done with the passport challenge. It was basically a joyride mission to go around several locations in the city to collect stamps. We walked the short distance to Maybank Jalan Pantai for a rendezvous with Edward and Dennis. From there, we were sent off to the Waterfront for the other sector of the walk-hunt. Then they were off again to secure Treasure 1 and a challenge which was to make and fly a kite at a seaside.

Although the questions at the Waterfront were mostly easy ones, there was one which Dominic designed to torture the strong hunters:

Q10) Neighbours indeed. Just like how some refer to the first lady.

There is something I'd like to comment about this particular question, which Dominic said was intended to be the hardest of this hunt, but I will do that in a separate post later. Suffice to say that I did get the right idea how to solve this question, but alas, I was unable to spot the answer. The clue was inaccurate, of course, but I will get to that later. It was a small sign, you see.

Having spent a good half an hour in this sector, I became somewhat desperate to just make a wild guess and then move on with the rest of the hunt. Of course I couldn't be sure of which sign to take. In fact the only thing I was sure then was that my urine bladder was at the verge of bursting. But one sign appeared at least a possibility—as remote as it was! There was a mention of "reference to the first lady", so the word "bull" seemed very appealing. But of course I couldn't account for "cock". Perhaps I would've been happier had there been a mention of the husband of that first lady too. Maybe in that case I would've been more willing to force-fit the word "cock", I don't know.

In the end, we made a wild guess and decided to proceed to the DBKK office for another challenge, which was to pick soya beans with a pair of chopsticks from among red beans within 60 seconds. It wasn't a particularly difficult task except for the time limit. I'm a bit ashamed to say that I only managed 12 beans.

By the time we finished with that challenge, Dennis and Edward had also completed the kite making/flying challenge. We then submitted our answers for Leg 1 and embarked on Leg 2 of the hunt. Leg 2 was basically a motorised hunt, except for a short stop at the Monsopiad Cultural Village for the blowpipe challenge and walking on coconut shells. I thought those were decent challenges. However, the darts for the blowpipe were made smaller so that when blown, the air would escape from the sides, causing the darts to emerge with very little force on the other side. I think this was deliberately done by the organiser. What eventually happened was that most of the darts couldn't even reach the target which was a mere 6ft or 8ft away. Anyway, to make the long story not so short, I was the fool who volunteered to handle the blowpipe challenge and ended up with nothing to show! And the moment I failed in that challenge, I knew that we've lost the top 5 finish. From then on, it was a mere struggle to stay in the top 10 finishers. In hunts of this sort, any experience hunter will tell you that a silly mistake on the question or a poor performance in the games, however small, can completely wipe off any chance of winning!

After those challenges at Monsopiad, it was a matter of finishing the motorised hunt, with a short stop at CKS to buy the remaining 2 treasures which we solved since first thing in the morning. And then later on, we realised that we had a lot of time to spare when approaching the finish line. We turned back to check out an answer which I wasn't happy about, as I felt our answer did not fit perfectly. It was possible that that answer was a red herring, which turned out to be indeed a red herring in the end. But unfortunately, we did not spot the intended answer. I think this riddle would have been a masterpiece by the CoC, except that I was a bit disappointed that the clue was again imperfect in the technical sense. This obviously deserves a further discussion in a separate post later.

There isn't much more to tell. We arrived at the finish station, submitted our answers and had to wait several hours before the answer and prize presentations. And of course during that long wait we had plenty of opportunities to mingle around with the other strong hunters for the "denial routine". It is almost a ritual in most hunts that the strong teams would try their best to tell the other teams that their teams did worse. Even if they did good, they will say that the did badly one way or another (smile.) I did the same too, but of course I was telling the truth this time! In the end, we managed to sneak in to 7th place.


The Result:



1. KK Chai, Margaret Sha, Claire Chin, Sin Y L (109)

2. Tan Cher Kian, Teo Chen Lung, Leslie Yew, Frederick Samson (106)

3. Allister Kong, Chong Voon Kiat, Jeremy Pinso, Benjamin Liew (105)

4. Ellen Yee, Dr Liaw Yun Haw, Shirley Lim, Mary Lokupi (105)

5. Sallehuddin Yusof, Kheirul Nazib, Johan Salul, Dr Ben Lau (103)

6. Bernard Liew, Alvin Wong, Christine Netto, Audrey Chin (102)

7. Cornelius Koh, Vivian Cham, Dennis Koh, Edward Baki (101)

8. Claire Andrew, Grace J Chin, Christie Kong, Saidah Sahid (?)

9. Francis Omamalin, Eileen Yeoh, Lee Tse Jim, Moina Liew (?)

10. Gan Po Tiau, Davin Wan, Winnie Chee, Shirley Chai (?)

11. Benedict Bisoni, Oliver Bryan, Morris Bisoni, Sharon Antius (96)

12. Ag Ahmad, Ag Sarpudin Ag Kassim, Masri Khan, Zurinah Hanafiah (?)

13. Dunstan Lojitan, John Binggiap, Miklin Ationg, Gerry K Chandran (95)

14. Noraimy Jawahir, Ahmad Rijaluddin, Roslina Abu Hassan, Betty Wong (?)

15. Wee Pei Ling, David Wong, Alan Tan, Patricia (92)

16. Harry Koh, Buddy Jiliun, Lai Mui Chan, Frinkley Lian Chin (90)

17. Julia Chan, Jaco Swanepoel, Paul Callaghan, Mior Azman Musa (?)

18. Robinetta J Malangkig, Talissa Kiandee, Malcolm Abidin, Andrea Abidin (89)

19. Noorainee Jamal, Siti Moira Jamal, Mohd Norif Paival Yahya, Retty F Simok (89)

20. Denny Lajitan, Jeffrey Ismail, Shamsul Alfian, Mervyn Tham (88)


21 comments:

mzadele said...

Awesome! That sounds FUN! Too bad Eighty4 is not joining this time. But, there's always next time.

2 Romans 1 Impostor said...

Would you have the results breakdown (teams and scores).

I had to run before the results were announced but ended up arriving at the airport with plenty of time to spare - Airasia seems to be running on the infamous Malaysian clock all the time. Hope they wake up one day as I am beginning to lose confidence.

Cornelius said...

mzadele,

Too bad you were unable to make it. I was scanning through the name list and did not see some familiar names.

But are you up for same fun? Let's have a ball on 18th April. Am planning to organise my KK Challenge earlier than usual this year. I may be too busy to organise one after June. So if I can find enough teams, I plan to do it in April. Then later on, I'll leave it to Alvin to organise another hunt if he's up to it.

So the usual thing - unofficial hunt of RM200/team. Abt 5 hours hunt. Pure hunt; no physical challenges (although I can't stop you if you decide to hunt on foot in several sectors)

Cornelius said...

2R1I,

I have the winners, but not the full scores. Dom did not announce all the scores; and certainly no breakdowns. I will post what I have shortly.

What I've gathered from the hunters so far is that some teams are quite puzzled by their respective scores. Apparently a bit of inconsistencies with their own calculations. I have a bit to comment on this issue later. Let me finish this post first.

Anonymous said...

Julia : Oh I see, its called a 'denial routine' is it? Well we weren't in denial at all. In bad form yesterday. Is there any way we can get a look at all the results??

Cornelius said...

Hahaha! Julia, yes that's what it is, the "denial routine"! If you don't believe me, the next time you hunt, try to ask some of the strong teams how they did after the hunt, and they will all deny that they did well! It's almost a reflex kind of answer! And then don't be surprised when you see the same faces on the podium when the results are announced.

Well, as I said, I did not tell a lie when I denied doing well. My team really messed up this time!

Cornelius said...

Oh yes, Julia, I had intended to post the top 20 winners, but I was in a rush just now during the lunch break at the office. Will add the remaining teams shortly.

By the way, the CoC did not announce some of the scores, in which case I shall only post the positions but not the scores. At any rate, we have reasons to believe that the CoC made several mistakes in calculating the scores anyway.

Tal said...

April 18th? :) We'll keep that date open. How many teams are you aiming for?

Cornelius said...

Thank you for your interest, Tal. The general idea is of course the more the merrier. But I don't expect more than 20 teams.

I sent out some text messages to the hunters I know of earlier today, and by this afternoon, about 12 - 13 teams told me to count them in. So it seems that I will need to embark on brewing a nice little mental workout for my fans soon!

Anonymous said...

Julia : Yes I most certainly notice this denial routine. And because I tend to believe what u say, I didn't suspect a thing. I will now take everything u say after the hunt with a pinch of salt. On the result I actually meant if they would post the entire 125 team ranking up somewhere. Not just top 20 or 30. Any idea if DBKK will publish it?

Julia said...

On a completely different subject, was anyone as annoyed as I was when the mayor proudly announced to everyone how the City Hall didnt have to spend a cent on the hunt because it was fully sponsored?? I found that very offensive and inappropriate!

Cornelius said...

Not me, Julia!... HAHAHA! I always tell the truth, honest!... Scout's honour! I said we did badly in the games, didn't we? And indeed we did badly!

Of the few years I have hunted in the KK City Hunt, no full results were published. I doubt that they will do so this year.

Regarding the announcement by the Mayor, don't be overly excited about it, my dear Julia. That is what we call reality and the Malaysian culture, if you like. When you are the approving authority for a lot of things in KK, there is no necessity of money to organise a big event such as last Sunday's hunt!

CK said...

corny, we definitely gonna keep the april open then.
julia, there's tonnes of things to get offended at if you read newspapers and watching tv nowadays. so a politician's words are offensive? nothing new :) (tat's why i didn't listen to what he said ahaha)

CK said...

by the way, it's interesting you made that remark about the "denial routine" hahaha

Cornelius said...

Why, CK, are you saying you disagree with me?... hehehe. If you dare to disagree with "denial routine", I'm sure gonna ask you how you did after the hunt in April. And if you even give slight hint that you did badly, I swear to god that I'm gonna kick you butt! HAHAHA!

CK said...

haha... cool down corny.
i never say i deny the denial routine. i said it's interesting. i guess everyone did that like you said, well... us included. guess it's something like lowering the expectations to create a better pleasant surprise hahaha

Anonymous said...

Probably more like humility, or else we could be deemed as arrogant. And when you walked around telling everyone you did well and in the end, others did better, malu bah.......

Julia : If you approach all the sponsors in DBKK Hunt for a fraction of what they gave to Cornelius for his KK Challenge, they will surely say "NO". Reason is being Cornelius do not inspect their kitchen and toilets and do not issue OCs for their projects. Corruption? Of course not! Sponsorship bah........

Cornelius said...

Ah! that's more like it, CK! By the way, CK, when are you gonna belanja us yam cha? RM3,000 can buy quite a lot of yam cha sessions you know!

This year, I think my team did badly because we all kena the curse of that forsaken colour printer from your team bah! At the end of the next hunt, someone better take away that printer from me! Otherwise I will practise properly on the blowpipe and then use it on you!

Am making arrangement to book the venue for KK Challenge 6. Once that is confirmed, I will start promoting it by next week. Keeping fingers crossed...

Cornelius said...

Anonymous friend,

No lah, we don't expect the teams to announce that they're gonna win the hunt. We just expect them to say something truthful like, "Oh I managed to answer most of the questions, maybe failed in 2 Qs only... treasures, we got 2 out of 3..." something like that. Surely that is not arrogance bah!

Instead, what we normally get is something like, "Aiyah!... so many can't answer lah!... treasure also not in time to buy. Kena time penalty some more!"... which are mostly lies!... HAHAHA!

mzadele said...

wow..that really fun! d last hunt we joined was deepavali hunt. so, i think it would be great to get back n work our brains again. Later i'll talk to d girls. Usually Jessy will be d one who do the registration. so,if anything just post it on ur blog k. we'll follow u from there.

Cornelius said...

mzadele,

Thanks for your interest in my hunt. I just came back from a tough hunt in the Klang Valley. Am so tired now.

Will prepare the Entry Form tomorrow and send it out either in the afternoon or on Tuesday.

Actually, mzadele, I usually do the KK Challenge hunt around July/August, but last year I gave way to the Palliative Care Hunt (because I wanted to hunt too!). That's why I postponed the KK Challenge to Deepavali. However, this year, I'm worried that I will be too busy during the second half, so I decided to push it to April instead. That way, I can at least keep the KK Challenge series going at a pace of at least once a year. Who knows, if I can find the time somehow, I will do another later this year.