Mensa Hunt 2008

The Mensa Hunt 2009 was held yesterday morning. I touched down at LCCT-KL at about 3:00pm on Saturday. I took the bus to KL Sentral Station, and finally checked in to Hotel Florida at almost 5:00pm.

Later that evening, I received a call from Claire. She was together with Teck Koon—they had just attended the Mensa Hunt briefing. They got stuck in the traffic jam, but finally arrived at the hotel at around 7:00pm. Then we went for dinner at a closeby restaurant where I was finally able to present the hard-earned RM100 prize of my virtual hunt to Claire. In return, Claire was kind enough to treat Teck Koon and I for dinner.

We were very excited about the Mensa Hunt and throughout dinner, we were trying to anticipate the types of questions and treasures etc. I had obtained the Mensa questions for 2004 and 2006 by the same CoC. In fact, that was the main reason why I took the trouble to join this hunt. From the past questions, I found the style very appealing—they were mainly cryptic in nature. Furthermore, some very strong master hunters have also regarded the Mensa Hunt as one of the 4 “majors” of the year. That’s why I simply had to find my way into this hunt.

The night passed quite uneventfully; and before I knew it, it was already 6am the next morning. The plan was for Claire and Teck Koon to come and fetch me from the hotel at 7am. By 6:20am, I was already sitting by a roadside stall and eating roti telur complemented with Teh-C ping. Then I rushed back to the hotel to pack the very little that I had to pack.

As I was brushing my teeth for the second time that morning, I received a call from Claire. She said that they’re gonna be late—that to expect them at 7:30am instead of 7am as initially planned. Apparently Teck Koon went to the petrol station to top up his fuel, but when he wanted to start his car again, he somehow twisted his car key and broke it. Well, not really broken into 2 pieces, but obviously twisted and was barely in one piece. So in the end, he called Vincent up and the latter was kind enough to fetch Teck Koon home to get his spare key.

So anyway, they reached the hotel at almost 7:30am, and we went straight to the starting point of the hunt. Well, actually not really straight—I had a shrewd suspicion that Teck Koon was all out to scare Claire and I that morning. He went into a wrong road somehow and we had to make a big turn to get back to the right track. Claire was well-equipped with road maps etc, and while I was panicking in the backseat, Teck Koon was again able to find his way back to the correct road. All those unnecessary excitement in the morning. But, people, y’know!

After all those adrenalin-pumping adventures first thing in the morning, we made it to the flag-off point in good time for the final briefing. One final quick visit to the toilet and then we were flagged off soon after. And then we immediately stumbled upon the first question. Perhaps it was because of the excitement that caused serious blindness in all of us that morning, but we eventually left that first sector without anything to show.

Having said that, however, I must say that I was disappointed with the questions given in the Mensa 2008. They were nothing like what I had expected. Perhaps about half of the questions were googling challenge. So those who had fast internet access would be advantaged. I have written in another thread that general knowledge questions are no longer a big deal these days. My team did some googling too, but the flow of information was of course slower through cellphones.

As for the cryptic challenge, I found very few of them worthy of a Mensa hunt. Nonetheless, we were beaten in 2 of the questions, namely one which was just a simple direct anagram which we failed to spot on a parking meter; and another which was the only beautiful question of the entire hunt, but quite easily solvable had we been able to spot the word “bold” on the signboard.

Apparently the CoC set up quite a number of “red herrings”, except that not even one of them had any impact on our team. Somehow we reached the sectors, spotted perfect-fit answers, and just left in a jiffy without even considering any other possible answers!

I was also disappointed that in spite of the quality of the questions in the past Mensa Hunts, I found some debatable points in the solutions of the CoC for Mensa 2008. But as usual I will discuss them separately in other threads shortly.

The treasure clues were also all too straightforward. It’s almost as good as just simply telling the hunters to go get the stuff in the supermarket; nothing cryptic whatsoever. Well, except for the last treasure which caused a bit of a stir, and of course the CoC made a mistake when he accepted an obviously wrong submission.

Apart from the 2 route answers which we failed to spot, we also failed to solve a puzzle. Beyond that, there was hardly any challenge for this hunt, except that it was so difficult to find the lightbulb. I did not find it amusing that the treasure clue, once broken, should be hard to find in the shops.

Well, in the end, we dropped 2 route questions and the puzzle. I have very high respect for my team members, but I had expected tougher questions to be worthy of a Mensa Hunt. As a comparison, when we hunted in Jayaram’s hunt, there’s just no way that we’d only drop one or two questions. Dropping half of them would be more like it. Maybe the grandmasters would at least drop several questions. But I have a feeling that several teams in the Mensa 2008 got perfect score for the route questions. For this reason, I did not consider its ranking as a “Major” in the hunt calendar.

We scored 130 points from a maximum of 140 points—too good to be true for a Mensa Hunt! Whatever it is, and no matter what’s our position, I must say that I enjoyed hunting with my team members, and I’d gladly hunt with them again. Although I’m disappointed with the questions, I am even more disappointed for failing to solve a numerical puzzle!

Who knows, perhaps someone should come up with a hunt that is really worthy of being the fourth major of the hunting calendar?

Cabbies—A Tale Of Two Cities

When I go travelling to foreign places, I prefer to take the cabs rather than other modes of transportation. Well, OK, perhaps the exceptions are when I was in London and Paris. In those two cities, the traffic jams were just too awful, and it's almost a sin to waste those precious hours getting stuck sitting in a cab in the traffic jams. In the end one will be forced to take the trains in these cities.

Both the cities of Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Singapore have the automated train systems too. And they're both very efficient means of transportation. But although the traffic jams in the streets are bad, I'd say they're still bearable. Well, at least those jams are not around the clock. Therefore, whenever I'm in KL or Singapore, I still prefer to take the cabs, and very rarely the trains.

I haven't been to Singapore for a long time until last week, and I have therefore forgotten quite a lot of things about that little country. Apart from running the half marathon, I also spent some time going sight-seeing, e.g. to the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, and the many attractions in Sentosa Island. In most cases, I took the cab to move around. It's still the most convenient means of transportation since I had JJ and my mother-in-law with me. The queues and competition for seats in the trains can be very disagreeable to them.

It's a bit amusing that I took quite a while to get used to the cabs in Singapore. The first few times I got into the Singapore cabs, I automatically started negotiating the fares for the rides. It's a peculiar habit that was a direct result of taking the cabs in KL.

In KL all the cabs are installed with meters which are supposed to show the passengers the distance covered as well as the amount due. The cabbies are supposed to charge based on what's shown on those meters. I was given to understand that those meters are tamper-proof, and at any rate if the cabbies try to meddle with them, they can get into big trouble with the authority.

But the cabbies in KL hardly ever use those meters in their cabs. Most of the times, one will have to negotiate with the cabbies before even starting the journey. The fare would normally be much higher than what's supposed to be if the meters are used.

Some of the cabbies are kind enough to explain why they're doing that. One popular version is that during the peak hours, it takes a long time to get from one point to another in the city; and after dropping off their passengers, they will continue to get stuck in the traffic jam for a long time, thus burning fuel for nothing! Therefore, they need to charge more to cover for those idle moments in the jams. Of course it is also possible that they are able to pick another passenger, but they can't be sure of that.

In some cases, the cabbies will decline passengers heading for the traffic jam areas, unless the passengers are willing to pay double or triple the usual fares.

The taxi systems in KL and Singapore are apparently the same. Some very lucky people will get the exclusive right to the taxi licence. They typically get up to hundreds or thousands of taxi permits. They then rent those permits to individuals who wish to become cab drivers. After allowing for the rents to these lucky people, the cost of repairs and maintenance of the vehicles (usually borne by the cab drivers), the fuel and tyres etc, there is not much left for these cabbies to make ends meet. So the only way to survive is to cheat on the meters.

A typical cab driver in KL works about 10 to 12 hours per day; and many of them have to work everyday because the rent they're paying are based on daily rates regardless of whether the vehicles are working or not.

In Singapore, I was told that there're 8 companies granted the taxi licence. There are plenty of choices, and one can find a cab in almost any street of the city; and at any time of the day. And even if you can't find one on the street, a quick call to any of those 8 companies, and just a few minutes later a cab will come by. Because of the competition, as well as the regulation imposed by the Singapore Government, the cabs are also generally newer than their peers in KL. It is far from the monopoly situation we have in KL.

I must have taken the cab at least 10 times within those few days I was in Singapore, and not once did a cabbie try to do without the meter. There was also no need to negotiate about the destinations. You just get into the cab, tell the cabbie where you want to go to, and he'll start the meter and then the journey starts. When you reach your intended destination, you pay the amount that's shown on the meter.

Two big cities with apparently similar cab-licencing systems. I'm sure there are many good things I can say about Malaysia against Singapore, but I hate to admit that I prefer the Singapore cab system much more.

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

It must have been at least 10 years since the last time I visited Singapore. I’ve been to many other places around the region, but I somehow never found a good reason to visit Singapore—until I signed up for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2008, which was held last Sunday.

Just a few months ago, it was beyond my wildest dreams that I’d be able to run the half marathon (21 km), but since the Borneo International Marathon in October, I have done the Mizuno Wave Run (10 km) in KL, and the Penang Bridge International Marathon (25 km) in November.

When I signed up for the Singapore Marathon, Mia decided to sign up too. And it was her very first half marathon. When I ran the half marathon in my hometown, Kota Kinabalu in October, I completed the 21.1 km in 02:03:57. So when I flew to Singapore last Friday, my mission was to complete the half marathon in under 2 hours. I tagged along JJ and my mother-in-law, the official baby-sitter of the trip.

Mia and I went to collect our race packs on Friday afternoon, and we were pleased to find very few people there then. We did not have to go through long queues. We merely showed our identity cards, and then within two minutes we were already leaving the counter with our race packs.

We put up in Victoria Hotel, which’s located at Victoria Street, some 900 metres from the start line of the marathon. On the morning of the event, we woke up at 5:00 am. We left the hotel at about 5:45 am. It was very easy to find our way to the start line as there were so many other runners heading there.

As we approached the start line, there were a couple of DJs blaring through the huge speakers and there were loud music in the background. Apparently there were 12,000 runners for the half marathon. Unlike the Penang Bridge Marathon, the men and women were flagged off at the same time, i.e. 6:30am.

There was silence 20 seconds before the start of the race. Then the countdown; and finally the start horn. It took us about half a minute before we finally passed the start line. I turned to Mia and said that I was going to try to make that 2 hours target. Then I eased into my comfortable pace of about 5.5-minute per km.

The weather that morning was perfect. We zig-zagged through the city streets before turning to a long stretch heading to a straight bridge. The first half of that bridge was quite tiring as we had to go through a long gradual climb. Thankfully, it wasn’t as punishing as the one in Penang. But still, you know, as the miles built behind me, I began to feel the exhaustion. I made several stops for drinks, but otherwise I continued running throughout the course.

I copied this photo from the official website. It's just a sample photo. I didn't do well in this event, so I reckoned I'm just too cheap-skate to pay the astronomical price they're charging for a high-resolution digital photo.

As I was making the return leg through the bridge again, I was already fighting very hard the inclination to stop running. That’s a dangerous point, because as any runner would tell you, once you stop, it’s extremely hard to start running again. So I reduced my pace instead. Step by step… slow and steady…

Then I came to the 16 km point, and I felt horrified by the thought of having to run 5 km still. Then 17 km and soon 40 km (this latter sign was meant for the full marathon runners, i.e. only 2 km remaining). At that point I looked at my watch and realised that I only had 8 minutes left for the 2-hour target. It was quite obvious at that point that I was going to fail again. I kept trying for the next best thing, i.e. to improve on my previous 21 km time somehow.

Very soon, I was already making that last turn, and I could see the arch where we were flagged off about 2 hours earlier. I increased my pace. And then I almost fainted when I realised that that was not the finish line after all! Instead of 21.1 km, the “half marathon” distance in Singapore was 21.2 km. That extra 100 metres was so tough on me. But I ran as fast as I could anyway and arrived at the finish line at 02:03:08.


A screenshot (click on the picture for a clearer view) of the results taken from the official website. Overall position of 701 out of 6,399 men who ran in this event. I'm afraid nothing to shout about. Hopefully if I try again next year, I can improve that to top 600 runners (smile).

I’m disappointed to have failed yet again, but I consoled myself that I have at least shaved off almost a minute from my previous record. An ideal opportunity to go under 2 hours wasted just like that. The weather was perfect; the terrain was equally good. The people cheering from the roadsides. Everything was perfect! Yet I wasn’t good enough.

The next mission would probably be the KL International Marathon. But I was told that there will be slopes. I dread the slopes, and I doubt that I will be able to improve on my time. If anything, it’s likelier that I will take at least 10 minutes longer to complete the race. But I’ll probably have to do it anyway. I must keep myself prepared for an attempt for the full marathon in October 2009.

Keeping my fingers crossed…

Short Break To Singapore

Well, folks, first thing tomorrow morning I will be flying to Singapore for a short holiday. I will be running the half marathon on Sunday morning. Mia will be running her first ever half marathon too.

This year the event has attracted 50,000 runners. If I am not wrong it is the biggest marathon in this region. Except for the pain on my right ankle, I'm feeling great. I'm still going to try to complete the 21km in under 2 hours, but I have the feeling that this won't be the time I'm going to achieve it.

Will only be back on Tuesday next week; and then I have a tight schedule—going to Keningau on Wednesday; back to KK on Thursday and Friday. And then off to KL on Saturday for the Mensa Hunt on Sunday. Will be flying home on Sunday evening.

So next week is gonna be a very exhausting week for me! There will be lots to tell I'm sure!

Manglish = Malay + English

I received an email from a friend this morning. In it he provided a link to the Official Website of our National Registration Department. At the top right hand corner of the page is a catchy tagline: JPN ERA BARU. To those who're not familiar with Bahasa Malaysia, that tagline means JPN NEW ERA.

The subject webpage concerns Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ), specifically dealing with the issue of identity cards. Below is a screenshot of the webpage (it will probably be removed or amended very soon):

Click on the picture to get a better view of its contents.

While it is possible—hopefully—to understand what the Department is trying to explain to the public, the standard of English is just awful. Years of neglect and gradual decline of the standard of English in our education system had resulted in such an embarrassing product—in our Government's website.

It's one of the most common reasons why I have to reluctantly reject the job applications of the many graduates from our local universities.

Don't believe those politicians when they appear to defend our education system. If you investigate further, you might be surprised to find that they themselves send their children to foreign universities. That should give you an idea of what they think of our own universities, in spite of what they say.

This is not exactly the kind of "new era" we're hoping for, don't you think so?

The Outgoing President

Outgoing US President, George W Bush is quite a guy. He is the 43rd President of the United States of America. His term ends on 20 January 2009. But apart from being famous as the US President, he is also famous for his blunders. Well, OK, let's rephrase that—for the blunders of his administration. And of course that includes his many advisors.

In an interview set for broadcast on Monday, Bush answers some interesting questions. He says his "biggest regret" is "the intelligence failure in Iraq". He's referring of course to his resources which claimed that the late Saddam Hussein had amassed weapons of mass destruction.

The US attacked Iraq with its state-of-the-art weaponry; dropping bombs here and there; deploying ground troops and ousted Saddam Hussein. Billions and billions of dollars have been spent to finance the war; over 4,200 American soldiers were lost. Yet in the end no weapon of mass destruction was found. What a blunder. It is really hard to imagine that a country such as the US can make such a mistake.




Perhaps if Bush had only taken the trouble to take off the caps from his binoculars' lenses, he would have been better able to see clearer; and then give better instructions to his generals. Who knows, maybe they wouldn't have lost so many lives that way.

"I'm sorry it's happening, of course" he said when asked about the global economic crisis. But he rejected effort to blame his administration.

Let's be fair, it's not entirely his fault for the global economic crisis. But the trouble with being the President is that he must be accountable one way or another. Of course behind the scene, it's his economic advisors who had screwed up somehow.

Maybe Bush should have listened to more capable people on how to handle the economy. But of course he has to learn how to read first. Reading a book the right way up would be a good start.




Well, in January 2009 he will hand over his responsibilities as the President of USA to Obama. It will be an uphill task for Obama, but let's hope that he can do something good for the sake of the world.

In the mean time, Bush will be leaving the presidency with his head held high.

Chain Mails

SOME people, perhaps due to too much free time, spend their days and nights thinking how to instill fears in other people. I can only imagine that as soon as they get out of bed in the morning, the first thing they'd do is to find what story to invent for the sole purpose of scaring others. I suppose they get their kicks that way. Some people are not quite right up there, if you know what I mean.

Having thought of something dreadful, they would then start their day by composing emails. In those emails they'd demonstate their creativity on making up things which are quite often stupid and illogical. They'd then send out those emails to friends. Those emails are frequently ended with something like: Please forward to everyone...; or Forward to at least 20 people if you want...; or Forward to ... Otherwise bad luck will...

Here is an extract of an email entitled "New Fraud Tactics" which arrived in my Inbox recently:

It starts quite simply with: "Someone shared the following cases" (but we are not informed of who that "Someone" is, of course).

"(1) Today I passed by a building which has an ATM machine. There was an old man looking at me. Suddenly, he called me. He said he didn't know how to read, so he gave me his ATM card and asked me to help him withdraw money from the ATM machine. I answerd 'NO!! If you need help, ask the security to help you.' Then he said 'nevermind..' and continued to find other people to help him...

REMEMBER : ATM machines have CCTVs. If you help him he will later claim that you have robbed him or stolen his ATM card. Besides, his ATM card could be a stolen one. So please be careful of these tactics.

(2) Suddenly your house lights go off. From your window you find that your neighbours still have lights. So you go out of your house to check the Meter Box. But once you open the door, a knife will be pointing at you and preventing you from closing it. This is when you will be robbed and injured.

REMEMBER : Even though your electricity suddenly goes off, DO NOT open your door immediately. Look around to see if there is anything unusual or if there is any noise around.

(3) This is another incident. You may have heard it before, it is about a lady who she saw a kid crying by the roadside. When she spoke to the kid, the kid told her he was lost and wanted her to take him home. The kid even gave her a paper with his house address. So she took him home. But when she rang the door bell, she had an electric shock. Later when she woke up, she was naked in an empty room.

REMEMBER : Being such a compassionate and helpful person might not be a good thing these days. Pass this on and girls, please be careful... DON'T BE TOO KIND!!"

The following is an email entitled: "If You Are Forced To Withdraw From ATM Press The PIN# Reversely"

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would key in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine. The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcast on TV and it states that it's seldom used because people don't know it exists..

Please pass this information to as many people as possible."

I love that part about "The machine will still give you the money you requested..." To be quite honest, I didn't even bother to check the truth of this email, but if there is any bank in Malaysia which has the above feature, please let me know. I will make sure that I never ever open an account in that bank. I can't bear the thought that "The machine will still give the money" in spite of the wrong PIN.

I find it surprising that many, many people would actually take the trouble to forward these kind of emails to their friends. Even my wife would forward them to me. But how can I scold her for doing so? She's just concerned that I'm being an uninformed person, you see. Besides, if I scold her too much, she might just go on strike for a month, and I will surely suffer.

But I do welcome some forwarded emails; this is one of them:

Miss Beatrice, The church organist, Was in her eighties And had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness And kindness to all. One afternoon the pastor Came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea. As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, The young minister Noticed a cute glass bowl Sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled With water, and in the water Floated, of all things, a condom!

When she returned With tea and scones, They began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity About the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. 'Miss Beatrice', he said, 'I wonder if you would tell me about this?' Pointing to the bowl. 'Oh, yes,' she replied, 'Isn't it wonderful? I was walking through The Park a few months ago And I found this little package On the ground. The directions said To place it on the organ, Keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven't had the flu All winter.'