ATMAH TREASURE HUNT - CAUGHT ON CAMERA

PULAI, 12 SEP 2009: What an emotional roller coaster of a hunt, the Atmah Charity Hunt had panned out to be (for us). Our spell in seventh heaven at the end of the hunt proved to be shortlived as we were abruptly summoned back to earth (just a few hours later).

Once again the hunt started 36 hours earlier, as soon as the treasure riddles were distributed at the end of the briefing session. Based on the experience of past Atmah hunts, most hunters would have definitely welcomed the "extra" hunting hours. Who can ever forget the evasive Pringles from 2008? Although the quintet of treasures for this year weren't exactly Grab & Go material, gladly they were more readily available. Nevertheless the Murukku treasure did cause a small ripple amongst the regular hunters and most would have gone the extra mile in search of the variety with the single "K" which proved slightly more evasive (which in the end hadn't mattered).

T2: Sejenis makanan yang dikaitkan dengan perayaan cahaya,
Kini digemar oleh masyarakat majmuk di Malaysia,
Kalau salah ukur mu tonjollah juadah yang diminta,
Ha jangan pula tergesa-gesa, hanya tepungnya dipinta.
Ans: 1 packet of Muruku Flour.

With the treasures out of the way on hunt day, 8.5 hours seemed like an eternity for 30 questions. The CoC included 2 in-car challenges which were nothing more than a Googling exercise really - one was an activity to unscramble letters to form names of towns in Johor and the other basically a Michael Jackson trivia. Fast forward 7.5 hours and we were in the carpark of Pulai Springs Resort quietly working on one route question with the engine running.

Q20: Somehow force me to make a statement.
Ans: CMN Trading.

In the wake of the Teoh Beng Hock saga and with a cleverly camouflaged fodder, I felt that Q20 deserved full points.

Shortly after, when one of us solved it while flipping through the contents in the camera, the entire car erupted. There were fist pumps, high-fives and Hula dance moves in celebration. I would describe the elation as being akin to "scoring a goal in the last minute of injury time that would have tied the match and put us through on the away-goals rule".

So when informed later that we had "committed an infringement when putting the ball into the net, an event missed by the referee but caught on camera, and the goal would not count" it did suck big time!

Sigh! You can be sure that all Enterprises' will be triple and quadruple checked in the coming hunts.

And on the subject of infringements, there was one question in the hunt that caught my attention. Not one to ramble on boo-boos and create a lot of rumbles, I am more interested in discouraging all from being over-dependent on the Spell Checker in Microsft Word!

Q6. A long rumbling story.
Ans: Ryan Bundle.

---

Atmah Charity Treasure Hunt Results

(Maximum possible score: 121 pts)

1st: Alexander Hoh, Andre Teh, Muhammad Razif Ahmad, Darmataksiah Abai (121)

2nd: Chai Koh Khai, Margaret Sha, Woo Ee Wen, Chong Voon Kiat (119)

3rd: Ramesh Rajaratnam, Liew Kok Seng, Lim Kong Yew, Jayaram Menon (115)

4th: Peh Kok Hun, Lim Say Chye, Yeong Kig Siew, Tommy Ng (113)

5th: Lim Soo Khian, Claire Chin, Julie Tan, Goh Teck Koon (112)

6th: Ruben Chelliah, Angeline Chelliah, Mohan Campos & team (111)

7th: Pauline, Joey, Ruben, Lenny (111)

8th: Lee Ling Fei, Teh Boon Kai, Sam Rahman, Loh Chee Kwan (111)

9th: Mohd Asri, Ahmad Zahrol, Sallehudin & team (109)

10th: Venkateswaran, Buvanes, Simon, Eeswaran (108)

KEMBARA ASIARASA - PAPER II

SHAH ALAM, 10 Jan 2010: Although it must have been more than 10 years since I last sat for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination, I still do remember clearly that the Maths and Science subjects then had 2 papers. Paper I  was multiple choice while Paper II was fully subjective. And for Paper II, correct answers alone do not guarantee full points. Equally important is the method leading to the answer, which more often than not contributes more weight than the answer itself.

The Fun Hunt People decided to adopt a similar format during the Kembara Asiarasa, which was held within the city of Shah Alam. For this hunt, bringing in the correct treasures will only garner 3 points (for each correct treasure). To score the full 6 points, teams had to provide a full explanation on how they broke the code without missing a beat.

While I felt this format is fair dinkum as it does not reward guess work (which should be the case), it does however put additional burden on the shoulders of the CoC to review in explicit detail all answers provided, and make split second decisions on explanations that may not exactly match what was intended.

With this in mind, I have my reservations that this "innovation" will catch-on.

---

Kembara Asiarasa Results

(Maximum possible score: 100)

1st: Alexander Hoh, Andre Teh, Gary Gunasegaran, Rosemawarni Abd Rahman (94)

2nd: Muhammad Razif, Darmataksiah Abai, Hanna Hamizah, Sam Rahman (89)

3rd: Chai Koh Khai, Margaret Sha, Woo Ee Wen, Chong Voon Kiat (87)

4th: Ramesh Rajaratnam, Liew Kok Seng, Lim Kong Yew, Chong Foo Seong (85)

5th: Wong Chiang Chuen, Claire Chin, Julie Tan, Goh Teck Koon (85)

6th: Johan Salul, Dr Ben Lau, Kheirul Nazib, Aziz Abd Rahman (83)

7th: Salehuddin Yusof, Mohd Asri, Mazri Muda, Rozaman Ismail (82)

8th: Siva Kumar, Lim Chuan Leng, Pirabarkaran, Navamalar (77)

9th: Simon Matthew, Venkateswaran Nagappan, Eeswaran, Kumaran Nagappa (76)

10th: Yeap Heng Boon, Ho King Mun, Ho Mun Yee, Janet Tan (75)

UNCLE CHONG'S 2ND ECONOMY HUNT - A PERSONAL BEST

PETALING JAYA, 4 Jan 2010: Today's hunt, to be honest, I had expected us to struggle. Firstly, we were up against the clock (I had to desert my team by Eleven-ish for a lunch appointment downtown). Secondly, Foo Seong's questions are never easy, if at all possible, with his trio of toughies. And thirdly, he had ample time to spice up his questions (since his last Economy Hunt was more than 6 months ago).

So it was a pleasant surprise indeed to learn later that we had scored perfect on-the-road (a rare feat in Foo Seong's hunts). The icing on the cake was that we had achieved this feat using up less than three and a half hours of the clock.

So how was this even possible, you may ask. Has Foo Seong gone soft (on his toughies)?

Judging from his toughies from today's hunt, I felt that he has indeed gone soft-er, on his signature Impossible Ones. Notice how an extra adjective or adverb would make a whole world of difference? In the past, Foo Seong would not have given it a second thought in leaving out "native" from Q10 and "spicy" from Q14, rendering them almost impossible to solve.

Q10: Paddle madly with the answer to see native islanders.

Ans: Sim.

Q14: The answer must be put back into a local spicy dish for a current president of an eastern country.

Ans: AZ.

Compare the earlier 2 questions with Q18 and you will get the gist. 

Q18: Hard work is terrible at the start here for the bird.

Ans: ING.

In the end we didn't win the hunt (as we were hoodwinked by one of the treasures). Nevertheless, I am quite satisfied having achieved a rare Personal Best in Foo Seong's hunts. (It does tickle me though to read at press time that we have wounded his pride - aren't riddles designed to be solved anyway? Or perhaps not!)

But perhaps not as euphorically excited as this Aussie, who won a hundred and fifty ringgit in the Hunter's Lotto.

---

Uncle Chong's 2nd Economy Hunt Results:

(Maximum possible score: 110)

1st: Christopher Foo, Alexander Hoh, Shahrin Zainuddin, Rosemawarni Abd Rahman (107)

2nd: Chai Koh Khai, Margaret Sha, Woo Ee Wen, Chong Voon Kiat (106)

3rd: Liew Kok Seng, Lim Kong Yew, Teoh Cheow Teong, Jayaram Menon (101)

4th: Adrian Wong, Michael Pang, Lim Soo Khian, Toh Weng Ngai (95)

5th: Dominic Roche, Carol Roche, Catherine Ng, Janet Tan (92)

6th: Sin Yoong Leong, Claire Chin, Julie Tan, Goh Teck Koon (88)

7th: Ami Akhram, Haslinda Shamsuddin, Haji Suhaimi, Kheirul Nazib (86)

8th: Muhammad Razif, Darmataksiah Abai, Hanna Hamizah, Sam Rahman (85)

9th: Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng, Lim Say Chye, Yeong Kig Siew (79)