Friday, May 21, 2010

SELANGOR SHINES HUNT - BALIK KAMPUNG

SEKINCHAN, 15 May 2010: I have been a city slicker all my life and prior to the previous homestay hunt which took us to Kampung Endah Morib, I have never set foot into a kampung let alone live in one. The experience was enriching, something I still remember vividly to this day, though two years have drifted by. The residents had welcomed us with open arms, lending us bicycles to pedal round the not-so-small kampung. Along the way we had to decipher clues that would lead us to several challenge stations. Margaret could not cycle and had to ride pillion. Amongst the obstacles we had to overcome included longkang fishing, peeling sweet potatoes, making emping (a type of kerepek or cracker) and collecting palm oil seeds. We somehow survived all these challenges and won the event. Lunch was a delicious Nasi Ambeng, a Javanese platter for 4 with plenty of lauk, Beef SerundingFried Bihun and white rice. 

To relive that experience, we decided to sign up for the Selangor Shines Hunt. This time the hunt took us to the northern part of the state ending at Kampung Haji Dorani Sungai Besar, a quaint village located not far from the bustling fishing town of Sekinchan. Given 4 hours and 15 minutes, teams had to navigate through the towns of Klang, Kapar and Kuala Selangor in search of answers to 20 route clues and 5 treasure riddles. There were also 3 tasks to accomplish along the way which carried no points. The rest of the points came from 4 challenge activities within the kampung.

Although the tasks slowed everyone down, it was one treasure that effectively ended the chances of many. Likely to be one of those treasures that was growing cobwebs in the CoC's treasure bank prior to being unleashed. But due to poor timing, the Dutch Lady Iced Latte is no longer in production and many wiled away precious time hunting for it in shops large and small. In the end, a mere 8 teams in the Open Category escaped disqualification.
 
There was one other treasure, that the CoC had requested for 2 without specifying the measure. So I'm not sure why he refused to accept 2 "Individually Wrapped Bars"!

One of the challenges held at the Kampung was rather interesting. Definitely not for the squeamish, Menggoca is a traditional method of catching fish with your pair of hands. But because there were so many of us and so few fishes, the event turned out to be a lottery rather than a fear factor challenge.

Scenes of a Kampung Life: Simply mesmerizing.

More scenes of a Kampung Life.

Kampung Haji Dorani, Sg Besar.

Challenge 1: Batik Painting.

Challenge 2: Kite Decorating.

Challenge 4: Meggoca (Hand Fishing)

Sam Rahman: Exposed.

On board a lorry, our means of transport around the Kampung.

Our Dinner: Nasi Ambeng, a delicious Javanese platter for 4 with lauk of Fried Chicken, Beef Serunding, Fried Vegetables, Bihun Goren and Mee Goreng.



Selangor Shines Hunt
(Maximum possible score: 130)


1st: Peh Kok Hun, Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng, Sam Rahman
2nd: Chai Koh Khai, Woo Ee Wen, Anis Ashraf, Chong Voon Kiat
3rd: Sallehuddin & team
4th: Johan Salul, Dr Ben Lau, Aziz Abd Rahman, Izhar Shukor
5th: Utusan Malaysia
6th: Not available
7th: Tan Kok Aun, Ong Hoong Chun, Yap Khang How and team

Note: Scores not provided.

8 comments:

Cornelius said...

If you don't mind sharing, what was the clue to that chocolate treasure?

2 Romans 1 Impostor said...

I would have pasted the whole paragraph if I had it. Does anyone else have it?

Anonymous said...

This treasure is kind of erratic but take only the first two.
And with a latin city coded less than four and not endless.
So you can see the treasure clearly now I supposed.
Bring back 2 of this qiute popular chocolate product for your points.

Anonymous said...

typo error,
quite not qiute....sorry

Cornelius said...

One of the most important things to remember in the game of chess is to play "blind folded." But here I do not mean the "blind fold" in the literal way. After the opponent makes a move, we choose the best move to reply.

But before actually making that move, we "see" the possible continuation(s) in our mind. Some good players can "see" quite a few moves ahead - we say they can "see" several moves deep. We "see" all those moves in the mind, hence in a way, it's also a kind of "blind folded" chess. It's important to work out the moves in the mind, because we really need to guess our opponent's move(s). Otherwise, we will be caught by surprises.

Unfortunately, as a chess player, I quite frequently failed to "see" some possible replies from my opponents no matter how thoroughly I thought I've analysed the positions.

In the same way, sometimes CoCs only "see" the clues from their angles. Perhaps some of them also try to see from the hunters' angles, but they don't always see all the possible angles. Or sometimes they're just lazy to see too far.

Therefore, because the CoC wanted 2 packets of chocolates here, he sees the clue only from his point of view. And because it did not even cross his mind of other possibilities, he did not even bother to specify the UNIT required. He merely said "Bring back 2 of ...", because to him, that can only mean 2 packs, and NOT 2 fingers.

But because there is nothing in the clue that limits the scope of the unit, there is nothing to disqualify 2 fingers in this case. In other words, a pack containing 2 fingers should be acceptable, but for the CoC's ego. What's more, in my opinion, it is not even necessary for those 2 fingers in a pack to be "individually wrapped". As long as it's TWO, that satisfies the requirement!

kkchai said...

"Two individually wrapped bars", not "fingers", two packets of such would give us 4 bars.

Cornelius said...

My comment was based on the clue given (I'm assuming that clue was accurately given here). The clue does not specify "packets", "bars" or "fingers".

It says:

"Bring back 2 of this quite popular chocolate product for your points."

2 what? 2 packets? 2 bars? 2 fingers? They're all TWO.

Unless if you're saying that's not the accurate version of the clue?

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