KK CITY HUNT 2010 - MAKAN ANGIN

Better late than never .............

KOTA KINABALU, 28 Feb 2010: I love to hunt and at the same time I love to make new friends. So hunting alongside people I have never met would not be a fish out of the water experience for me. I made a somewhat late decision to take part in the KK City Tourism Hunt and have a few friends from Sabah to thank for pairing me with team Makan Angin.

When the hunt was first announced in January I wasn't ecstatic about travelling out of state. Work was the primary reason. A dragging customer crisis had needed my attention. The rather unfriendly air fares at that time further strengthened my decision. When the crisis started to cool off come February the itch returned. And if by amazing coincidence, MAS started to introduce extra flights to KK/Taipei to cater for the increased demand during the CNY period and with it came cheaper fares. By that time, my regular team had already submitted their entry. So I casually spread the word to these friends that a leg was available if anyone was interested and the rest as they say was history.

Upon my arrival at KKIA, we did have a minor situation - my fault really, nothing a Bunga Raya pinned on the T-shirt would not have fixed. Leaving the airport parking lot, we hit it off immediately. Allister and I were chatting like old pals who were catching up on lost time, discussing everything from family and work to hunts and hunters.

 

Team Makan Angin (Allister Kong, Benjamin Liew, Jeremy Pinso) and me

I had a good time hunting with the Makan Angin trio of Jeremy, Allister and Benjamin. Although hunting together for the first time, we were able to gel well as a team. We had very good team camaraderie and employed the right strategies throughout the hunt - being the 2nd team to arrive at the finish station with an hour and 30 minutes to spare was testament to that. I also enjoyed the laughter and the friendly banter we shared in the car. We were very close to upsetting the formbook, and almost pulled it off if not for a cruel misfortune. 

The format of the hunt remained largely unchanged from previous years. Teams had to complete a passport challenge (collect stamps from 7 landmarks in KK), a walk & hunt at 2 locations (Gaya Street and Waterfront), a drive hunt and 4 games in order to score points.

Similar to the past KK City hunts the hunt questions weren't overly challenging, save for Q10. But because of the teeny size of the signboard and a slight inaccuracy in the riddle, I didn't really think it was meant to be solved anyway. We ended up dropping just this one question.

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

Ans: Student.

Walk hunt @ Gaya Street - the CoC himself seen hunting for treasures.

Though we didn't do exceptionally well in the 4 games, I felt we did decent enough to have a shout for the top 3 positions.

I opted out of the Wau Challenge in favour of doing the Walk Hunt at Waterfront. When we regrouped, I was informed by my team mates that they had successfully launched the kite in the air for the required number of minutes, which should yield us points. How many exactly we weren't too sure. For some unknown reason, I was told that the CoC chose not to reveal the scoring format.

Wau! Now Everyone Can Fly Challenge @ Taman Awam Teluk Likas

Next up was a chopstick challenge in DBKK to pick up as many soy beans as possible from a bowl containing both soy beans and red beans within 60 seconds. Allister stepped up for this challenge and picked up a respectable 13 beans. Again we were in the dark as to how many points this effort was worth. Enquiries to the marshall were responded with "it (the effort) was a fair number".  And once again I could not quite understand the CoC's refusal to explain how points were scored for this event.

The 2 games at the Monsopiad Cultural Village were more challenging. On this occassion the scoring format was made known.  We were required to split up for the 2 challenges. Benjamin and Jeremy attempted the Blowpipe Challenge, while Allister and myself signed up for the Nutshell Challenge. The Nutshell Challenge is essentially a relay race on coconuts for 2 with team members standing on opposite sides of the pitch. Allister and myself stumbled during the changeover which cost us two precious points. Benjamin and Jeremy took turns with the Blowpipe and narrowly missed out on scoring any points here.

On a Nut Shell Challenge @ Monsopiad Cultural Village 

Blowpipe Challenge @ Monsopiad Cultural Village

I didn't stay for the prize presentation since I had to catch a supposedly early flight home which ended up being delayed. Jeremy was kind enough to rush me to the airport and along the way we received a call exclaiming that we had finished third. Wonderful, except that our final points did not quite add up. After checking with the CoC much later we found out that we had lost points in the Wau Challenge. We were not given any points for succesfully flying the kite and lost points for creativity despite earning one of two novelty prizes for best kite design which can only mean one thing, that the marshall for this event had been sloppy, likely recording our scores against the wrong team number. A cruel misfortune indeed!

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28 Feb - KK City Tourism Treasure Hunt

(Maximum possible score: 125)

1st: Chai Koh Khai, Margaret Sha, Sin Yoong Leong, Claire Chin (109)

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

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

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

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

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

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

8th: Claire Andrew, Grace Chin, Christie Kong, Saidah Sahid
9th: Francis Omamalin, Eileen Yeoh, Lee Tse Jim, Moina Liew

10th: Gan Po Tiau, Davin Wan, Winnie Chee, Shirley Chai