HUNT FOR GAZA - HUNTING IN THE WILDERNESS

PANGSUN 28 Mar 09: The scenery during our early morning drive to Pangsun was simply mesmerizing! Think of long stretches of green grass, tall trees, kampung houses, fresh air, streams and farm animals minding their own business set against a misty backdrop and you might just accurately piece together what we had experienced. Pangsun is a quaint village located in the Hulu Langat district, and is a little over 26km away from bustling Cheras. The life here appears to be genuine and uncomplicated.

Was pleasantly surprised that the organizers decided to go ahead with the execution of this event despite having only 11 teams in their roll call. Most of the teams that showed up were familiar week-in and week-out faces.

Teams were let loose at 08:05 after a quick and subdued briefing. Although we were flagged-off from Pangsun, most of the hunt was centred around Cheras. Not too surprising, as we had counted fewer than thirty signboards during our drive to this place.

Overall, I considered the hunt to be rather challenging. 5 hours were given to each team to complete the 30 Questions and 4 Treasures, with a Challenge to tackle at the end of the hunt. We started off the hunt on a rather anxious footing, uncharacteristically dropping two of the first four questions in Dusun Tua. Fortunately we were able to pick up the pace after that initial setback. The rather heavy traffic around Dusun Tua and Cheras provided an added challenge to the hunters. In the end, most teams had to scramble just to avoid disqualification. Our team decided to weather the penalty by facing the tail-end questions (in consideration of the less severe time-penalty).

The end of hunt Challenge, perhaps in line with a back-to-nature theme, required teams to identify ten separate pictures of leaves belonging (mainly) to fruit trees within 3 minutes. Must pay tribute to KK here for single-handedly doing this challenge. His efforts (successfully telling apart five types of leaves) were instrumental in helping us secure the runners-up position.

Interestingly in the end, two treasures were not broken by any team. While one of them proved difficult to find, the other, everyone found to be difficult!

T3.
Here's a clue you must break,
Look another way for goodness sake,
Five hundred and a first letter,
Written correctly will help you see better.
Ans: A can of 7UP.

A rather exciting treasure which needed one to turn the page upside-down in order to derive the solution. All of the action lied in Line 3.

Five hundred = d (more commonly written as D)
and = n (sounds like)
first letter = L (first = the acrostic pointer)

Putting everything together and turning the page upside-down will yield 7UP (from dnL)

T4.
Just after you express an offer for property on board,
Is the name of the make that you must bring forward,
Shaped like those that result from a nuclear explosion,
One can needed and points given for your submission.
Ans: A can of Mayfair Button Mushroom.

In contrast to T3 which defied everyone, T4 was a rather straightforward treasure that most teams accurately solved, but failed to find in the shops.

Express an offer = May
Just = Fair
Property on board (Monopoly) = Mayfair
The result from a nuclear explosion = Mushroom cloud

The winning quartet of Lim Kong Yew, Gary Gunasegar, Chong Foo Seong & Liew Kok Seng

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Treasure Hunt for Gaza
(Full Points: 125 pts)

1st: Gary Gunasegar, Liew Kok Seng, Chong Foo Seong, Lim Kong Yew (99)
2nd: Chai Koh Khai, Margaret Sha, Chong Voon Kiat, Claire Chin (94)

3rd: Adrian Wong, Toh Weng Ngai, Michael Pang, Goh Teck Koon (93)
4th: Yeap Heng Boon, K Pavananthan, Ho Mun Yee, Fuad Dahlan (78)

5th: Rajj Melambaran, Shirley Hoe, Lim Say Chye, Loh Chee Kwan (77)

6th: Lim Kim Meng, Jeffrey Wong, Viki Lim, Richard Tan (73)