CITY REVIVAL HUNT - GO PRAY PRAY

PETALING JAYA, 15 Oct 2011: I've never attended a church worship service my entire life. But I can always picture the pastor delivering the following message at the end of his sermons.

Makes sense, right? As people tend to stray, it is only apt that the pastor takes up the role of constantly reminding people to communicate with God on a daily basis. So I would consider this phrase to be quite common in the House of God (5050, would you agree?).

Rebus #2: AODNA.

Our Answer: Go Back and Pray.

CoC's Answer: Around and About

Unfortunately (as expected), the CoC did not see the humourous but rational side of our answer in this rebus challenge with a "common phrases" theme, which caused us two points and the match (hee hee).

Rebus #2 was one of five questions in the rebus challenge, an event that eventually decided the fate of the top 3 teams in the Masters Category of the annual City Revival Charity Treasure Hunt. The other tasks in the five hour event which included 35 questions (5 additional bolded questions for the Masters) and 4 treasure riddles were not imposing at all, with the exception of one of the toughies. The end results cemented this point, with the top 3 teams from the Masters Category and the winner from the Novice Category (I heard) finishing perfect on the road.

The results could have been entirely different. We were the first team to arrive at the finish control after 3 hours and 10 minutes on the road. However, we weren't satisfied with our solution to Q14 and decided to drop Margaret at the finish control to work on Rebus #2 while the rest of us returned to the hunting sector. This 'wrong decision' caused us the match and I was the main perpetrator. Along the return journey we got delayed by the heavy traffic, could not find a better answer (hence needing to stick to our original answer) and was later accorded the points.

Turning back the clock, my decision would not have been much different. Believe me, I am no stranger to taking risks. However, with an 'inferior' answer and close to two hours in the pocket in a very relaxing hunt, it just wasn't worth the gamble.

Q14: 5010?
Ans: LP Art Enterprise.

Q14 is very very similar to my very own 'Viki Lim' question used in a past challenge, so I am quite disappointed with myself for not seeing through the trick. Disappointment aside, I am glad to see The Phantom make a rare appearance.

It was a double joy to witness first hand a think-out-of-the-box question like Q6, which needed the collaboration of two signages twenty shops apart to yield the final answer. Witnessing it is one thing, solving it is another and my hat goes out to the teams who successfully conquered this delightfully tricky question.

Q6: The outlook is clear though well apart. Only when the latter starts.
Ans: IEW Sdn Bhd & Restoran & Kafe After 5.

Now excuse me, while I go pray that God gives me the strength to exorcise the ghosts in the coming week's hunt.

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City Revival Charity Hunt Masters Category

Maximum Score: 135

Winners of the Masters Category.

Winners of the Novice Category - did they con Dom? ;)

1st: Sin Yoong Leong, Claire Chin, Goh Teck Koon, Julie Tan (133)
2nd: Chai Koh Khai, Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha (133)
3rd: Peh Kok Hun, Loh Chee Kwan, Lim Say Chye, William Yong (131)
4th: Anwar Jeffri, Tan Kok Cheeng, Wong Poh Wen (126)
5th: Simon Matthew, Venkateswaran Nagappan, Buvanes Tharmalingam, Eeswaran Kanesalingam (122)
6th: Tan Eng Siang, Kong Siau Ching, Ong Kheng Heng, Diana Foong (122)
7th: Joehari Abd Jabbar, Geetha Kanny, Uma Priya, Philip Karuppiah (114)

8th: Pirabakaran, Navamalar and team (113)

MAB CHARITY HUNT - DARK KNIGHTS

GAMBANG, 8 Oct 2011: I am pleased, no I am ecstatic, with our current run of form. Our last defeat as a team happened in June. Though a shortage of eligible hunts over the last two months makes it sound more outstanding than it really is, nevertheless, I am overjoyed!

We successfully extended our fine run a week into October with the MAB Charity Treasure Hunt title under our belt. It was the unlikeliest of victories. Firstly, we weren't even supposed to be in Gambang - we made a last minute decision to sign up only after being informed of the cancellation of another hunt. And secondly, TAB events, a signature event of Take-A-Break Events (TABE) have always been our Achilles heel.

TABE hunts provide a nostalgic reminder of how hunts had been and should be - fun first and foremost.

In my opinion, in recent years hunt setters may have neglected this key aspect, one possible explanation why hunt cancellations have become annoyingly trendy. Noticeably, many hunts these days are designed with the upper echelon of hunters in mind, completely ignoring the gulf in experience between the hunt regulars and the novices. Hopefully the upcoming launch of the Treasure Hunt Society of Malaysia will help to address this wane in interest.

I am glad we came for we did have a lot of fun. As expected, the bulk of the 30 questions and 2 treasures in the 8 hour hunt to Gambang were friendly to all, with perhaps 3 questions providing the main resistance to the regulars. In the end, we were the only team from the top 3 finishers that had dropped points in the route questions, missing out on Q27, a general knowledge question that completely bewildered us.

Q27: A deficiency of this together with paid in short can be related to anemic situations.

Ans: Pusat Optik G6.

But where we slacked in questions, we unexpectedly made up for in the TAB Events. Our knights in shining armour appeared in the form of yours truly and Wern Ching who sportingly volunteered for TAB Events 1 and 2 respectively.

Both missions were designed to give the sighted an insight into the world of the sight impaired. TAB Event 1 required teams to toss darts blind-folded. Points were awarded from the accumulated scores off three darts. I surprised myself and the team by garnering the maximum 10 points, converting off the final two darts (with the first dart completely missing the target) .....

TAB Event 1: The blind-folded darter with his coach providing the directions.

..... while Wern Ching contributed 8 points from the Braille Challenge which required teams to decipher five letters coded in Braille. She appeared surprisingly nervous throughout the challenge but delivered where it mattered most, coolly deciphering the penultimate and 'most difficult letter', "N", yielding two additional points that truly clinched the title for us.

TAB Event 2: Braille Challenge

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MAB Charity Treasure Hunt

Maximum Score: 200

1st: Chai Koh Khai, Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha, Loo Wern Ching (193)

2nd: Lee Ling Fei, Claire Chin, Goh Teck Koon, Julie Tan (192)

3rd: Pavananthan, Ruben Enbasegaram, Lenny Wan, Lim Ming Yang (188)

DOGGY CARNIVAL - DOGS' DAY OUT

SETIA ALAM, 26 Jun 2011: Hundreds of pooches of various breeds congregated at Setia Ecopark today for the annual Doggy Carnival, with their human companions in tow. They came in all shapes and colours, big and small, shaggy and cropped. And they were everywhere .....

This one invited its friends .....

..... while this one appeared to be the invited guest.

The Yong family with their beloved pooch.

As with any carnival, there were lots of events and competitions to keep every mutt busy.

Dog Grooming competition.

Best of Breed competition.

Dog & Owner water relay race.

Dog Obedience Demo.

Kig Siew, Yoong Leong and myself, were here for the Dog & Owner Treasure Hunt.

The hunt was literally a walk in the park, the Setia Eco-park.

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Captain Jack and his Trailblazing team were the "brains" behind the hunt. Had been quite a while since many of us had an opportunity to participate in his hunts. He made his debut as a very green CoC maybe four years ago. But after entertaining us with a handful of hunts, he made a surprising decision to restrict his brand of hunts to beginners. Hence today's hunt was somewhat of a rare treat.

Captain Jack Swallow from The Trail Blazers.

Ingeniously, Captain Jack had created his own signs and scattered them around the park to make up for the lack of signs. And to make it interesting he added lots of red-herrings too. Some of his clues were cryptic. The dog & owner were required to sniff out the answers to fifteen such clues. Plus there were two tasks to complete. One task was to identify dog breeds. The other was to decipher two treasure riddles and identify the correct fruits from the ones presented in a bowl.

One of the signs created by the CoC.

Judging from the clues from today's hunt, the captain has left his swashbuckling days behind (to his credit), opting for more text-book type crafts. And I look forward to the day when his public hunts are once again truly for the public at large.

Q5: Possibly Cassius Clay's favourite dog.

Ans: Boxer.

Q13: Sheep caretaker origins from where Berlin is the capital.

Ans: German Shepherd.

Q: Walk participates for injured stage strut in part of harbour.

Ans: Wisma Patco.

(3K Triple-One Hunt, 2008)

Q: He lastly and I come in somehow for a perplexed mysterious Himalayan animal before part of India’s old neighbour.
Ans: Tylon.
(3K Triple-One Hunt, 2008)

Still, there was one treasure riddle from this hunt that I could not quite agree with.

T1: Although I have rage in me, I'm still sweet.
Ans: (Choose from: Mango, Orange, Papaya, Apple and Rambutan).

Note: Some of the pictures in this post is courtesy of Pets Pavilion.

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Doggy Carnival Treasure Hunt

Maximum Score: 105

Winners: K9-PI

1st Runners Up: The Cereal Killers

2nd Runners Up: Redz Hunter

1st: Yeong Kig Siew, Sin Yoong Leong, Chong Voon Kiat (105)

2nd: Angie Teh, Yow Hui Hui, Teh Boon Kai (100)

3rd: Redz Hunter (100) 

4th: The Underdogs (95)

5th: Macho Mastif (95)

6th: Quick (90)

7th: Idog (90)

ATMAH CHARITY HUNT - BREAKING THE CURSE

GAMBANG, 13 Aug 2011: You can consider the Hungry Ghosts Festival to be the Chinese version of Halloween. But unlike Halloween, the Hungry Ghosts Festival is a month long celebration during the seventh moon of the lunar calendar. With the opening of hell's gate on the first day, literally all hell breaks loose and these once imprisoned ghosts escape to earth for a month long vacation. The Chinese believe that these ghosts bring misfortune or bad luck and should be avoided. This is the main reason some Chinese play safe by avoiding this period when scheduling holidays and significant events like weddings, moving into a new house or even starting a new business, to refrain from bumping into these creatures.

This year the Atmah Charity Hunt fell smack right in the middle of the Hungry Ghosts Festival. Understandably since our luck gauge is not expected to be at an all time high this month, it appeared unlikely that this would be the year we would break the Curse of Atmah. And from the way the 8 hour hunt had begun for us, it was evident that we had not done enough to appease the ghosts.

The Atmah crowd prior to the flag-off @ PJ Civic Center.

I truly can't remember the last time we failed to find a single answer on our first pass-through of a sector with a number of questions bunched together. And today this happened to us not once but several times during the first half of the hunt. We failed miserably in our maiden attempt in Taman Petaling Utama where 6 questions were bunched together. It happened again in a very long Old Klang Road where there were 3 and 4 questions bunched up respectively in two separate sectors (though the latter could be attributed to our mistake due to a misinterpretation of the tulips). And again during the final 3 questions just before the mid-point in Bentong. Though eventually we were able to find most of them it was at the expense of time, barely making the 12:30pm cut-off.

Arriving in Temerloh an hour later it dawned upon us that we may have to scramble for time. With three hours of the clock remaining and all of the remaining journey on the trunk road and with 20 questions still unanswered, it did not look rosy. Things became a whole lot worse in Maran with 40 minutes to disqualification and 40 km from the end point at Gambang Resort and with 6 questions still unanswered. The darkening sky was a perfect reflection of our gloomy situation. At this point, avoiding disqualification was the priority and understandably we dropped all but one of the last 6 questions. Even the one we had sucessfully answered was through sheer luck, from Yoong Leong's memory of the shop he had already sped past.

In the end, we made the end point but only by the skins of our teeth though many were not as lucky, including 4 other regular teams. Thinking back, we were rather fortunate. Had we been held up by a trailer in the last 40 km or had the skies opened up, there was no way we could have avoided disqualification. And though we weren't really troubled by the treasures (or so we thought), had Pava not distributed them earlier, the additional time needed to search for them in today's circumstances would have made us odds-on favourite for disqualification!

Will a similar T evolve for Treasure Hunts? Only time will tell.

Treasure hunt briefing sessions nowadays have become so mundane that many of us choose to skip. But for the Atmah Charity Treasure Hunt, these sessions are always a guaranteed full house, and this year's briefing was no different. "There isn't any lavish buffet spread. Neither are there any lucky draws to be given away. So, what is Pava's secret?", those of you attending the Atmah briefing for the very first time may ask. Simply put, the treasure riddles are given out on briefing night. So essentially for Atmah, the hunt begins as soon as the briefing ends.

This year there were six treasure riddles to decipher with each correctly answered treasure riddle worth 10 points. With its superheavyweight status, the treasure riddles overshadowed the route questions, worth a mere 1 point each. Not surprisingly this promoted a debate amongst teams who could not break all 6 treasures before the onset of the hunt, if it was even worth going for the hunt. I can understand their contention as playing catch-up to 10 route questions would have been a big ask.

Without doubt, T1 and T5 were the 2 treasure riddles that had troubled most teams.

Of the two, it was clear that T1 would be the kingmaker while T5 could play the role of spoiler. Most regular teams would not have been elated with the variant having the "E" which was more readily available, since it did not quite match up to the riddle, though knowing very well it would not matter to the COC because of this piece of history.

T5: This treasure is a hit during the festivities,

So I shall not indulge into the brand formalities,

Cougar's star may help with these sweeties,

Just bring in as many to complete your duties.

Ans: A pack of Caster Sugar.

It did not take us long to derive a solution for T1 which we felt was worth a shout. We settled for Lux since it was clear to us that the COC did not want Fab. Our explanation being:

High-end = Deluxe

Last letter from the words "band please relate" = dee

Delete the letters "dee" from "deluxe" to yield Lux.

And to play safe we went for the Lux Soft Touch variant to fit "not hard" in Line 3.

T1: For the first treasure a cleaner you must target,

Add a high-end minus the last word from a band, please relate,

Browse the beginnings nothing great, the treasure's not hard for you to break.

Ans: A pack of Breeze detergent (powder/liquid).

To our dismay, the COC had a diffierent solution in mind. His explanation being:

High-end = h (one end of the word High)

Last word = in (latest in fashion)

Band = cincin

Replace "in" in cincin with "h" to yield Cinch.

Then relate Breeze to Cinch.

Comparing with the COC's rather complex explanation leading to the solution, I kind of like our answer better (hee hee).

In the end, T5 was not solved and break the curse we did!

With Thanks, from one VK to another!

Perhaps there are some good ghosts out there after all and one of them must have hitched a ride in our car the entire journey!

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Atmah Charity Treasure Hunt
Maximum Score: 100

1st: Sin Yoong Leong, Chai Koh Khai, Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha (82)

2nd: Lim Soo Khian, Claire Chin, Goh Teck Koon, Julie Tan (81)

3rd: Peh Kok Hun, Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng, Lim Say Chye (80)

4th: Simon Matthew, Venkateswaran Nagappan, Buvanes Tharmalingam, Eeswaran Kanesalingam (80)

5th: Teng Wei Chiat, Chan Chung Wei, Yeoh Ban Lye, Cecilia Yew (78)

6th: Liew Kok Seng, Teoh Cheow Teong, Chong Foo Seong, Lim Kong Yew (77)
7th: Leslie Kwong, Shirley Hoe, Lim Ming Yang, Loo Wern Ching (76)

TREASURE HUNT ADDICTS CLUB (CHAT)

DAMANSARA UPTOWN, 6 AUG 2011: Are you addicted to Treasure Hunts? If you answered Yes to any of the following 10 questions, you probably are. You can choose to deny it or you can choose to get help. Remember, there is no disgrace in admitting that you have a problem.

1. Do the signages talk to you each time you drive or walk past ? 

2. Do you insist on checking out the snack food and soft drink aisles for new products each time you visit a hypermarket ?

3. Do you find yourself requesting the Q&A of every single hunt you had missed out on ?

4. Do you envy people who take part in closed hunts on days when there are no open hunts ?

5. Do you already look forward to the weekends although on a Monday morning ?

6. Do you feel listless and edgy on weekends when there are no hunts ?

7. Do you check Michael Pang's blog, A Hunter's Tale, Hunt News Network and other similar sites for updates every other hour of the day ?

8. Do you ask for tulips instead of directions ?

9. Do you send festive or birthday greetings in cryptic ciphers in place of ordinary messages ?

10. Do you buy newspapers only to scrutinize the hypermarket advertisements ?

With the newly formed Treasure Hunt Addicts Club (CHAT) of Malaysia, there is light at the end of the tunnel for all serious addicts. CHAT is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other not to help others overcome their addiction but to help them improve and bring their skills to another level. There are no fees or dues for CHAT membership. The only requirement for membership is a desire to hunt.

I was invited to be an observer by the 2011 President of CHAT to their very first meeting at Restoran Pappa Rich @ Damansara Uptown, and ended up volunteering to moderate their inaugural hunt on that day. The bubbly Mr. Loh Chee Kwan indeed has big plans for the club and promised to hold similar meetings on a regular basis to feed the addiction of its members.

2011 President of CHAT (member # 001)

Eight other people from different ethnicity, backgrounds and age group had turned up for the meeting. We had a couple of people including a fifty-something from the IT industry, another a young twenty-something training manager for a global forwarding company, an event organizer and a lady who worked in the insurance industry. One common reason that brought all of them here today was nothing other than their addiction to treasure hunting.

CHAT's founding members

The inaugural hunt's format, mooted by the President himself, is moulded in the shape of the Hunting for Food series but with a slight twist. The twist is that in order to participate, members had to craft between one to three riddles in 4 designated sectors.

And unknown to all prior to the hunt (including the President himself), their efforts can end up being an advantage or a disadvantage depending on the level of difficulty of their crafts. I ensured that hardwork is rewarded while impossible or unfair riddles aren't given the same benefits. Hardworking members who crafted the maximum three questions had the opportunity to begin the hunt with a minimum 9 points (18 points actually, since this was a couples hunt) - with 3 points or 4 points (depending on the level of difficulty) allocated for each question. But for each unanswered question, the responsible member(s) would be penalized all the points allocated for that question plus an additional half the points allocated as "punishment" for wasting the other member's precious time.

I contributed a couple of questions and a couple of treasures to earn my keep as the club had agreed to pay for my lunch. In total, there were 26 questions and 2 treasures to decipher over a two and a half hours time period.

In the end, the experienced combination of Goh Teck Koon and Lenny Wan swept both the honours and the opposition, though they also finished with the most number of punishment points (24 out of a maximum of 36 points). In fairness, their crafts weren't really impossible or unfair - the challenging route with an abundance of signages had added to the level of difficulty.

For those that missed the hunt, here is a teaser of the riddles set by muah. If you are interested to find out the answers (which I won't reveal here), feel free to email me.

Q18: An orderly quartet surrounded this place in an attempt to assume control.

(The answer can be found in one of the signages in the below picture)

T1: Small pair of ladies undergarment it is said to be,

I will let you pick the right colour suitable for me,

As long as it's something sweet, I will be more than happy.

(Laughs)

So, are you a member yet?

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Treasure Hunt Addicts Club Inaugural Hunt
Maximum Score: 100

1st: Goh Teck Koon, Lenny Wan (68 = 92 - 24)
2nd: Lim Ming Yang, Loo Wern Ching (55 = 55 - 0)
3rd: Rajj Melambaran, Shirley Hoe (52 = 52 - 0)
4th: Lee Ling Fei, Claire Chin (47 = 47 - 0)
5th: Loh Chee Kwan (29 = 35 - 6)

BERNAMA-SARAWAK WALK HUNT - JOURNEYING TO THE EAST

KUCHING, 17 Jul 2011: Since treasure hunts became a part of my life almost a decade ago, I've done my fair bit of travelling. Treasure hunting provided me with a reason to travel, and directly or indirectly it has brought me to fascinating places across Europe, China, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and all of peninsular Malaysia. In 2006, I set sail eastward and added Sabah to my hunt log. Still not satisfied, I patiently waited for an opportunity to hunt in Sarawak to complete my journey across all of Malaysia's thirteen states and three federal territories. That final piece of puzzle was made possible when Bernama organized the Heritage Trail in the Land of the Hornbills, fulfiling a pledge to Senator Heng Seai Kie in 2009 to bring treasure hunts to Sarawak in the spirit of 1Malaysia.

Arguably the best way to explore the city of Kuching is by foot, with each attraction just a stones throw away from the next one. The 6 km walk hunt, meticulously designed around the major tourist hotspots in the heart of Kuching city, provided the 250 participants (more than half of them from peninsular Malaysia) with the perfect reason.

In teams of two, the participants congregated at the famous Kuching Waterfront just after sunrise for this 5 hour walk-about. From there, each of us was guided to historical places like India Street and Padang Merdeka, the popular Satok weekend market, the Muzium Dewan Tun Abdul Razak and the Ethnology Museum before making our way on the perahu tambang to the Orchid Gardens across the Sarawak river.

Along the route we got to marvel at the many well preserved historical structures - the Astana, Square Tower and the General Post Office. We were also fortunate to receive an introductory lesson in Sarawak history while scavanging through the two museums for answers to some of the 25 clues.

However, like many others, we got lost more than once during the walk-about, no thanks to the tourist map plagiarised by the clerk of course. The map was less than helpful as it did not include many landmarks and some roads called out in the "tulips" provided. Still, this minor setback did not stop us from completing the heritage trail well within the time allocated. Q21 did stall us a fair bit before we gave up after failing to decipher the significance of the intended pun!

Q21: Forerunner to 1Malaysia?
Ans: UniBorneo.

The heritage trail did do its part well to showcase the City of Cats. I truly enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to returning the following year

Waiting to be flagged off at the Waterfront with the Square Tower in the background.

Strolling along the Satok weekend market.

On board the perahu tambang, our ride across the Sarawak river.

Smelling the flowers at the Orchid Garden.

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Bernama-Sarawak Walk Hunt

Maximum Score: 100





Photo courtesy of Bernama

1st: Lim Ming Yang, Chong Voon Kiat (97)

2nd: Vincent Ho, William Ho (91)

3rd: Ho Meng How, Geraldine Evonne Ho (91)

4th: Kheirul Nazib, Erawati (90)

5th: Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng (89)

6th: Salehuddin Yusof, Azeman Saarin (87)

AXN BIG CHALLENGE - NOT AS LEAN NOT AS MEAN STILL AS KEEN

PENANG, 11 Jun 2011: Switching gears to a different kind of challenge: when I found out about the AXN Big Challenge, a big part of me had already resigned to the fact that the impending dare would be a physically demanding one. Yet a small part of me had harboured hopes that the organizers would design-in an Amazing Race fashioned quest - to prove that these old bones can still give the youths of our nation a run for their money.

So armed with this glimmmer of hope, I approached YL and we both registered as a team for the Penang leg of this event.  

And within a few days we were informed by Geraldine that we had been shortlisted together with about 160 other teams. That was the easy part!

In order to get to the main event we first had to get past the qualifiers. The qualifying rounds for the AXN Big Challenge is held in 3 cities, Johor Bahru, Penang and Kuala Lumpur to select 10 teams that will compete for the RM15,000 grand prize in 1 Utama Shopping Center on 26 Jun 2011. At press time the registration for the final qualifying leg in Kuala Lumpur is still open.

Vanessa Chong of TARA Season 2 fame and Jentzen Lim (林震前) were the emcees for the Penang leg.

As expected, in true Malaysian spirit, not all the teams who were shortlisted emerged on the morning of the event (free entry mah!). In the end, I counted not more than 80 teams (give and take) present at Berjaya Times Square to compete for the 3 finals spots on offer from the Penang leg. The format required all teams to compete in a Qualifying challenge from which 10 teams would be shortlisted for the Qualifying round main event. As many of our opponents looked like they still needed parental approval to take part, we sensed that we had our work cut out for us.

Our initial enthusiasm melted when we were briefed that the Qualifying challenge required teams to accumulate as many push-ups and sit-ups as possible in 30 seconds. There was no way in hell that we were going to survive this challenge - I've not set foot in a gym for the last 5 years, while YL confessed that he visits the gym only once a week (that too to utilize the shower facilities).

We were one of the early teams to attempt this challenge and between the two of us we recorded a decent count in the 70s (not bad eh!). But from watching the other teams perform we knew that we were in for an early shower when we counted easily 20 teams exceeding our number.

After the results were tallied, 3 teams were recalled to the stage for a play-off for 10th spot. Not long after, Vanessa and Jentzen announced the remaining 9 successful teams and one-by-one they ascended up the stage .... Innebandy! Co .... Twincredibles .... We were walking towards the escalator when the 10th and final team was announced ....... "And last but not least the team with the longest name .... Not As Lean, Not As Mean, Still As Keen !", Vanessa grumbled.

"No way!", we both shooked our heads in unison as we made a u-turn and headed for the stage.

The Qualifying round main event was a battle between old versus young .... brain versus brawn ... us against 18 other college kids. There were 3 challenges in the main event, and the total time taken would determine the top 3 teams who would represent Penang in the AXN Big Challenge.

Challenge 1: Zorbing blind-folded through an obstacle course, with each obstacle knocked down incurring a 30 second penalty.

Challenge 2: Cycling around an obstacle course, with each obstacle knocked down or feet let down incurring a 30 second penalty.

Challenge 3: Scaling a cable ladder up-and-down half a dozen times to pluck six pieces of puzzle.

In the end, brawn won! We were outclassed both physically and mentally by the college kids! But we can take heart that we finished in the top 10 despite the age handicap, and that we had given it our all (just that our all wasn't good enough).

Looking forward to the next one ......... not! (hee hee)

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AXN Big Challenge

The Winners

1st: (Innebandy! Co) Sam Teoh Jiun Haur, Deswyn Wan Yee Weng .... 11 mins 21 secs

2nd: (i-Run) Lee Chun How, Ong Leng Hin .... 11 mins 26 secs

3rd: (Twincredibles) Tang Khai Shing, Tang Khai Sheng .... 12+ mins

The Finalists