Pintasan Travel Treasure Hunt

The final briefing in the morning. Zahrol, the CoC from the Fun Hunt People giving final instructions to hunters.

This hunt was our warm-up to theSun Hunt on 2 Nov. It has been a while since my team last hunted. Last hunt was LexisNexis Hunt back in August.

Firstly, let me put up the overall results (Total=102 points; 50 from route questions+50 from treasures+2 bonus points):

1. Raya Hunters (Sallehudin Yusof, Kheirul Nazib, Fong Choon Kit, Jamal) (98=48+50+0)
2. 2 Sneakies+2 Innocents (GTK, Claire, et. al.) (98=48+50+0)
3. Pen Rosak (VK, Vincent, Michael) (98=46+50+2)
4. Sesat Hunters (Venka, Buvanes, Theresal, Sakthivel) (90=50+40+0)
5. No Inkling Nuts (Ramesh, Kok Seng, Lim Kong Yew, Teoh Cheow Teong) (90=48+40+2)
6. Team #12 (Info NA) (90=48+40+2)
7. Huntsolo (Info NA) (88=48+40+0)

The 2 bonus points were given to teams that hand in the treasures at mid-point station AND got more than 3 treasures right.

We arrived just in time for the final briefing. The hunt format was made known to all earlier. There were 25 route questions and 5 treasures. The route question each worth 2 points and the treasure 10 (yes, 10 points each).

So obviously, we need to focus more on the treasures. That's why we quickly scanned through the treasures questions right from the start. It was a mass flag-off. But we took some time planning and tried to solve treasures early. We only managed to crack one quickly and literally picked up the treasure (daun kering) from the ground. We were struggling on other treasures. In the end we spent 20 minutes stationary at the start station before leaving. We were the last to leave.

We proceeded to the route questions and breezed through the first two questions until we got stuck in one slow traffic light in PJ old town. It was definitely not a road that one would clerk for any hunt. We spent another good 10 minutes for maybe about 200m.

The next few questions were quick ones and caught up with some of the hunters in Section 14 PJ. Here we got two toughies, we got one and finally had to "tembak" the other and moved on. (This was where we didn't think on the correct path to solve Q12.)

At this juncture, we still don't have 4 or more treasures. So we decided to hand in our treasures at the finish station. Mid-point was the Pintasan Travel office in Section 17 near the Rothmans roundabout. This was where all teams must get a stamp from the organiser office.

Our team moved on to the next few questions in Damansara Jaya. This was where we made our next mistake. We knew very well what to look for, but four pairs of eyes were not good enough to spot "Klinik Pergigian Lim". We settled on another clinic with the name "Lim" in it. We must be more careful when we scan question sectors next time.

The final few questions were in Damansara Utama, Uptown area. Here we dropped another question, that was to do with "wassab!"! Again, the thinking line was off, and we took another board as answer, even though we were not fully convinced by it. Argh.....

In the end, we dropped two more treasures. Both treasures we came very close to submit them, but decided on something else and submitted wrong treasures. This mistake was painful and it gone down to the method of resolution of different opinions in our team.

Overall, the learning from this hunt was valuable for us. Our team was not classified as the one of the podium winners (Top 7) in this hunt. We will learn from our mistakes to improve in future hunts.

Venka and his team did well in this hunt. Looks like they were the only(?) team who got all the route questions right. For me, they are the favourite for the Open Category for theSun hunt. In fact, I was surprised that Venka (& his team) was not inducted to the Hall of Fame this time. They had won and topped a strong field of hunters in just a short span of less than two years actively in open hunts.

In this hunt we tried out new things and hunt strategies. Most of them worked well, some of them needs adjustments. We will come back stronger for theSun. See you there!