theSun Motor Hunt 2010 scheduled on 21 Nov is POSTPONED

Breaking news on theSun Motor Hunt 2010 taken from TimeOut Solutions website.
===============================================
Dear All,

TheSun HUNT which was scheduled for 21 Nov has now been postponed to a later date TBA

*TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY*
===============================================

No new date posted yet.

theSun Motor Hunt 2010 is ON!!!

Information released on Time Out Solutions' website:

================================================

“theSun hunt is on!!!

Date: 21st November 2010, Sunday!

Block out your date with theSun and look out for more details later!

*TERMS & CONDITIONS APPLY*

=================================================

Those who follow my blog or know me personally know that I have another hobby. But since last year, I have not been hunting frequently and I am kind of in semi-retiring mode. That's why I don't write about treasure hunt now.

theSun Motor Hunt this year clashes with Penang Bridge International Marathon. For me, it can be only one of the two, not both. I know at least one master hunter cum runner will understand how I feel now.

Updated 25 Oct: This hunt is postponed until further notice.

Cari Makan Trail to Penang

Last weekend, I went on a treasure hunt organised by our company's sports club. I was on business trip since last Thursday and just returned home 8 hours before the flag-off. I wasn't sure I would be able to make it. But I did. The destination: Penang. The theme: Cari Makan Trail.

It was the first time since the last theSun Motor Hunt that I went treasure hunting. This time Raj & Doug couldn't join. So Prasath & I teamed up with Harin and Alex for this hunt. The CoC is Time Out Solutions.

Leg 1 was before Penang and Leg 2 was in Penang. Leg 2 was around Lebuh China, Lebuh Penang, Lebuh Campbell, Chowrasta Market and Jalan Kapitan Keiling. There were two challenges. Challenge 1: Make roti canai. Challenge 2: Eat Yau Char Kuay with wasabi topping.

After doing the same challenge in the Food Hunt last year, I knew I have to let my team mate to do Challenge 1. Prasath stepped up and did his best. Now I really appreciate the mamak that make us roti canai. It is not an easy job to make a perfect roti canai.

Anyway I did the second challenge which was eat Yau Char Kuay (crunchy type, not the soft type ok? Very hard to chew and swallow in short time) with wasabi topping in 90 seconds. As long as you finished eating, you would score some points. But it was not clear the scoring mechanics, i.e. how to score 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10. So after completing the challenge in slightly more than 90 seconds, I have little clue on how well I did.

Anywhere, fast forward to the results. We did quite poorly for the challenges, scored 11 out of possible 20. That resulted us to tie on points with the runner-up. We won on tie-break on Leg 1 score.

One interesting road safety question to share, worth 1 point.

Q4: Setelah lulus ujian amali calon dikehendaki memohon lesen memandu dalam tempoh:

A) 3 bulan
B) 2 tahun
C) 1 tahun

Pick your choice. Answer later.

Apparently now, there is a requirement to have one officer from the Road Safety Department to give a talk on road safety in the pre-hunt briefing two days prior the hunt. I didn't attend that as I was on business trip in Jakarta. But my team mate told me that it was not a pleasant presentation as the guy showed photos and video of fatal accidents. Not very pleasant indeed. I don't need to elaborate.

One more road question to share. A simple one really. Worth 3 points.

Q25. Which street used to be called the street of the "new maidens"?

Answer can be found in the sign below. Click the photo below for a larger image.


Anyway, I would like to say that the hotel that we stayed was Parkroyal Hotel in Batu Ferringhi. It was a nice hotel with good food and a nice beach. We enjoyed our stay very much.

Where is the hunting?

Since our team last win in the Open hunt, we have not had the opportunity to hunt again. Not that there were no hunts out there, but rather it was our own separate priorities that kept us occupied. Even for a simple lunch or coffee is also a challenge. I'm still conscious that we haven't celebrate our last success yet.

One of our team members is getting marry soon. And the company treasure hunt is coming up. He said he won't be able to make it. I guess it will be a scratch team this time. So I'm not setting any expectation for the coming closed hunt.

I mentioned earlier somewhere in my old posting that I wanted to write more about the last Open hunt. I did write something about it, but I just deleted the post somewhere somehow. I guessed I just didn't feel like it (to share). I didn't want to invoke an old topic/event and trigger more debate. One thing that I can express, is that we felt the booing (by certain people) that night when our team was on stage was inappropriate, even though we were not bothered by it.

Due to various reasons, I thought about quitting treasure hunt, just walk away, just that. In fact, this thought resurfaces every now and then. But the love for the sports still keep my interest going. I just hope I can still enjoy treasure hunt the way I want to. Just enjoy it, it is that simple.

The Hunt in November

"I just want you guys to know, no matter what happen, you guys are the best hunters I've worked with. If we have to do the best, we will need to support each other and do this as a team." These were the words that I said to the team before we were flagged off for the hunt last Sunday.

There were so many things happened before the hunt, including one team member's mom was in operation a few days before the hunt.

I have kept the faith in the team and in the end we did the best that we could. Right after the hunt, we didn't think we could repeat what we achieved last year. But at the same time, team were not disappointed over it. I guessed that could be a sign of maturity as a hunt team. We were surprised to be even on the stage last Sunday.

I am now preparing for my second full marathon next Sunday. I need to focus on that first. Maybe I will write more on the hunt later.

Treasure Hunt to Pangkor

This time our company hunt took us to Pangkor. It happened last weekend. I teamed up with my usual gang for the hunt. Over 50 teams took part.

The hunt had a theme on "Remembering MJ". MJ here refers to Michael Jackson. The hunt started in the morning with a challenge. Five MJ's songs were played twice, well only tiny part of the song, not the whole song, and the hunters were asked to match with the song title within 2 minutes.

We were quite confident on 3 of the 5 and were unsure about the other two. After submitting that, we were flagged off. We were directed by the tulips to the coastal road to Lumut. The hunt itself was not too tough. I would say it was slightly above average level.

We finally reached Lumut within the stipulated time. We could have arrived earlier, but we were stuck on this Q25 here.

Q25. Famous driver, red on final day. Here they power you anyway.

A25. Tiger @ Heng Huat Machinery

We spent some time on that question, because we were thinking too lateral on the part "red on final day". I spotted "Tiger" the moment we swept the sector, but the "red" part was bothering us or we couldn't figured out immediately. We ended up looking for alternate answers. In the end, we figured out that the "red" part was a literal clue to refer to Tiger Woods wearing red always on the final day of the golf tournament.

Anyway, to cut the story short, we could only manage 5th this time for the 4 points we dropped in the challenge, just 2 points away from the champion. Road and treasure questions were ok for us. We began to notice some teams were catching up fast with us and we need to improve and be more consistent.

In Pangkor Beach Resort, I had the opportunity to train for marathon. I ran 3 laps along the 1km-long fine sandy beach after the hunt and another 6 laps on early Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, I was running barefoot listening to the sound of the waves and occasionally being hit by the on-rushing waves. I could have ran more but we needed to catch the 8am ferry back to Lumut to return home. So I had to cut it short. While I was running, I was conscious about this master running his maiden full marathon at the same time. I was happy to know later he finished it in sub-5 hours time.

Klang Valley Food Hunt 2009

Finally, we were able to find a date and time to go treasure hunting again. This was only the second hunt of the year for me. The KL Food Hunt was organised by Rasa Rasa and sponsored by Maxis (main sponsor).

This time, Raj, Prasath and I were joined by DK. Douglas enrolled earlier with another team.

The hunt format was divided into two legs. In first leg, participants were asked to go to 4 locations without tulips to find the answers to the 25 clues. Then in the second leg, there were 10 more clues, this time with tulips to guide the hunters.

Besides the Q&A, the hunt also posted 3 challenges to the hunters. One of them was Food Challenge. Hunters were required to use the Maxis' Finder301 service to locate any 6 eateries, 1 bank and 1 police station along the route and take pictures outside of the premises. Hunters are required to eat and pose in one of the eateries as well. Then the hunters has to take photos of the SMS search result from Finder301 and print the photos before submitting them.

The other challenges were: identify 10 spices from the photos and make roti canai with the dough provided. For these two challenges, we didn't do well. Basically, we had hiccups and didn't manage or tackle the first challenge well and for the roti canai challenge, I was the one who didn't make a good roti canai. I let myself and the team down and was pretty disappointed.

In the end, that's where many of our points were lost. We had a fairly good score for the route and treasure questions, with only 3 mistakes out of 35 questions. With about 10 points dropped from 2 challenges, we were out of top 10 placing, surely, I thought. Indeed, we were only placed at 15th. Disappointed that's how I felt and I took the responsibility for the team's result. I still find it hard to get over this, but I will try to be positive and move on. I will take the learning from this hunt to improve further.

Letting go

As predicted earlier, I will skip my company's treasure hunt this time. It is scheduled one week before SCKLM, also the same weekend that Sath will have his wedding reception.

Normally there are two hunts per year in our company. And our company has been having treasure hunts since 1999. Every time, about 50 teams will participate. Therefore I can say that there is a strong tradition and it is a good training ground for treasure hunters.

When other colleagues and treasure hunters found out that my team is not hunting, they were very happy, to the extend they thanked us. They were looking forward to win something (some aiming for champion) now that we are now competing. Also, I heard someone said people want to see some other team winning. Not sure how to react to this.

But letting go after being champion for the company hunt for three straight occasions was not a difficult decision to make. We have our priority this time, and we promise to make a comeback next time.

One thing for sure, I must remember to shut off my handphone during the hunt. :) A lot of people already said they will call me for answers. I cannot handle so many calls, ok? Still need to train for my SCKLM, ya, that will be my reason not to answer any treasure hunt call that day. I need to run!

The hunter in me

I have been rather quiet in the treasure hunting scene lately. I must say I have not lost interest in hunting.

I have been busy since the end of last year. With the increase in job scope and responsibilities, I am already finding it hard to manage my time.

My team mates are also pretty busy recently. Sath is getting married soon and he is busy preparing for his big day. Doug is mostly unavailable on weekends. Raj has not say it (yet), but I think his big day is coming too.

So it's rather difficult to get the guys on a good hunt trip. Looking at the current trend, there is also a possibility that we have to skip our company hunt (in June) as defending champions. That would be a shame if it happens.

I also need to train for the SCKLM 2009 in June. Time is really short now. So I guess I have to prioritise that first. Most likely, there will be little or no activity from me on the treasure hunt front until then.

The Hunters Challenge

I just came back from The Hunters Challenge. It was a good hunt and I'm glad to be part of it.

I have been trying to enroll my usual team for this hunt since before CNY. Unfortunately, two of my usual team mates were unavailable. We have not hunted in the open hunt since theSun Motor Hunt 2008. I could sense the rust setting in.

I continued to struggle to form a team until the last two weeks before the hunt. The reason I wanted to join is mainly this and for a good cause. I always believe someone (with great experience and well-known in the fraternity) will take that small step to do this. The team Hunters R Us has taken a step they know how to contribute to it. And now it was up to me to contribute my part, starting by at least joining The Hunters Challenge, to learn and grow from there.

Over the years, I could see that many seasoned hunters, masters and CoC taking the efforts to make the treasure hunt sport better in Malaysia. For example, some masters won't mind teaming up with new hunters in open hunts. In the short term, the team might fare worse than a team with all masters. But in the long run, the gap could get closer. And some people realised that joining the hunts is not always about winning. For the novices, this will directly make the learning curve shorter. Already, there are some young hunters getting better and better by the day. I am sure you can name a few. The masters (who can say now that they are masters because they have apprentices) are getting better in turn as well when they mentor their apprentices.

Thanks to the easy access and wide reach of Internet, other seasoned hunters and masters contributed in other ways, e.g. posting tips and pointers in their blogs to share with all hunters and organising online hunts. Some also publish regular updates on up-coming hunts and recent hunt results. I am pretty sure most of you will know where to find them. Also there is a master that gives detailed dissection of the hunt questions on his blog. All this, is very much appreciated by the hunt community.

There are also more CoCs clerking treasure hunts and taking feedbacks from the hunters with the aim of making their next hunt better. Some CoCs started with some areas that needed improvements. I am sure they are aware of it and it is a matter of time, they will become better CoCs. Many CoCs also catered for a larger crowd with the aim of making treasure hunt popular among those new to the sport. That's why the questions have different degree to difficulty and often times, coupled with physical activities that may not please hunt purists.

Anyway, back to The Hunters Challenge. With Prasath and Doug out, we were deprived of our good pacer cum spotter and resourceful solver in the team. With kind reminder from 2 Romans 1 Imposter, I submitted our team's entry late. I thank him for the acceptance of our entry. Our team for this hunt was a scratch team. I got my brother as the driver and Raj got his GF to form the team. So the aim was really to learn, especially for our green hunters in the car.

The night before, our intended car for the hunt was having problem with the gear and we had to use my small car. I had a flu in the evening before and I'd taken a heavy dose of Vitamin C with lots of water. Luckily, I got better in the morning of the hunt.

The hunt started early in the morning 8:00am from Kompleks 3K in Subang Jaya and we immediately struggled with the first two questions. We managed the next few questions but were careless with the "E18" & "13" questions. The painful thing was, we cracked the question and knew what to look for, but still.... arrgh.....

We couldn't get the next two cryptic ones and have ourselves to blame for not thinking right and not followed through on the right thinking line. Luckily we picked up some answers to a few questions in Puchong Jaya.

The next few questions in Bandar Puteri saw us not sweeping the sectors thorough enough to look for answers. Basically, at this time, I knew this was not going to be our day and I was just trying my best to rally my team until the end.

In the end, we did what we could and it wasn't good enough. We also struggled on the treasures and only managed 2 out of 3 questions in the 3 BLIND MICE challenge. But I take this as a learning and will improve from here.

The hunt ended about 1:30pm and we had a good lunch (curry fish head). The Q&A was presented right after and the Top 15 were announced. Although there are some teams had only 4.5 hours to work with, but they fared quite well also. Congratulations to all winning teams!

I must also congratulate Hunters R Us for a job well done for the inaugural The Hunters Challenge. Keep it up and we hope to see more hunts from you soon. Also, I pray for a quick and full recovery for BlogCe5nt.

That name rings a bell

First, the answers for the teasers posted earlier. These two were taken from Challenge 2 of our company hunt recently.

Answer for first teaser: Downright stupid.

Answer for second one. A bit tough. But the theme was about Christmas. So here it is:



Some other quality road questions here:

Q7. Think out with Indian Leader within.
A7. Perindo Enterprise

Q24. Pour out in here for a healthy flow.
A24. Heropure Mineral Water Pot @ Ashita

Another teaser here from Challenge 2:

Q6. SETPOTIA

Answer later.

Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad

Q. Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad.

You maybe excited to find out the answer. Mmmmm........intercourse, not feel bad. Where? Well, you have to wait awhile.

First consider this question from the recent theSun Motor hunt, in the open category.

Q31. What a dog and cow have in common?

A31. Centre Circle @ Centre Circle Galeri Audio & Visual

I shot this photo when I was near the sector with my camera phone.

For the explanation, if you read the question literally you will think of answers like "animal", "four-legged" etc. I showed this question to a non-hunter, and the answers are the ones stated earlier. But experienced treasure hunters are trained to think laterally first, then literal. In fact, this way of thinking has been a norm for many regulars.

Thinking laterally, the common thing about the word "dog" and "cow" is the letter "o" in the middle. So scanning the sector, you will find the signboard above, Centre Circle Galeri Audio & Visual. Note that an "o" is a "circle" also (although for most handwritten "o" are not exactly like a circle shape).

So, if we remember this (unwritten) rule, most treasure hunt questions are designed to trap hunters who tend to read it literally or take its surface/obvious/common meaning. When CoC (Clerk-of-Course) set the questions, they did not indicate what their intended meaning was. Therefore you cannot tell which is the right line of thinking. Actually, I should not say right, but the intended line of thinking of the CoC.

But if the surface meaning is too common and general such as this Q31, the danger is that, there could be alternative answers out there, besides the intended one. If there is an alternate answer to the literal meaning of the question, can it be accepted?

I was near the sector of Q31 a few hours ago, and I captured this photo here.

This signboard was found within the same sector for Q31 & before Q32.

Now, consider this literal answer:

A31. Haiwan @ Kedai Haiwan Peliharaan Puppy Cottage Sdn Bhd

The words "Kedai Haiwan Peliharaan" are found on the top left side of the sign. The keyword here is "haiwan", the Malay word for animal. It fits perfectly for the literal meaning of the question.

So the question now is, what is there to say the alternate answer above is wrong, or not accepted? Is it because there is an unwritten rule for the hunters to laterally first? Or is it the lateral answer is more sophisticated than the literal answer? Or simply put it, it is not the intended answer of the CoC, period.

Now, back to the original question I have posted at the top.

Q. Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad.

The question above is a classic question for a hunt that I joined many years ago.

Now, let's apply the lateral thinking first. Wordplay, umm.... the keyword or indicator here is "bad", definitely an indicator for anagram. So "not feel" bad, go look for anagram of "not feel" and in that sector, you may find this common sign below.

A. Telefon

An "intercourse" can mean a conversation, communication. So the answer is definitely fitting.

Now, consider these alternative answers:

Hotel Gembira

Rumah Tumpangan Ceria

Of course, the intercourse that normally takes place in hotels and rumah tumpangan can be of a different kind, e.g. between a couple. I remember we have a good laugh for one or two minutes when the "interesting" answers were shared to all by the CoC.

Back to the lateral versus literal issue again, what is stopping the alternative answers above as a valid and correct answer to the question?

While the lateral side of the question forms a good anagram clue, the literal side of the question was vulnerable. Overall, this question/clue was not tight enough. In this case, perhaps the CoC should cross-check thoroughly and make sure there is no literal and valid alternate answers available within the sector.

Similar (I say, similar) issue came to light during the recent virtual hunt organised by a well-known critic. I followed that posting and I applauded the way that the master handled the issue. The master acknowledged the blunder for leaving room for alternative answers, then listened to the alternative answers and explanation, seek advice from peers (masters), followed the rule of cryptic clueing, his principle and being fair when he made his decision in the end.

Treasure Hunt for Olympics?

Treasure Hunt to be an event for Olympics Games.

Some may say it's crazy. Some may say it's impossible.

I'm dreaming for that.

Treasure hunt has grown to a popular recreation sports for some Malaysians. Gone were the days when treasure hunt is part of the British army's pastime. No more counting of coconut trees and lamp pole in Jalan Bangsar. Treasure hunt in Malaysia today is an intellectual challenge, where teams work and compete to decipher cryptic clues.

Well, in this posting, I am not going to talk about the history or the cryptic clueing of treasure hunt. Rather, I will write about the treasure ecosystem today and maybe ways to take the sports forward (hopefully).

I have tried to put into a simple ecosystem diagram of treasure hunt here.

Simple diagram of treasure hunt ecosystem.

In this diagram above, we can see that there are many parties involved in the ecosystem. I will try to explain the roles played by each party here.

1. The community. The community here refers to the context of the treasure hunt event itself. The community can be the general public for a open hunt. It can be staff of a company for a company event. It can also be the target marketing segment of the organiser of the hunt. The community can be beneficiaries of a charity hunt.

2. Treasure hunters. These are the people who take part in the treasure hunts. They may be first-timers, regulars, masters and CoC. The hunters may take part for many reasons e.g. for fun, to win something, as team/relationship-building, for charity, etc. Some hunters with very good command of the language with strong cryptic-solving skills are called masters (note that the definition of a master is debatable to some). I would like to think of the masters as mentors. Those who with great skills but also can see the win-win paradigm are the ones who knows that by sharing knowledge/know-how and making others better does not make them less competitive. But rather, it will increase the size of the pie and good for the sports in the longer-term. Some hunters are more passionate than others and they join many hunts and we may call them regulars. Some regulars eventually learned through many mistakes and experiences to become masters. Some treasure hunters also became Clerk-of-Course (CoC). CoCs are the question-setter and the event manager of the hunt.

3. Organisers. Organiser can be a company, a society, a school etc. The purpose maybe to reach out to the community for a commercial/marketing, social, or charity cause. The organiser may need the support of sponsors and media to make the event more successful.

4. Sponsors. Sponsors are important to the treasure hunts. Most hunters now are likely to be attracted by cash or good prizes. Of course, sponsors will get the attention and marketing reach from the community and hunters alike with the support of the media and Internet.

5. Media and Internet. Media and the Internet are the important means to reach out to the community and form a bridge between the other parties in the ecosystem to the community due to its extensive reach and connection.

So there you have it, a simple model of the treasure hunt ecosystem. I may be missing something, please comment then.

Is there anything we can add to this? Maybe a governing body for the treasure hunt sport? What is required to take the sport to a higher level? Sort of like an association to look after the hunters, the CoC, ensure the growth of the sport?

I think there are pros and cons about it. Some may agree, some may not. Those who agree may want a body to regulate/govern treasure hunts in Malaysia. Those who against may have reservation and feel that there is nothing immediate or urgent that requires such a governing body now (since treasure hunt has grown to what it is today without it).

Of course, there must be a charter and purpose for this body. Rather than inventing that purpose, it must be discovered. If there is a need for a body for a long-term good of the sport, I think it will be found. Hopefully, it can be a tiny step towards treasure hunt for Olympics.

theSun hunt 2008 - Brilliant Q25

The answer (or should I say question?) for Q25 was staring at me.

Q25 (bolded). Bays?

A25. Vocal Station @ Golden Sun

I thought this was a brilliant question.

It was a Double Jeopardy question. The question itself was the answer. And hunters were required to find the signboard that could be a question for Q25.

There are not many signboards that the CoC can use for Double Jeopardy. Basically you need some key words in the signboard for this type of question. Naturally, I think, CoC would be tempted to use Double Jeopardy whenever they have the chance.

I've never liked short clue, Q25 has just one single-syllable word. It didn't tell you much. Figuring out the CoC's intention was like finding a needle in the ocean.

We scanned this long sector on foot but didn't manage to get it. I was looking for a word that could mean "cry", "howl", "space" etc. I didn't find any.

Why I say this was a brilliant question? Because the presence of the question mark, "?" It disguised itself as a direct question, rather than a Double Jeopardy question. So many hunters (including me) were led thinking elsewhere.

In the end this was what Dom was meaning to say:

"Station" can mean "base." "Vocal" can be sounds-like indicator. "Bays" is a homonym of "base". Therefore the intended answer, "Vocal Station."

In the IOI run this morning, I was near this sector. I went back to this sector and took photo of the board (see photo above). I've seen the board earlier during the hunt but the light bulb remained off that time. Argh...

But I still think this was a solvable clue. And it was solved by a few teams only according to Dom. We were running out of time (during the hunt) and the sector was badly congested. We decided to move on and try to get the rest. I didn't want to give up on Q25 but I remember we made the decision as a team to move on. Come to think of it now, it was another wise decision that we'd made.

Ancora imparo

I am still learning.

This beautiful sport of treasure hunt.

(Flash back to immediately after theSun Hunt 2008 Leg 2 submission)

I was asking myself, "Did we do enough this time?" "Did I do enough this time?"

Every time we joined a treasure hunt, I always remind the team, that the one competitor that we were up against was the CoC. It was the CoC that we were supposed to beat.

I knew we didn't manage to best the CoC this time. We didn't solve all questions. We left money on the table.

I did everything that I could to motivate the guys since the day I enrolled the team for the hunt. The aim, this time, as I put to them, was to win it, and the message was, "We can win it."

I was in pensive mood. I didn't talk much. It was the guys who came to me and said, "Just chill." "We have done our best... given the limited time that we need to manage in the end."

(Flash back to the year 2006)

In 2006, we got an opportunity to form a team to represent our company in the inaugural Corporate Hunt. This was the first time Sath, Raj, Doug and I worked as a team. It was the strongest team combination I could thought of at that time. I remember that was one of the toughest hunts we have ever been to. We started the hunt with high hope but received a baptism of fire in open hunt and was placed 18th.

Although we were well-defeated in the Corporate Hunt, but I felt that the team could perform better. In that same year, I got to know theSun Motor Hunt. I convinced the guys to join this hunt. Contrary to Corporate Hunt, the team morale was pretty low before the start of the hunt. I wanted to motivate them and promised to bear the entry fee of RM360 if our team finished in the top 10.

-The prize for 10th place in 2006 was a DVD player each.

The team did well to finish 10th among more than 200 teams in the Open category. I could see the happy faces and confidence grew.

(The year, 2007)

That year we joined quite many open hunts. We were selective on which hunts to join mainly due to team members availability issues. Competing in the field of masters, we managed some top 10 finishes in open hunts. The team confidence was high and we aimed to better the 10th place finish in theSun hunt the year before. We were looking at a possible top 5 finish. This time there was no need for me to promise any incentive like the year before.

We finished 9th and left pondering what could have been in 2007.

We finished the hunt in 9th place. In terms of points scored, we didn't improve. We made mistakes that we shouldn't have. We could have been in the top 5 or even top 3. And we were left pondering what could have been.

(Fast-forward to the prize giving ceremony, theSun hunt 2008)

"The runner-up in the Open Category is... Micro Focus" announced Dom.

It was a special moment for me and the team.

I was holding back tears of joy, and Sath was quick to notice and say, "Hold it..."

It was a special moment for me and the team. I did promised the team, after the heartbreak in theSun hunt 2007, that as long as they believe in me, I will captain them to an open hunt champion one day. That day has come.

"...and the champions in the Open Category, Lanun Inc."

theSun hunt 2008 - Sneaky Q8

Q7 (not bolded): I can make them a restroom, But they can make you drapes.

A7: Letto curtain

Q8 (bolded): From a starlet today and then blind, such may fall if the answer you don't find.

A8: Letto curtain

(The adventure posted below happened during the first leg of theSun hunt 2008, and it is extracted from my hunt log book.)

We went back to Sector 3 and dropped Raj there to look for Q10, "The Lady with the Lamp!!” Sath, Doug and I then went back to Sector 2 for Q6, Q7 and Q8. Here we got Q7 quickly but faced problem with Q6 and Q8 (both bolded). Here was the problem, Q7 was found at middle of the sector. So Q6 and Q8 can be either side of the signboard found for Q7. We spent some time here walking and were still stuck. In Q8, there’s a word “blind” in the clue, I was pretty sure I was looking for a “screen”, but there was nothing there to suggest that, except the word "curtain" in the answer for Q7, “Letto curtain”. Then I examined the question again and found the letters “let to” in between some words in the clues. Then it became clear to me, this was a sneaky question. Treasure hunters were so trained to find one signboard for one question and the CoC never mention the same signboard can be the answer for two different questions. And it can.

I called Sath quickly and met up with Doug. Doug also cracked this independently and he also thought the logical answer for Q8 was the same answer as in Q7. Here was another issue we faced: with answers of Q7 and Q8 being the same signboard at the middle of the sector, Q6 (bolded) could be either way, and that was a long sector. I have to say this again: this Q8 was a sneaky question, it didn't make the bolded Q6 any easier (if you got A7 and A8 first) because it didn't reduce the scope of search. By that time, I had to write down quickly some possible answers for Q6, to be discussed with the team later, and we moved out from that sector. This proved to be a wise decision later.

It's special

Team Lanun Inc. - theSun Motor Hunt 2008 Champions for Open Category.

It's special.

Our team's first ever open win.

On my birthday.

We have been working hard for a win.

We have a win, finally.

I'm very proud of my team mates, Raj, Sath and Doug. You guys really believed we could do it and gave 100% efforts with no regrets. You guys were great.

We can improve further from here. If better is possible, good is not enough. And we are still learning this beautiful sport of treasure hunt.

First open hunt win

This win has not fully sunk in yet.

I will write more about the hunt later.

theSun Hunt 2008 Dinner & Results

Dinner just starting. We'll be presented with answers & results soon. Also, there will be lucky draws, hehe....

theSun Hunt 2008 final briefing

Some 275 teams listening to the briefing before flag-off this morning.