HARRY POTTER AND THE MAGICAL TOWER HUNT

ALOR SETAR 23 JULY 2011: Bring out the flying broomstick, flip through the pages of a spell book, wave the magic wand and utter the incantation of Abracadabra! This is the time for sorcery and witchcraft!

With the premier screening of a wizard’s 8^th and final movie during the previous weekend, Menara KL Tower To Tower Hunt 2011 delivered an encore of unforgettable magical adventure as well.

COC Md Sofian Zainal Abidin (from NRZ Events) may lack the youth and charm of Harry Potter; yet his encyclopaedic knowledge of powerful spells made him an equally formidable hunt wizard.



Menara KL Tower 2 Tower Hunt 2011

Wizard COC Md Sofian from NRZ Events

   

If others had to faithfully sit through 8 lengthy movies to find out Potter’s destiny, the hunters merely needed 8 hours to discover theirs in this event. Or was it 9 hours? Apparently Sofian’s Obliviate spell (used to hide a memory of a particular info) hadn’t completely worn off yet.

With unfathomable ‘spells’ relentlessly conjured by the COC, the participants were involuntarily spellbound (pun intended) right from the beginning. At times, one may almost recognise an amusing resemblance between this hunt and the 7 novels of Harry Potter.

The Philosopher's Briefing

It all started with the briefing on the hunt eve.

“The briefing was from 9pm till late night. A bit late considering that we have a long hunt the next day. I need my rest, you know” hunter Sam Rahman mournfully complained on the hunt morning.

Even some who attended the briefing generally felt that the info was a bit vague. The briefing slides only touched on road safety guidance, expected hunt route, sample tulips and ETA at Alor Setar about 4.30pm, while the hunters were informed to come as early as 7am on hunt day.

Attempt to compare notes among the hunters in the morning raised more questions, than answers. Opinions differed even on the simple matters of hunt time, the number of questions and point distribution. Such ambiguities could and should have been painlessly avoided, if the details were clearly spelt out in the briefing notes.

When probed during final briefing, COC Sofian finally disclosed a total of 40Q (which score 5 each), 5 Treasures (that score 10 each) and 2 Challenge Activities (involving eating and fishing that score 10 each), within the hunt time of 9 hours from 8.30am to 4.30pm!!!

"That couldn’t be right” was probably the immediate thought of some vigilant hunters, who detected the arithmetic inconsistency and promptly requested for a recount. With a wave of hand (and a possible Masa Reducio spell), the hunt wizard instantly reconfirmed that the hunt time was indeed only 8 hours.

For hunters familiar with outstation hunts, the allotted 8-hour time hardly sufficed. Barring any traffic jams, a journey from KL to Alor Setar along PLUS highway could easily take about 5.0 to 5.5 hours. The hunters were further advised to spend about 20 minutes at each of the 4 walk hunt/activity locations (Menara KL/Telekom Muzium/ R&R Tapah/ R&R Gurun).

Minus that and they barely had 1 hour to solve 20 road questions, secure 5 treasures, navigate around KL and Alor Setar towns (not to forget a detour to Bukit Merah for fishing challenge). The Tower to Tower hunt was worrisomely becoming a Tower to Tower race!

“Seems like the whole thing a bit kelam-kabut (disorganized)” hunter Muhammad Akhir rightly noted.

Que sera sera……

Participants listening to final briefing

Flag-Off - Samurai style

The Chamber of Secrets at the Museum

After the customary speech and flag-off from Menara KL, the participants safely arrived at Telekom Muzium for a walk hunt.

With 10Q to tackle at the repository, the hunters frantically studied the plaques and exhibits for the solutions. Yet after about 20 minute of incessant search, the answers for several questions still remained elusive.

There was a nagging suspicion that perhaps either these were shrouded by the Cloak of Invisibility; or somehow an Obscuro spell (to cause a blindfold to appear over the victim’s eyes) had been cast by our COC. While some had grudgingly left, aware of the miserly hunt time, a few stubbornly stayed back to continue the search in vain.

Finally a Marshall turned up and tardily clarified “Itu jawapan untuk soalan 3 dan 4 ada dalam bilik di tingkat atas; tapi tak boleh masuk – ada renovation (the answers for Q3 and Q4 are located in the room upstairs; but you can’t enter, due to renovation in progress).”

Ahhh…… the hunt’s chamber of secrets!

The Prisoner of R&R

If there was a possible avenue to save time during hunt (besides recklessly driving at breakneck speed), the best chance lay at the Rest & Relax stations (R&R). The scheme drawn on the back of an envelope, was to rapidly solve the questions and tasks at the R&R in Tapah and Gurun, in less than the allotted 20 minutes.

Just when a few hunters performed the assignments in 10 minutes and gleefully proceeded to clock out, the COC abruptly cast a spell of Freezing Charm with this command “You can’t leave this place until you have spent at least 20 minutes here.”

“What!!! Why?”

“We want you to take a break and have a rest here!”

So the wretched hunters were left strolling around, momentarily ‘imprisoned’ at the R&R, while the precious minutes ticked away.

The Goblet of Popcorns

The stop at R&R Tapah also brought hunters face-to-face with the challenge of Tapah ‘goblet’ of popcorns.

Popcorns are invariably linked with great movie experience. Perhaps in an effort to simulate a cinematic feel in his hunt, COC Sofian challenged the hunters to munch the popcorns, without spilling them or personally holding the container.

“Basically somebody gotta feed you” a Marshall helpfully summed up.

With his engineering background, hunter BL Yeoh brilliantly concocted a simple solution of paper funnel to pour the popcorn into.



Challenge 1 - The Goblet of Popcorns

However upon the prototype completion, COC Sofian, like Frank Sinatra, opting to do things ‘My Way’, promptly confiscated the apparatus to the chagrin of its inventor.

“The rules never said cannot” hunter BL Yeoh vehemently protested; only to find himself on the receiving end of a tongue-tying spell from the COC “Now I say cannot!”



Objection overruled! Case closed!

The Order of the Catfish

Compared to the mindless chomping of popcorns, the next challenge at the Bukit Merah resort seemed to offer the pinnacle of excitement. Of course, not at the level associated with chasing a flying ball in a Quidditch game.

In order to survive this checkpoint, the participants must reel in a catfish!

Fish-catching challenge may not be a novelty in hunts nowadays. Yet inexplicably the whole process of using a rod and hook never failed to provide the thrill; from gingerly hooking the bait, patiently waiting for the fish, feeling the tug of a bite, slowly reeling in the catch to finally unhooking the fish into a pail of water.

 

Unhooking the catfish

Challenge 2 - Fishing at Bukit Merah



The Half-Blood Artist

Typically during the long drive in inter-state hunts, a lot of creative ideas had been used in the past to keep the participants occupied; from armchair hunts, to Crack-A-Pot (in Kiwanis hunt), Sudoku challenge, bonus questions and others.

This hunt embarked on something slightly different.

Firstly, the hunters were asked to reproduce the full lyrics of 3 songs; which comprise 2 Malay songs and a number from Bruno Mars, The Lazy Song. Not too challenging, but a bit onerous nonetheless!

Secondly, they had to submit their best drawings of Tesco Rawang and Menara KL. Which was why for the rest of the journey, several hunters suddenly transformed into semi-Picasso; fully conversant with multi-point perspectives, cross hatching, screentone and contour lines in pencil sketching.

The Deathly Hello

This was probably the most crucial part of the hunt.

With an unforeseen traffic jam at Juru toll, the wizard COC had discreetly cast a Masa Incrementio spell during the hunt, which has increased the hunt time by additional 1 hour.

However the casting of the spell was followed with a spell of Kutak – Bagita – Ukamu (a curse of silence); which temporarily rendered the hunters unaware of time extension, until they were belatedly informed upon check-in at Gurun R&R. It was hardly surprising that more than half the teams had unfortunately given up the hunt before arrival at Gurun, on the presumption that they won’t make it on time.

When asked about the rationale for Kutak–Bagita-Ukamu spell, COC Sofian nonchalantly justified “Hunters must be creative and resourceful. If they realize that they don’t have enough time, they must call me cepat-cepat (quickly). If they don’t phone me, then they don’t know got time extension lah.”

Alas if only the hunters had made the Deathly Hello calls to the COC……..



Epilogue

Fast forward a few hours later at Menara Alor Setar, where the hunt expectedly ended as mystically as how it had started.

The answer presentation session was lamentably sacrificed, as the prize-giving VIP was in a hurry to leave for another function. The last shock of the day duly came during the winner announcement with the top teams scoring over 500 points.

“What the……? How did the points add up to be so high?”

“Was there another secret spell used to increase the points?”

Another hunter hilariously pointed out that the local word for magic show in Malaysia is “silap mata”, which could also literally mean ‘wrong points’. How perceptive and apt indeed!

Hunter Yeoh at Menara Alor Setar

Singer at Menara Alor Setar

Conclusion

Unlike Potter’s final movie, the loose ends of this magical hunt were somehow not satisfactorily tied up (perhaps intentionally as well, to lend an aura of mystery to the whole event).

Should any Potter’s fans suffer from magic withdrawal syndrome in future, the prescription for them will be simple – come and join this hunt next year.

Who will miss Harry Potter when we have our Malaysian homegrown wizard COC, who may have any spells for all possibilities? Whatever he may call it…. mumbo-jumbo, hocus pocus, Alakazam, Open Sesame, nga inseng mata kaji!

Should push comes to shove and anything go dreadfully wrong, you get the feeling our hunt COC will resort to his ultimate spell to defend against all protests!!!

Ikutsu – Kahatiak – Ucocmah!!!!

    

1st Runner-Up

2nd Runner-Up

 

Champion