KFC - KL City Amazing Race 2013

Now the race that we triumphant! 

It was a last minute decision, as wifey might have something that Saturday, and the deadline for registration was on Thursday. It was around 2 pm (that Thursday) that I got an sms from her (wifey) saying that the programme on Saturday is cancelled, and right after that I told Fakri we are on for the race and continue with the registration. Race on!

Race Day (Saturday, 2 March 2012)

Start, Finish : Wisma KFC

KFC anyone?

Am the first one arrived, around 7.40am. Took the LRT. No need to worry about parking.

8.00 registration and breakfast. By then everyone is here.

8.45 final briefing, we need to wear the bandana and stick our numbers on our back and front. A Rapid KL’s lanyard and RM8 MyRapid card were also given to each team. 

2 teams. Budget Good Good 1 (known as BGG1) and Budget Good-Good 2 (known as BGG2). BGG1 comprise of me and Fakri, while BGG2 comprise of Elah and Lek. We will race side by side and aiming for podium finisher.. *chewahh*

9.00 off we go!.. err.. we didn’t go anywhere atleast after almost an hour! The riddle that we needed to solve is kind a hard (atleast for our level). You will only get where you will be going once you solve those riddles. Sigh. Wasted too much time, but we finally get 5 out of 8 locations that we were supposed to go, and there will be 4 CPs where we will get a set of ‘hunt’ questions to solve. Yeah right, like we got the time to do that. :P

1^st CP – Kl City Walk

Task – Buat sampai menangis!

With haste, we went for our first CP, the task – peel a bag of 5kg small onion, under an hour! Wahh! That’s a lot of onion, seriously! And peeping at the sheet of which team has completed, few get 0 points as they couldn’t finish it within an hour. Wasted! They must have been the team that took off earlier. Fakri were the one cutting the top and bottom of the onion, while me? I got this brilliant idea to ‘peel’ the onion using my fingers and nails. The result? We managed to finish it under half an hour and my fingers hurt!. We went ahead with the hunt questions while waiting for team BGG 2 completed their task. Acting as a time keeper, I knew that we didn’t have much time as we only visit one CP and left with 7 more, and we need to finish it within 2 and a half hours! While at it, another team were kind enough to share with us the location for the last 3 CPs, and that really save us lots of time trying to figure it out ourselves. Answered only 2 hunt questions.

dengan penuh kusyuk..

untuk buat kenduri ke bang? 

Went on running frantically towards Concorde Hotel, not knowing where is Wariseni actual location is (padahal memasing ada smartphone) ok. Situasi pantas, tak sempat nak fikir dah :P I thought Fakri said ‘Concorde Hotel’ as the next CP :P. Penat. As we were running towards Matic, I looked back and saw Wariseni sign near the Monorel station. Seb baik.

2^nd CP – Wariseni near Dang Wangi LRT station

Task – Tikar mengkuang La.. La.. La.. La.. (ikut irama lagu Kain Pelikat)

Another time consuming task. Although no time limit was given, it still took us about 15 minutes to complete it. If you rush it, it will only delay you further. Serious. Sabar sesangat. Bukan patern empat segi yg biasa tu. Ada patern dia yg kena ikut. 

tadaa!! ada bakat tak?

Both teams manage to complete it and get full marks. Proceed to Jalan Hang Tuah using the Monorel. Dapat lah menghilangkan rasa kepanasan. Heaven. 

Oh wait! Where in Jalan Hang Tuah exactly? Well, that’s for you to find out. Clues were given with only street names, not with the exact location. 

3^rd CP – Jalan Hang Tuah

Task – Its not easy being a ‘fireman’

And my best guess, it must be at the Fire Station. Turns out my guess was right! The security guard told us that we have to go to the back of the station. Both team members need to complete the task, one sliding down the pole the fireman use when they want to get down from 2 story floor high, and another team member need to roll up the water hose in orderly manner. It’s not every day u get to wear the full suit of a fireman. I was struggling to put it on, and it is the actual suit that the fireman wear while on duty. And they have like 2 seconds to put everything on, while I took like a whole 10 minutes to do so :P Insaf jap. Its not easing being a fireman really. I love my job better. Noktah. 

abg ni mcm biasa buat lah!

okk.. ready.. peluk.. turun!

err.. tak yah komen ape2 :P

The first team that was there were DNF since one of their team member was hurt doin this task. It seems doable, but it’s not every day we get to do this, and even me, I landed my bump first, which, also not the right way to do it. So entering a race always come with risks, not just the fun of it. :) remember that. 

Too bad, few teams miss this CP, as there were no banner whatsoever to indicate the CP. 

4^th CP – Jalan Panggung

Task – Carry a block of ice to the KFC restaurant @ CM.

Next – we took a cab to Jalan Panggung for our next task. One of us need to carry a block of ice all the way to the back of KFC restaurant @ CM (about 500 metres away) and this is very challenging task especially those weren’t prepared for such physical task, but again, this is prolly why they call ‘amazing’ race in the first place, not a fun run, right? :P.

 isnt it hot today? want a block of ice?

5^th CP – Central Market

Task – Singing with Signatures. 

We move to another CP at CM, where we need to sing out loud in the public area and get ourselves 20 signatures from the public in order to get the next set of hunt questions. Fakri sung a song, then we went into Mamak’s and get those signatures in no time.

A family of 4, 3 daughters and a Makcik

Makcik : Wahh, ni ada apa ni?

BGG 1 : Kami ada race ni makcik. Blh tak nak mintak sign? Sign je, tak yah name ke ape..

Makcik : Takpelah, soh anak-anak makcik yang sign (sambil anak2 dia sign)

Makcik : Eh, masuk TV tak race korang ni?

BGG 1 : *Errk* Eh takde lah makcik, takde cameraman ikut, so takde lah masuk tv part ni.. 

*Sambil ucap time kasih dan berlari kuar* :P 

We completed the task, and got the hunt questions. we answered only one out of 5. Again, we don’t really have that much time. Once BGG 2 finished their task, off we go to the next CP. 

6^th CP - Kuil Sri Maha Mariamman

Task – Bunga Malai arrangement

Rushing to the next CP @ kuil Sri Maha Mariamman, around 500 meter away from where we were. Here, we needed to make a bunga malai arrangement and another set of hunt questions were given, this one we answered 2 questions, leaving out the rest. Rushing2 towards the next CP. Sangat pantas, nak cerita pun takde cerita dah kat sini.

errr.. not this one. yg bunga kecik2 tu.. :)

tiap2 explorace, amazing race sure ada task ni..

Its 12.35 pm. Cut off time is 1 pm. *puft* Panas terik! Simpang siur berlari2 anak di celah2 traffic. Hidup di kota metropolitan. Semua rushing. event hari Sabtu. Ehh?

7^th CP – Spotted Dog (nickname for Selangor Club), Dataran Merdeka

Task – Name the comic characters

We were left with only 2 CPs. One in Dataran merdeka, and another one is @ Taman Tasik Titiwangsa. 

Dataran!

We decided to check out the CP @ Dataran, where we have to guess the name of 10 cartoon characters. We managed to identify only 7 out of 10 characters, and we totally skip the hunt questions and opted not to try the Titiwangsa CP as we might not have enough time to get back to Wisma KFC on time. 

Note : and we don’t even know where in TT Titiwangsa the task would be :P 

Time : 12.44 pm. Tick Tock, Tick Tock. 

KL taxi driver is something. They are sometimes, a lifesaver! :)

We arrived back @ Wisma KFC at 12.51 pm. Phew! A minute late would be a total waste of today’s effort. 

Stuffed ourselves with freshly cook KFC chicken buffet, and gulping down iced cold sirap! Perghh..  

Prize Giving ceremony began around 2.30 pm, but before that a lucky draw session in between. Me and Lek won a lucky draw each, tickets to Melaka Wonderland and I got another prize for embarrassing myself dancing in front of the others, with a bag full of Secret Garden products. < Wifey love em so! 

Its time. After the answer tabulation, its time to announce the winner.

While the MC announcing the 10th to 6^th placing winner, we get nervous and we weren’t sure we could be in the top 5. Turns out our worry were baseless. 

We did it!! Yay! with BGG1 positioned 2^nd and BGG2 positioned 3^rd! Not bad huh? If only we have enough time to go to Titiwangsa, we would definitely be the champion. What ever it is, Alhamdulillah, we are safe and sound and thankful for the rezki given by Allah. It was worth the effort running like mad around KL city on Saturday’s morning.

Congrats!

You’ll lose some, you’ll win some! Just do your best and enjoy doing it! Insya allah. A winning always boost the spirit of the team. X sabar nak join event lain! :)

Ended 3.30 pm. Penat. Tp best. Tschuss!

Pro :

Easy hunt question. The ‘not’ so easy, to solve it. Haha.. we are not that good in hunting. But we did enjoy answering few of them (total Q = 20). We answered 5. :P Points for hunt Qs = 20 pts. Points for all the task = 80 pts. I think we scored atleast 74 points.

Scrumptious breakfast and lunch. Always a KFC fan. :P 

Marshals were helpful and friendly. Most of them are KFC’s staff. Well, at least they guide us with the riddles. Those asking for answers, 2 points will be deducted from you total point at the end of the race.

Its always fun running around the KL City on Saturday’s morning

Free Rapid Card = Free train ride :) 

Love em trolly bag! Adding more collection of KFC’s.

Cons :

This type of race kind a new to me, well, atleast an hour more should be sufficient for all of us to try to get to the last CP. The riddle for the first part kinda hard, nothing wrong with giving out the road name, as we still need to figure out where the exact location is.

No banner @ certain CP, so teams might not have any idea where the CP actually is. 

Time consuming task, a bag of small red union in an hour? Aiseh. Should it be just like, a kilo or just weight how much one team can peel within 15 minutes or so. But still, doable.  Only one team at a time is allowed to do the task @ Bomba Jln Hang Tuah. Too bad if you have to wait for the slower team. And putting those suit takes time. And we were not told of the risk whatsoever. 

Slower team didn’t get to do the Onion task because the management of KL City Walk were not satisfied about the mess coming out of it, so, it has to be cancelled.

CPs, most of them were nearby. And then you have Taman Tasik Titiwangsa CP’s. Should it be somewhere around Padang Merbok or Taman Botani if you only gave us 4 hours of race time? And I heard that the task for TT Titiwangsa was Ping Pong. Can be play anywhere flat right? 

Numbers/stickers were peeled off after 2 CPS. We were ‘numberless’ by the end of the race. But good idea asking everyone to wear the bandana. No event tee though. Would be nice to have one, promoting this event everywhere I go later :) Oh, it’s easier to spot the racers that way too, instead of just bandana.