The man behind this initiative is indeed a die hard cryptic fan. Earlier this week,  Jayaram Menon’s unique sms wishes managed to cut through the clutter of generic wishes  “Bully facing ox again, both sides withholding greeting” (4, 2, 2 ,3)

The first in the series, is the Crystal Yacht Challenge starting from 10th Feb. You need to register here and questions will be sent to your inbox. You can also check out how the hunt is run and how you might just be the lucky one to go on a cruise on this yacht.

While these online hunts provide more cryptic fun for us hunters, from the business point of view, it’s an ideal programme to bring  eyeballs to the sponsor’s website and it’s a very sticky net marketing tool.

Acara “treasure hunt” pembuka tirai yang saya kendalikan tahun ini berlangsung pada hujung minggu ke-dua bulan Januari. Walaupun berdepan dengan situasi ekonomi yang membimbangkan, acara tahunan syarikat ini lebih besar dan meriah kali ini berbanding dengan tahun-tahun yang lalu.

Antara soalan-soalan yang saya kemukakan untuk treasure hunt ini termasuklah soalan ini.

Q: Selebriti pertama wilayah tengah.

Pada sebelah petangnya, banyak acara-acara yang berbentuk “telematch” telah disediakan untuk semua. Sepanjang petang itu terdengar sorakan, ruihan dan ketawa dari perserta-peserta dan penyokong mereka. Ternyata acara sampingan ini telah menceriakan lagi suasana terutamanya bagi mereka-mereka yang tidak menyertai acara “tresaure hunt”.

Daripada maklumbalas formal dan informal yang saya terima, ramai yang cukup puas hati dengan acara sepanjang hari itu.

Semoga tahun baru ini, akan mendatangkan lebih banyak acara “treasure hunt” yang menarik seperti ini.

I thought I’ll share with you how much your contributions and support have help and enable this blog to be of service to the hunting community in 2008.

For the whole of last year, there were

• 126 posts all together.

• 40 up-coming hunt announcements, complete with entry forms.

• 41 results. Many of which came from you guys who took the trouble to record them and forward to me for uploading.

• 702 comments. On a few occasions, hunt organizers/ CoC  were able to addressed and rectified some issues after they were highlighted here by hunters.    

Other statistic

The good people from the team, Hunters r Us are embarking on a very bold mission with their inaugural open hunt. The hunt dubbed for hunters by hunters will be held on Sunday 1st March 2009. The fee is RM300/car and if you sign up before 31st January you will get back RM20/car on hunt day.

Entry Form

Prizes are RM2K, RM1.2K, and RM800 for the top 3 placings.

As in any self-financed hunt like this, the number of teams participating is crucial and they would need to plan early. So if you are interested, do drop them a note now.

In terms of hunting experience, Hunters r Us is the outlier team in our midst. They are without  a doubt the most hard working treasure hunt team out there and have clocked more hunting hours than any other team. Having heard and experienced most things in treasure hunt they now would like to innovate and improve the scene.

Lately, we have seen how new players have tried hard to stamp their mark. To stand out and be different. Nothing’s wrong with that, it’s a natural thing.  However, personally I think there have been more misses than hits. I took a rather conventional safe route when I first started. I remember my first open hunt where I kept reminding myself to be as  “standard” as possible. Gain acceptance, learn the rules well, only then bend the rules without breaking it. Of course, unlike me and other, HrU is a Lebensstil  kettle. They have the experience as hunters and they have done private and online hunts and can be as “innovative” as they want to. Still, those online hunts are markedly different from doing an open hunt. First open hunt can be a tricky thing. Fairly or otherwise, a CoC gets judged by their first hunt.

First, they have started to new method to identify the better hunters,  a seemingly superior way to segregate teams in a hunt. It remains to be seen whether this new system will gain traction and currency. Either way, it’s a worthwhile attempt.

Second, they feel that the current crop of questions with the “in your face” clue indicator no longer providers the challenge for top teams. One of the innovation you will surely see in this hunt is the “silent indicator”. For example the Malay word  “sah” without any indicator is “has” returned, therefore “ikilim” (miliki in reverse). You can see more of these type of questions  in their just concluded “Around the World in 18days” online hunt. The good hunters are fast learners and they will adapt to this style but personally I don’t  quite like it.

Whatever it is, members of the H ‘r’ U team are very meticulous and you can be sure of a well run hunt come 1st March 2009.

Date: 21/02/2009, Saturday
Entry fee: RM260.00
Type: Half day motor treasure hunt
Theme: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI)
Route: Klang Valley
Format: 30 Route Qs, 5 Treasure Qs, 2 Challenges
Prizes: RM5,000.00 worth of cash & prizes
CoC: Purple Antz Events

No physical challenges ie. coconut bowling, rock climbing, thosai making.

Entry Form

Blogging live at the answers and prizes presentation.  Full points -100

1. 100 -  Kok Seng, Michael Pang, Chong Foo Seong, C.T Teoh
2.    98 – Wong, Goh Teck Koon, Claire Chin, Julie Tan
3.    96 – Alexander Hoh, Andre Teh, Rosemawarni, Shaharin
4.    96 – KK Chai, Margaret Sha, Vincent Woo, VK Choong.
5.    96 – Venka , Saktivel, Buanes, Eeswaran
6.    96 – Pava, Shandra, Hamidah, Fuad
7.    92 – Chee Hong, Jan Er, Ee Wah, Jialing
8.    92 – Asri, Mazri and team
9.    92 – Rajj, C K Loh , Suhaimi, Tommy Ng
10.    90-  Gary Guna, Razif, Dharma, Raja Zean
11.    86 – Sanjay Abdullah, Rahman Othman and team
12.    84 – Ramzi, Sharul and team
13.    82 – Haslinda Shamsuddin, Hiraimi Othman, Wan Nong Khairol, Siti Halina Ali.
14.    79 – Zafri Zaki, Megat Syahir, Iswan Rizal, Mohamad Hafiz.
15.    78 – Azhanawati, Wan Kamalazlan, MohdFarid, Aini Fazlin

While overall I think its was an okey effort from Zahrol and his team, more efforts should go into improving stuffs like time management, venue selections etc. Better preparations all over.

It has been 2 weeks since the last post but not for lack of wanting to update this blog.  Been busy with closed hunts, laptop/net connection down and some other commitments.

There are a few hunt announcements. First stop is this hunt by Trailblazers.  They have been hawking this hunt since last year, so many of you are aware of this one. And since Raj has taken the trouble to write a blurb, I’ll let you enjoy (or cringe)  them verbatim.

Here goes:

“Hunt for Love” – Treasure Hunt to PD on Valentine’s Day  Kelab Shah Alam Selangor (KSAS) and the Captains from The TrailBlazers are back with another exciting treasure hunt! Everyone who has a zest for romance and adventure is invited to hop on the love brigade which starts from vibrant Shah Alam to idyllic Port Dickson on Valentine’s Day, Saturday 14.2.2009.

Rack your brains by following the Cupid’s Clues and set your hearts aflutter upon reaching the love abode in PD. All hunters would  have the chance to win great prizes , enjoy a one night stay replete with a sumptuous dinner and a hearty breakfast.

Seal your love by February 10th 2009!

For more info, please call the Love Gurus:Capt. Black Hawk (016-2772909), Capt. Tiger Swan (016-6861107), Capt. Jack Swallow (019-2632708)or email: huntmasters@hotmail.com

Entry form

Poster

Happy New Year everyone.

Margaret Sha from team Hunter r Us  is running an online hunt with the theme “Around the world in 18days”  Start your worldwide journey here