X-SAL...part 1

The Taylor's Adventurace 2008 is definitely not for the faint hearted (keep reading, you will know why). It's craziness was extreme, it's hardcore-ness was crazy, I'm out of word basically. Out of breath too most of the time during the race...

The race started out around 4pm on Friday, each team was assigned a guide who will be following us through out the race. Our (Me, Akil and Stephanie) guide was Josephine a.k.a Spy. She must have been the most annoying (seriously, don't get me started on that) and endearing (surprising, but true) individual you will ever meet in this world. A rare specimen I would say. Anyway, after some briefing and warming up, it was flag-off time and off we went with our first passcard (clue)!!

Task 1: Missing Key

"We lost a key when paying for parking this morning somewhere in SS15. Please help find the missing key and keep it for future use."

Our first clue sounded something like the above (I'm writing this base on my memory) and so we set off on this key hunt looking for parking meter cause it would only made sense that one would pay for parking at one. It turned out to be a quite ridiculous hunt as SS15 is a HUGE area! Imagine how many parking meters we searched. It was by luck that we finally found the "key" made out of black mounting board with the second clue stuck on it beside a parking meter in a creepy back alley on a pile of rubbish.

Task 2: Taro glasses

"Go to Malaya Optical and count the number of glasses under the brand Taro in the four display tables. Team must report the correct number to the crew. If there's an error, the team will have a 3 minutes penalty before another chance to recount the number of glasses."

Our hunt continued as we try to track down the location of Malaya Optical which we eventually found after some wrong turns and all. And annoyingly, it was also the same time when our guide decided to have a footwear-malfunction as the sole of her shoe was torn off completely from her sport shoes. We were already having a hard time catching up with the other group and she wanted us to find some glue to repair her shoe...arghh...guess what? We told her to wear her slipper.

We got the 3 minutes penalty though. We missed out on one of the glasses and had to wait outside the shop for 3 minutes before counting the glasses again. Thank god we got it right this time and was given the next clue.

Task 3: Crossword on the bus

"Travel to the central bus station of the state shown by the pictures (pics of A Famosa and a Red Building) and complete the attached crossword puzzle before reaching the location. Give the completed puzzle to the crew at the entrance to retrieve the next clue."

Any Malaysian will be able to tell that the state with A Famosa and red colored buildings must be Melaka. You can't imagine how excited we were at the thought of crossing to another state for our next task. But first we had to decide our mode of transports as we had limited budget (RM120 for 4 people throughout the race). Taking the train to KL Sentral and then the LRT to Pasar Seni which is nearby the Puduraya Bus Station was a practical choice. But mind you, we had to walk quite a distance as the nearest train station was not that near after all. Our guide took this chance to grab another pair of shoes from her house which was along the way to the train station.

We managed to catch up with some team who were also waiting for the train. The train was so packed with people that we had to literally shove ourselves in. Stephanie was yelling "Tolong masuk! Masuk dalam sedikit!" and managed to get the whole team into the train. So "terror" la that girl...

The same thing happened on the LRT and we had to pay RM72 for 4 bus tickets (other teams got cheaper tickets). We crack our brains the whole way to Melaka on the crossword puzzle and I managed to catch some sleep before we reached around 9++pm. We were given the next clue after our crossword puzzle was checked.

At Puduraya bus station waiting for the bus to come...I looked horrible...damn exhausted...

Task 4: The Eye of Melaka

"Travel to the Eye of Melaka. There are two choices of tasks 1)To Hang and 2) To Flip. Only one member of the team can perform this task."

Who would had known that there's something called The Eye of Melaka (Dionne did told me before, but I kinda forgot). It was late night and there was not much choice of public transport, a lot of teams chose to take taxis. Our team on the other hand, was on some economical lucky streak that night as a bus literally stopped in front of our faces and happened to be heading towards the area we wanted to go.

At the Eye (of Melaka that is), Steph who had chosen to do the To Hang task was required to rock climb to the top of a stone wall and memorize orange colored alphabets that was pasted on the top of the wall. She was very quick, it's so her...lol...her element la. And we also managed to arange the words rather quickly which spelled "JONKER" and was given our next clue.

Task 5: Torturing Clogs

"Each team will have to wear a pair of special shoes and walk from one point of Jonker Walk to the other point to retrieve a ribbon from a crew. Teams then must walk back to the starting point to complete task."

Those special shoes turned out to be a 3-in-1 clogs with those poking base that really hurt our feet. Mind you, it was such a torture...I was near tears...it was so embarassing...hahaha...that was basically our last checkpoint for the day and was given a clue to our pitstop which was right behind Jonker Walk.

It was an open air community hall (with roof but incomplete walls). We were required to have a 6 hour rest...we bathed and ate and chat a little. Akil and I were trying to sleep, but Steph was still feeling the adrenaline and can't seem to close her eyes. Akil slept so soundly that I became Steph's victim...she kept on disturbing me when I was about to fall asleep...she never slept that night...lol...we reached at 10.46pm...so we were set to embark at 4.46am the next day...

This post is becoming too long...I'm tired from recalling and writing all these stuffs down. I bet your eyes are tired too. I'll continue again tomorrow with what happened on Day 2...