ExploRally 2010
Been a real tiring day, but well, all was worth it. Wasting whole day at Orchard made me realise Orchard Road is bloody big.
ExploRally 2010, Singapore’s Total Defence Amazing Race.
0815hrs: Reached MacPherson MRT. Met some Sec 4 seniors.
0835hrs: Met up with most people. Left for Dhoby Ghaut MRT.
0855hrs: Reached Dhoby Ghaut MRT. Met everyone else.
0910hrs: Went to Dhoby Ghaut Green. Registration with rest of my group mates. Collection of haversack (more of backpack)
At 1015hrs or something, the event started. My group (J5), consisting of Jerrold, Terence, Hisyam, Yun Pei and me, really ran. But then we went to the wrong exit of Esplanade MRT, and wasted LOTS of valuable time. Well, at least we completed that one.
Then next challenge. I thought Battle Box was at Lavender. ARRAGH DUMB ME. Ok, at the end we found out we should go to Fort Canning (thanks Mr Ibrahim!) and then we went off.
Seriously, we had NO IDEA where Fort Canning is. Kudos to the great receptionist at YMCA for helping us and passing us a tourist map of Singapore (haha)! Then we ran off to Fort Canning.
The challenge was seriously fun, although really wet. You know, the super-heavy rain had just stopped, and then the challenge had us playing with water guns! Was fun, really really fun. Hisyam really wanted to win (so did the rest of us!) so we were really hyped up.
Then we moved off to Somerset MRT. Unfortunately, we couldn’t squeeze into the first train, then Yun Pei went off first. I suppose we learned a lot from that mistake.
We went straight to Skate Park, and reached at 1300hrs. We completed only 2 stations, which was pathetically slow. Some groups in Wave 2 already completed 3 stations, while we at Wave 1 were really lagging. We thought we would lose. Unfortunate for us, lunch break was first to hit us. (It turned out to be a blessing, because we ended up being more anxious about winning) Headed to 313@Somerset, and went KFC to eat. Later, met more people at KFC.
Reached Skate Park again at 1350hrs. Waited for a while, then played the challenge. Was a difficulty communicating in other languages, but we overcame it. Then the stationmaster told us that our scorecard was lost. Like, urgh?
Never mind that. He gave us 15 minutes extra time as compensation, and we made a score card out of rough paper. Heh heh!
Then went down to Ngee Ann City. The challenge had us walking in circles for ages, looking for the f**ked up dude with the English pledge. Then we saw Sarayutt’s team with the pledges complete! We kinda completed it because of that, so thanks to Sarayutt’s team.
But still, we thought we would lose, so seriously at that point we played for the sake of fun only.
Then, we went to 2 WRONG STATIONS. I thought it was at Dhoby Ghaut MRT, then got it wrong. (it was another station) Then, we went to Istana Park (since the clue wrote Penang Road + Open Space, and Istana Park was on Penang Road). Wrong again!
Then we saw another team coming from another side. Ended up that was Penang Road Open Space. URRRGGGGGHHHHH!
Did some challenge involving coolies. Got 15 minutes more time!
Then since we went past 2 freaking stations, we did not need to look at the dumb clue anymore. Just ran straight to Istana Park, and did some dance. Yun Pei took for us, and we got “Western Dance”. I have to admit, we all have two left feet. Seriously!
Then went to Dhoby Ghaut MRT. Games from the past! The marbles, were damn epic. So was chaptek. Five stones too.
Since we knew the last station was obviously The Cathay (they parked the SCDF Tremor Stimulator there and damn huge tentage other than the main one at Dhoby Ghaut Green), and the clue had the Cathay Logo, we just ran.
We saw Sarayutt’s team returning from Cathay. We panicked, then told ourselves, no chance already. So we really didn’t care much, and went to Cathay and did the fun challenges. (more or less easy, since we did CEPP course in school, and also the CD Badge Course last year). Wanted to do the simulator, but sadly needed 30 minutes for the machine to recover. (now thinking about it, I actually regret not doing it, since if we did it we might get 15 more minutes free).
Ran back to the main tentage, signed in, and collected the rest of our souvenirs. Did feeback form.
Then super lame stage games! Urgh.
Finally, prize presentation.
Shock number 1: YY’s team got 9th! Damn happy for them, then we thought we had a bit of chance.
Shock number 2: We got 8th! Like omg, when we went on stage we were like, what the f**k?
Shock number 3: Having gotten 8th, we expected Sarayutt’s team to get top 3, since they finished earlier than us. Then they didn’t. Shock. And silence.
To those who didn’t win, sorry about that. We still get TD Gold, eh? :)
By the way, the prize we got was $50 Popular Voucher (divided among ourselves) and a 8th Place Medal.
Went home with *most* of the lot of YY’s team and my team, since we didn’t go for campfire organised by Red Fox Scouts and Girl Guides.
Thanks for everything, J5!
