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We won! Yeah! Last Saturday, four of us; me, Hamid Kassim, Sira Batcha & Annie Meaow, joined this Explorace-cum-Amazing Race-like activity held in Melaka by Institut Pemimpin Muda and we won the race, out of the seven teams. 

Memang lama dah nak join explorace dengan Sira Batcha. I dah join about 2 explorace before (third place and first place, consecutively) tapi tak pernah lagi berganding bahu dengan Sira Batcha. Teringin nak berdrama dengan dia masa race tu. Hehe.. Finally, we got the chance when Sira Batcha invited me to this activity. Ingat nak buat dengan the usual Four; Mieh00n dengan Tita Charles, tapi masing-masing ada commitment yang tak dapat nak dielakkan, so berdua dengan Sira Batcha ja la. Sira ajak Annie, me ajak Hamid. Good combination, though. 

Me and my teammate yang coherent. :)

So here was the timeline. Jumaat tu, katanya bergerak dari UiTM Shah Alam ke Melaka pukul 2.45pm. Tapi tunggu punya tunggu, around 4pm kot baru bergerak. Agak lemah disitu. Sampai kat Melaka around 7pm, penganjur bagi masa untuk kitaorang berjalan-jalan di bandaraya Melaka tapi masa tu dah hujan dah. So lepak kat Surau Warisan Dunia sampai pukul 9pm.

Dalam Surau Warisan Dunia. :)

Dari situ, kitaorang bergerak ke tempat penginapan. I thought we will overnight at a cosy place tapi what do you expect when you go with a free expense trip, kan? Kitaorang overnight at this homestay dekat Kampung Alai. Quite okay la, walaupun tilam tak mencukupi. Now I remember why I don't like joining activity yang bermalam kat tempat lain. Flashback dengan zaman JPA dulu. Can't complaint much though when you are sleeping next to a hunky (with a massive bulge) guy. That night, sempat pergi makan malam kat nearby restaurant, Mahader Tomyam. 

Sampai kat homestay, ambil gambar jap. :)

Rupa bilik kitaorang. I ended up tidur kat atas lantai ja, berselimutkan langsir. BersamaMu sangat. 

That morning, I woke up the earliest among the guy tapi kena overtook masa mandi tu, jadi the second. Lepas siap-siap semua, had breakfast with my teammate. Siap kena interview dengan penganjur lagi sebelum buat sesi memanaskan otak. It was fun, though it was bit hard for a dyslexic like me. Haha.. 

^.^

Bergerak dari homestay to the city, and we arrived around 8am. We was psyched for the race. Sampai kat the start line, terjumpa dengan top 3 peserta Masterchef Indonesia S03. I spotted one handsome contestant and I waste no time to greet him (or them). Hehe.. Now or never, y'all. By the way, that handsome contestant follow me in Twitter later that night. *proud*

Ready for the fight. Kat belakang, sedang berlangsung penggambaran Masterchef Indonesia. 

As soon as we got the first clue to our first check point, we waste no time to run. Rasanya kitaorang group pertama yang lari daripada the start line and the first check point was the train near the Muzium Islam. By the way, the clue was presented in Pantun and we had to figure out what is the Pantun try to convey for the next checkpoint and every checkpoint, they will give us a question (10 question, cumulatively) regarding the history of Melaka that we have to complete during the last checkpoint. 

First check point kena design a team flag with selected tool and our group dapat kayu. So kitaorang kena paint the flag with the kayu. Time is everything, so I suggest dorang color ja bendera tu dengan suka rela. The outcome, an abstract. Haha.. Then, we have to present the flag to the foreigner and since takda foreigner around tapi ada tiga orang Sabah kat situ, dorang bertiga pun jadilah. Sira Batcha jadi kelu jumpa laki hensem, so I need to come out with crap ideas to explain the flag. Haha.. I don't care if it's relevant or not, janji siap the task. We got 8 out of 10 for the flag, from the Sabahan, that is after we begged them. 

Orang-orang yang sporting to join this activity. :) 

Finding the next check point was the hardest. We go to about four wrong check points (turun naik Bukit St Paul, pergi Stadthuys bagai) before we finally found it. The frustration beforehand, you can't imagine. Nasib ada this Indian girl said she saw a team (Team Green) before at this remote location, Kubur Belanda. There, kitaorang kena perkenalkan diri through a song, then took a picture with three graves. 

From then on, we finished every task strong. Among the tasks were to find 7 eggs with our team first initial (kitaorang Team Red @ Merah, M) inside the St Paul Church, sold five mineral waters bottle to people in Stadthuys for RM10, dance to a Portuguese traditional dance (complete with the costume), answer five Teka Teki in Pantun 4 Kerat for each Teka Teki, berlakon jadi Hang Jebat & Hang Tuah, sukaneka mini (where Annie Meaow hurt herself). 

Serious gila expresi muka. Haha.. Ni masa nak jual botol air mineral. 

Sampai kat checkpoint terakhir sebelum the finish line, kitaorang kena pergi cuci gambar yang diambil kat kubur tadi. Tempat cuci gambar tu jauh sangat, ditambah lagi dengan kitaorang dah 4 jam non-stop going places in Melaka, memang dah down habis. Dalam the schedule for the event, jam 1pm dijangka the race will end, and masa tu memang dah 1pm, so memang dah expect yang kitaorang tak dapat nak menang. 

Memula pergi Dataran Pahlawan tapi takda tempat cuci gambar pula, so kena pergi Mahkota Parade. Masuk ja Mahkota Parade, I was already in the mood of losing, defeated. There is no way we could win, kalau team lain dah jumpa tempat kedai gambar yang lebih dekat, for sure we are behind. 

Antara gambar yang perlu dicuci.. 

Siap cuci gambar, Sira Batcha asked me to run to the finish line, ahead of them. Masa tu, memang ingat nak finish strong ja pun, janji kitaorang siap all the task. Sampai kat finish line, terjumpa another team (Team Black), dorang sampai ahead of us, as expected. Sira Batcha asked the PIC berapa team yang dah sampai, dia cakap ramai dah sampai tapi semua tak cuci gambar lagi. Semangat nak menang tu datang lagi. TAPI, rupa-rupanya ada lagi the final task yang kena siapkan sebelum dapat check in. Next to Team Black, kitaorang cepat-cepat siapkan that task and we did finish it first before them. 

Nombor Satu. :)

Disitulah kitaorang dinobatkan sebagai juara. Sangat happy masa tu. Tak sangka we can win. That's one of the moment in 2013, I must say. Team Black came in second, follow by Team White. Team lain menang tempat saguhati, of course. Pukul 4pm, kena gerak balik Shah Alam. Sempat mandi kat R&R Seremban. 

Saat sampai di garisan penamat. :)

To conclude all of this, winning is something, but the struggle is everything; one that you remember, especially when you are doing it with someone you like. :)

p/s: I'm coming, The Amazing Race. Lookout.