Last weekend was a bit of firsts for me. It was my first time going on a food-themed treasure hunt in KL, my first time doing it with the Blogger Babes – PB, Beetrice and Rinnah and our first time in using Maxis Finder301! Read on for our experience in the Food Hunt and our review of Maxis Finder301.

hunt by you.

Picture stolen from PB

Klang Valley Food Hunt Wasn’t In KL!

We had taken part in the Food Hunt organised by Time Out Solutions and Rasa Rasa in Penang two years ago but this was the first time they were having it in Klang Valley and surprise, surprise, we were hunting for clues mainly outside KL City! The only nod to KL was Bangsar Telawi area for our second leg which was not a good idea at all as Bangsar Telawi is notorious for its double parking and terrible traffic jams! Add some hundred over zealous treasure hunter cars who drive with their eyes upward looking for clues and you have absolute mayhem not to mention some rather dangerous driving!

Time Out Solutions Treasure Hunting Clues

I have to take my hat off to Time Out Solutions and the mega brains behind them who come up with the treasure hunt questions! Some were easy but some were real brain gymnastics and gosh, to solve some of them in the wee hours of the morning was really painful on my little brain! :P Some questions we thought seemed a little unfair but I guess that’s what separates the pros from the newbies!

Maxis Finder301 Is Not Clever

301 by you.

Note to Maxis – Do not beta test a new product when you require large numbers of people to log in simultaneously to look for places! The Maxis Finder301 is a new service Maxis is launching which acts like a GPS on your phone to lead you to places or food outlets. You’re supposed to send a keyword, e.g. “nasi lemak” to 301 and depending on your location, the service will spill out options (3 options each time) where you can go. You are not charged to receive the SMS but you are definitely charged each and everytime you send to 301 and if there are more than 3 options, you will need to keep sending back SMSes to get the additional options on the other pages!

As Maxis was one of the sponsors, the food hunt required us to actually use this service to locate eateries, police stations and banks to take photos of as part of our challenge. Perhaps due to their unreadiness or the sheer number of people logging in the service was terrible! At one point, we were within the Damansara Uptown and standing right outside Old Town Kopitiam and we kept receiving locations for Old Town Kopitiam in 1 Utama and Jalan Bukit Bintang! FAIL!!

We Finished The Food Hunt Half Hour Early!

When we started the hunt, our aim was to at least win something and we not only finished half an hour early but won ourselves a little hamper for our efforts! :) We placed 31st place out of 139 teams which was pretty good for newbies! You rock, girls! :D

*cough* Although there were some indications that the first prize winner and maybe even the second *cough cough* were employees of one of the main *cough* sponsors. If it was true, it was totally unfair and I think sponsors and their employees should have a separate category of prizes from those who actually PAID to join the hunt.

It left a bit of a bitter aftertaste but hopefully that wouldn’t put us off future treasure hunts with the Blogger Babes! :)