Team Layton & Toyota Amazing Trails 2008!

This promises to be a MEGA long post as it's a session report. Scroll downwards to near the end (we'll tell you where to start) for the results of Team Layton!

Last Saturday, for the first time this year, Team Layton participated in the annual Toyota Amazing Trails! The team was pretty excited as the prizes listed were rather enticing - there were prizes for all participating teams, and the prize values from 10th place onwards were very very inviting!

On Thursday Team Layton met up for dinner and a quick discussion in preparation for Saturday, at which the Navigator for Team Layton (yours truly) was warned to sleep early to be mentally sharp during the hunt. The Navigator's reputation for late nights is well known to all members, obviously.

Come Saturday morning, all members (Driver, Navigator, Puzzlemeister and Triviameister) were packed up and ready, awaiting the team's Driver (and Toyota vehicle owner) to pick up all members before heading to UMW Toyota Motor Subang Jaya. We were all given our t-shirts, stickers with our Team Number, and directions before moving on to breakfast, which turned out to be Delifrance pastries. Somehow having a fair bit of sweet pastries isn't our kind of breakfast when there's such a competition going on, but the sugar rush does help somewhat.

A quick briefing on how to read the directions (the format is called tulips) and decipher the Clues (the answers being signposts of shops), and soon the teams were flagged off one by one! At the flag-off point we were given our clue sheet containing clues to finding our answers as well as clues for certain Treasures that we could obtain to snag extra points!

The start of the hunt had a chain of various Toyota vehicles tailing each other heading to Glenmarie (there was a MPV that almost headed down to Shah Alam/Klang!) in search for the first 3 Clues. Upon entering Glenmarie there was a slight problem with the tulips as it wasn't very clear as to which junction to turn in, resulting in Team Layton Navigator almost giving wrong information to Team Layton Driver! Fortunately, some cars ahead realized their error and were also reversing into the correct junction, and Team Layton was on the right track.

The first 3 Clues were easily solved, and thus Team Layton realized that the Clues were not as difficult as they imagined! Team Layton then realized that their actions must be reined in and thus devised the insidious tactic of random pointing and photographing. Once the solutions were noted down on a blank sheet, it was time to head down to the second location - Damansara Jaya, around Atria.

While Team Layton Navigator could understand the tulip directions quite well, he has this problem at times to 'forget to give directions', taking for granted that the Driver already knows where to go. Apologies to Team Layton especially to Driver, as he was probably waiting for confirmation of where he was driving. Also Team Layton soon realize that in order to increase efficiency to prepare to look out for solution to clues, more copies of the directions and clue sheet were needed.

At DJ Team Layton zipped past Clue 4-6 with no problems but was caught at Clue 7. So far whenever an answer was offered for the Clues, there was an unanimous agreement between all Team Layton Members. However, at Clue 7 the only possible answer was felt to be rather doubtful. As Team Layton could not spot any other answer, we jotted down the answer and left it as that. Clue 8, still at DJ, was thankfully easily answered and so we continued to TTDI.

Team Layton was rather confident with TTDI, as three of the Members actually stay in TTDI! Clue 9 however, while initially answered, was later called into question when a second possible answer showed up. Team Layton Puzzlemeister took the lead in photocopying the directions and clue sheet while Team Layton Triviameister and Driver walked down the Zaaba stretch seeking out the answer to Clue 10.

Clue 10 remarked regarding a member of the Talpidae family, which Team Layton had to resort to a quick online hunt to learn that it refers to moles. That piece of info helped us find the answer much quicker than resorting to ambiguous agreement of Members and then it was onwards to solving Clue 11 and heading to solve our first Task.

At the Bangunan Bakti Siti Hasmah in TTDI, Team Layton was tasked to drinking a blended mix of organic foodstuff. Puzzlemeister aka 'Beer Longkang' was designated and downed his concoction of bittergourd, dragon fruit, phyllium husk and goodness knows what else in 5 seconds without batting an eye! Cheers for Puzzlemeister!

Task done, it was onwards to Burhanuddin Helmi in TTDI for the next 4 Clues. When we arrived there though, admittedly Clue 14 had all Members walking up and down the road looking at the shops trying to make sense! At this point we had obtained 2 of our Treasures. It wasn't long before we found the answer we were looking for, and our next destination was Mutiara Damansara.

Still in an area that was familiar, we managed to make our way over in short time with only a slight misunderstanding over one tulip reading. Still, that didn't cost us too much time and we were back on track whizzing past Clue 16, 18 and 19. Puzzlemeister and Triviameister's trivial knowledge came into force here when they knew what to look for for Clue 17 (that the All Blacks perform a Hakka dance before a game), thus allowing us to speed on!

From this point on we were heading out of familiar territory and into Bandar Sri Damansara. Keeping to the tulips for directions, Team Layton had to stop at locations to find the answers rather than spotting them while in the car. When we arrive at the location to seek out Clue 23 and 24 Team Layton was aware that they were being filmed by the Toyota Tribes Crew. Playing it cool Team Layton proceeded to breeze through the clues with a bit of walking and searching, and a couple of quick purchases meant that Team Layton has finally collected all the Treasures for the hunt!

Note: this hunt required that we answer all the Clues, collect the 4 Treasures, and perform Tasks to score points. Positions are based on scores.

Confident with their progress Team Layton head to the next destination - Batu Caves. Here, our next Task awaited us. The Driver, designated for Task 2, had to climb all 272 steps up Batu Caves to obtain a 'passport ticket' before he was allowed to participate in Task 2 back down at the carpark. It seems that Toyota Amazing Trails requires participants to be physically fit too! Task 2, a teh tarik challenge, required Driver to tarik some liquid three times while avoiding spillage, and scores were alloted based on unspilt liquid. Team Layton Driver performed well to nab a high score!

At Batu Caves Team Layton ran into trouble and was stuck! Clues 25, 26 and 27 proved rather hard to spot, with Clue 25 being rather iffy and Clue 27 was spotted by Triviameister. It was after a long time searching and with most of the other teams gone when Team Layton decided to head on that they found the answer to Clue 26:
Navigator: "Sounds like a monkey next to a famous short call for the word 'extreme'." Don't know leh.
Puzzlemeister: Did you find anything?
Navigator: Don't know. Don't think it's those craft shops. We did see this 'Apex' sign tha-AHHH!
Navigator & Puzzlemeister: APEX!!!

With Clues 28, 29 and 30 being easy ones to find at Gombak, it was onwards to the MTD R&R for the final Task and submission of our answers. There we were faced with identifying 5 spices out of a mix of 7. Triviameister provided rather good facts and were able to spot on certain spices and so we were able to make an educated guess.

Transferring our answers in neat handwriting to the clue sheet, and Team Layton proceeded to submit their answers and Treasures.

IF YOU'RE SKIMMING FOR RESULTS, BEGIN HERE.

Once we were done submitting our answers with half and hour to spare, we then proceeded up to First World Hotel where we were all staying. Much to our pleasant surprise Toyota had actually gotten us Deluxe Rooms! After we had rested it was time to head for the dinner, group answer session and prize presentation at the Genting International Convention Centre.

Dinner was okay, with a rather long queue for the buffet line but with ample free seating for everyone. Team Layton shared a table with a couple that participated for the fun of it and didn't complete the hunt. This inspired confidence in Team Layton as it meant probably not all teams seriously completed the hunt and just gone up early to Genting. :P

The answer session revealed all the locations we were supposed to spot, and much to our delight Team Layton only missed one Clue! Ironically it turned out to be Clue 9 in TTDI (malu sikit the three Members that stays in TTDI!), which was located on the other side of the road. All other clues, even those that had all Members in doubt, were correct!

Next, the Treasures. Out of the 4 Treasures we collected, only 3 were correct. For the 4th Treasure, while the brand was correct, we'd gotten the wrong range of the product. :(

Finally the Tasks. Scoring quite well, Team Layton grew rather excited. Doing a quick calculation Team Layton stood a rather high chance of getting within the Top 10! Yes, Team Layton had aimed to be in the Top 10 for this hunt. The prize would have paid back for our registration at the least.

So Team Layton waited in excitement, assured that their team wasn't called in positions 20-80. These contestants won Toyota service vouchers. Then came places 11-20. Team Layton was not placed 11-20. We were so excited - we made it into Top 10! Hearts beating fast, we waited for our team to be called in places 6-10.

Still our team wasn't called for places 6-10! Team Layton made it into the TOP FIVE! It was as if, to use an American Idol analogy, we joined in hopes of getting into the Top 12 and found out that we made it into the Top 4!

The results, Team Layton made fourth placement in their first Toyota Amazing Trails Challenge and won a US Nintendo Wii (with extra Wiimote and Nunchuk)!!! A great moment for us!

Unfortunately for us, Team Layton lost out to another team (who got 2nd place) for the Rookie Award, an award given to participants joining the Amazing Trails for the first time. The Rookie Award was 4 Bluetooth handsfree sets, which had Team Layton Members going, "Awww shucks, so close." Also, it must be admitted that Team Layton had expected, based on the website, that the prizes were cash prizes and not otherwise. Still, as only one Member did not own a Wii, all other Members gladly gave him the Wii. In return, the other Members of Team Layton did not need to pay for the treasure hunt registration as well as meals for the rest of the trip (it meant that he paid about RM600+ for a Nintendo Wii).

And how did Team Layton celebrate at the end of the day? Once back in their room, Team Layton members whipped out their Nintendo DSes and began playing Professor Layton And The Curious Village. :P