Got up super early this morning as I'm meeting Ruby to attend an event at Jurong Bird Park, scheduled at 9.30am! I'm quite excited since I had not visited our Bird Park for 7 years! We had joined this mass outdoor event ~ Fun Connection Mystery Hunt 2010 for a fee of $20, including a buffet lunch.... The ad sounded like a good deal, so we decided to check it out! I was abit undecided between lugging my dslr or compact camera... Eventually, I decided on carrying my dslr despite its weight.
We arrived punctually & completed our registration in exchange for our pass & admission ticket (priced at $18). When Ruby & I found out that we were randomly assigned to different groups, we were disappointed! Cos' it never occured to us that participating tog will have to be spilt up. We had a long waiting period for the other participants & i heard that there were over 200 ppl, wow wow!
Finally at 10.30am, the MC announced that we would be playing an ice-breaker game shortly & each of us had to talk to as many people as possible & exchanged paper clips to track how many new frens you talked to.... all in a short 10mins or so! At the end of the game, someone claimed that they spoke to as many as 50 people! Wow, bluff who? haha! The prize was a pair of movie ticket, keke!
At 11am, we lined up neatly into our respective teams, i guessed there were around 40 teams or so! Each team ranged from 4 to 6 participants. My team had 3 gals & 3 guys, including myself. I initated to say Hi! to all my team-mates =) There, I met a pretty young gal, Michelle who was a head taller than I, haha! Ok, i'm the shortie in my whole team of tall fellas! Our mission for today was the hunt for the 'Missing Jewel' + 4 suspects (2 gals & 2 guys) in disguise! Sounded like a tough cookie.... as Mich said her knowledge of birds is poor & so do I. The given time-frame was 1.5 hour only! But our team was veri motivated to win the grand prize of $400 dining vouchers!
Suddenly, MC announced that bef we proceed for our Hunt, JBP had specially allowed us to snap pic wif their penguin! So Cool! We eagerly trooped to the Penguins' air-conditioned enclosure. As we stepped into the Penguins' home, the park-keeper brought out a cute baby penguin! Kawaii! The baby penguin was shy & i could see that he's feeling veri scared & stressed out by the huge crowd! I duno which stupid fellow even used cam's flash! Gosh! No common sense huh! I squatted as close as possible, but dun wan invade into his comfort zone & zoomed in for a closed-up shot.... I tink this is really a once in a life-time experience to be able to get so close to a little penguin! We queued up for our group photo wif little penguin...seeing him reminds me of the animation ~ 'Happy Feets'! ^o^After our special photo-session, we moved to the outdoor & got the 1st quiz. We needed to find the answers to each clue & if we answered right, the co-ordinator at each point would give us a piece of the puzzle sticker. The question had a link to Harry Porter & Michelle immediately shouted 'Owl'! Yes! We gotta rushed to the Owls' enclosure & I told my team I saw it earlier, but almost walked past it, haha! Luckily, we U-turn fast enuf & rushed up to the co-ordinator...but in our enthusiasm, we forgot still need to answer a 'how many metres away....' question, hehe! So, we went into the dark enclosure to find the answer & my sharp team-mates found it!
Simply 15 mins into the game, we were already sweating! However, I still find that we were lucky as the torrential rain last nite had cooled down the weather & deterred signs of rain today... Next clue card, about huge birds wif colourful beaks & we suspected this would lead us to the Toucans & Hornbills. Along the way, we met other groups & sniffed out the answers...But we also confirmed wif our own eyes, haha!
Next, we went to validate our 6th sense if the answer was at the Litte Parrots aviary... our task here was to feed the parrots & gathered for a group-shot. My camera became the 'unofficial photography' for the whole treasure hunt, keke! Jessica volunteered to feed the parrot & when ZC wan to try feeding, the parrots juz Ignored him! waahaha! Jessica joked that, it muz be a male parrot, hehe! Moving on, the clue was a tough one... but i read in-between the lines & highlighted to my team, it mentioned South-east Asian Birds & I saw such an aviary on the map...so we should head there. Bingo! We got it! Btw, at around 12.30pm daily, there will be a thunderstorm inside this aviary.
Followed on, the clue was obvious, huge beak & loves fish is none other than a Pelican, isn't it? Along the way, we even managed to catch hold of 3 suspects! Geez, we guessed we let slip one of the other suspects earlier! These 'suspects' were roaming around the park, hence it increased the difficulty in spotting them. We walked at fast speed to the African Waterfall Aviary, thanks to Jessica who had bionic eyes & spotted the signage far away! A joke happened along the way, when one of the guys exclaimed that he discovered a short-cut & we all turned back....Guess wat? He saw steps leading down to a shelter & he tot there's more steps to cut-across the forest. When we all realised we were fooled, we laughed out loud at him! wahaha!
Yes! We left 1 final destination & the last suspect... The final answer was found at the Bird Discovery Centre & we chased after the last suspect, who tried to hide herself! We were told we could be the 1st group who got all correct & we dashed back to our meeting point. We saw the MC & he asked if we managed to catch all the suspects? hehe! We proudly announced ~ YES! Wohoho! We were the 2nd group to finish. We were served icy soft-drinks & snapped pics in the air-con function room. We felt a sense of accomplishment ;-)
At 1pm+, most teams had returned & time to tuck into the scrumptious buffet prepared for us, wif salad, fried rice, egg toufu, gong-pao chix & prawns. Then, more games were played after filling our tummies & we gotto guess the song titles of cartoons! Haha! It was fun & we gotto mingled around. Finally, the MC announced the winning team, but judged not based on speed, more on team-work. Mich & I were keeping our fingers crossed, cos we really wish to win the $400 Carousel buffet vouchers! But alas, we were not The One :(
At 3pm, the event ended... Ruby & I met up to stroll around the park at our own pace. We caught the Birds' Show & saw the penguins' feeding. Inside the owls' enclosure, we were awed by the cool Snow Owl, really resembles Harry Potter's Hedwig! As we stood at a corner, suddenly realised one of the grey owls turned its head 360 degree & stared straight at us! Gosh! We were so scared by its so-human face that we dashed out at lightning speed! I still feel the jitters whenever its face flash in my mind!!! Sorry to disturb your sleep, Mr. Owl!
We were in sweat & really tired out at 5+pm ... We actually went around the Bird Park 2x in a day! I never tot I would have the energy to do so! It was a rewarding day wif some nice shots & new-found frens!
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