the nokia n82 wireless adventure ii – part 2

(Click here for Part 1)

At 2.30 p.m. we gathered at the Nokia exhibition/ event area over at the new wing of 1 Utama.

Me and my teammate, Frankie in Team 7

Erna came to cover the event, and to cheer us on.

Me with Erna. Photo stolen from Erna

A few of us went to Starbucks 15 minutes before the event was scheduled to begin. Damn selamba, kan?

Smashpop and Pinkpau with me kacauing @ the back. Photo by Jason Chan

Group photo of all 8 teams. Click on the photo above for a larger version.

As we were given our N82 the night before, all that was left was to collect our SIM cards from our marshals. Although each team member had a phone to use, only one SIM card was provided; data-only Maxis 3G. We were to use our phones to take photos etc, and we were to upload the photos to the Soul Of The Night website.

At 4 p.m. Mr. Andrew Cheong, MD of Nokia Malaysia flagged off the hunt by uploading our clues onto the SOTN site. Our tasks were as follow:

i) Discover a good place for live entertainment in the Klang Valley
ii) Discover a good spot for night view of KL
iii) For games in the evening, where do people go?
iv) Discover an eatery that serves great food
v) Discover a place for great evening shopping (bonus task, optional)

Sounds easy right? Yah I know last year’s competitors must be fuming a bit, because they went through a WHOLE lot worse 😛 Well we were given up to 9.30 p.m. to complete the necessary tasks, including uploading of photos onto the website and returning to the flag-off spot. We were also given the use of a Nissan Cefiro and a driver; though the team members would need to give the driver instructions on where to go (i.e. even if he knew how to get there by himself, we’d still need to tell him where and how to go). A marshal and cameraman were to accompany each team to heaven and hell, heh.

It started to rain as we rushed into the cars. The night before I’d skimmed through the magazines in the hotel room, and came across a place for archery. Sounded interesting and unique (well, to me lah, since I am not a sports person at all), though I was a bit hesitant on the ‘games in the evening’ part. I mean, you can shoot a bloody arrow at anytime you want, provided that the place is open for business, right? Whatever lah; it was raining and I doubt anyone would be playing football in the open since we Malaysians are so scared of the rain — sikit-sikit hujan, lari lintang-pukang cari tempat teduh 😛 So I directed the driver to Maju Junction in KL, taking the TTDI road to Jalan Parlimen and Jalan Raja Laut.

Having had to park in a proper parking space (else the driver would go back to 1U if he was told to buzz off by random pak guards or the police), we rushed into Maju Junction and asked some people where the archery place was. Found it, and there was one person shooting arrows, and it turned out to be the owner. He okayed us taking photos.

Chinese Legolas in action. Click the photo above for a larger version

After he shot a couple of arrows, we wanted to snap a close up of the target. We went near the few targets closest to us but could not locate his arrow. Finally we realised that the owner was shooting at the targets at the end of the line, which were about twice the distance from the targets you see in the photo above -_-” . Power. So he smirked a little as we asked him to shoot at the target closer to us.

Thanked him and went on our way. Initially I thought of going to Central Market as they always have random buskers etc along the streets. Not that I’ve been there to witness it for myself before, but I saw it in CINTA THE MOVIE so it must be true 😛 But as we took a couple of wrong turnings because I am noob around the area, we decided to ditch the Central Market plan and headed for Jalan Bukit Bintang instead. You know the corner of Maybank opposite Lot 10? Well every time I pass by the area, there’d be large groups of people, in particular teenagers gathered there, and once or twice I’d see them dance and whirl and spin and whatever their young bodies would allow them to do.

Parked the car along the lane beside Planet Hollywood and made a dash for Maybank. Two buskers were performing, there were lots of teens hanging around, but that was it. After taking a photo of the buskers (later I found out that another team had the same idea), we approached the teens and after explaining to them what we were doing, we asked them if they could dance for us. They grinned a lot, but were a bit shy; I guess it was because of the cameraman. Then one girl basically told them DO IT, heh, I liked her a lot. All in all, 3 boys did some dancing and shuffling; it was actually quite fun to watch them.

Good sports! Click the photo above for a larger version

I thought there would be something more along Jalan Bukit Bintang — maybe some guys blowing bubbles of those bubble making machines, or… well, something lah! There were only a lot of random dudes offering massage services. I guess it was too early lah; I know the fun people would set up shop come night time.

But that hope kept us walking till BB Plaza, until I felt that it was enough, and led us to Jalan Alor. Took a photo of the famous frog porridge stall (and ingredients), thought it would be okay for the food task. Andrea our marshal asked if we wanted to eat there, and when Frankie found out that I do not eat frogs legs, he kept bugging me to try because he insisted that it was delish but I said no because FROGS LEGS ARE DISGUSTING THANK YOU.

I’ve seen frogs being skinned alive @ the SS2 pasar malam. Bleurgh. Click the photo above for a larger version

Headed back to our cars, and I made a turn for the Arab Street, trying to get inspired by the various shops and eateries. None came. Then it started to rain rather heavily. We’d forgotten to take along our umbrellas, so Frankie, Andrea and Steven (our cameraman) put on the plastic raincoats that were provided to us, and I bought a small brolly for RM10. Got directions to Traders Hotel, got back to our car and off we went.

We reached Traders Hotel at 6 p.m. I’d heard of Traders Hotel’s SkyBar and how it offered a splendid view of KL. But Frankie reminded me that the task was for ‘night view’, and it was obviously still too bright to be night. Blah. So we decided to go makan. Frankie suggested Sri Paandi, because his relatives took him there the last time he was in KL, and he was pleasantly surprised that you could get unlimited helpings of rice and assorted veges for only RM3.50. The only thing was that he did not know how to get there, and neither did I. So I suggested the banana leaf rice restaurant in Bangsar, as it was a place I knew how to get to.

Unfortunately I missed a turning along Federal Highway because I was trying to upload photos onto the website via 3G. So I directed the driver to take the first turning after the arch (that separates KL from PJ), going into Jalan Universiti. Frankie used GPS and managed to locate Sri Paandi in Seksyen 11. All’s well that ends well, eh? Heh. Frankie was a bit disappointed though, because he wanted to see Bangsar. Don’t think he’d been there before. Next time lah, ar.

The host giving us the thumbs up. Click the photo above for a larger version

Found out that the banana leaf rice cost RM4 instead. Doesn’t matter, ‘cos it really looked good. At this point in time, we rested for a while. Frankie ate everything on the leaf while Andrea and Steven had a burger from a nearby stall. Service was a bit slow though, heh.

Sri Paandi’s RM4 banana leaf rice. Click the photo above for a larger version

Andrea paid for the meal (we were given RM100 allowance) and we decided to go to either Hilton or Le Meridien for the night view. As we turned into KL Sentral, I noticed that Le Meridien faces KL, and I thought that it would have a better view. So we managed to park in front of Le Meridien (you really get what you pay for — the people there were fantastic), ran towards the reception area and pleaded our case. A couple of short phone calls were made, and we were allowed to the 33rd level where the Royal Club Lounge was located. Unfortunately we found out that we could only take photos with a glass barrier, so we did the best we could. Then the host of the Royal Club Lounge, a really nice girl whose name is Aishah (I think) suggested that we try the 8th level, where the swimming pool was. Awesome suggestion, as we took a couple of really nice photos, IMHO.

View from the Le Meridien, 8th Level, with the National Museum in sight. Click the photo above for a larger version

So 4 tasks completed, now on to the bonus task. I couldn’t think of anywhere really special (as in, REALLY special) to shop in the evening, and settled for The Curve’s street mall. I like the place lah, just that it’s not FANTASTICALLY unique, if you get what I mean. And I’d hoped that there would be a couple of early performances in Halo Cafe so we could substitute the earlier photos we took for live performances. No such luck.

The array of tents selling assorted stuff @ The Curve. Click the photo above for a larger version

It was nearly 9 p.m. and we rushed back to 1U. Spotted Team 3 (Kim and Fairuz) next to us at the traffic light turning into Lebuh Bandar Utama. Luckily our driver was super awesome and faster, heheh. We managed to get back to the flag-off area and got ourselves a laptop to upload the photos, because it was kinda hell trying to upload them using 3G.

You can see our uploaded photos here.