Dubai Treasure Hunt Drive!

(FYI: I have some few pictures in my previous post about the horrific race....)
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Hey everyone,

Having recovered sufficiently from yesterday's horrific ordeal and embarrassment, I was looking forward to the Treasure Hunt in Dubai today. "Wake up Mansur" the message shouted in my phone which my friend sent me at 7am! I got ready in 15 minutes and made my way over to her house. Anita and Ziad were waiting for me at their place, and we left Sharjah at 730, and got to the Dubai Creek Park at 8am so we could register our team and got our goodies bag. The race was to start at 10am, and the first group who made it back in the fastest time would be declared the winner.

The newspaper that we purchased in the morning had 21 clues, which we had to decipher. So that gave us an idea, and we started solving the clues. Four of the clues were such that we knew the answer and just had to fill in the space. The other clues we had to decipher, and figure out the location in Dubai, and reach and get the stamp. So, we had an hour and half to spare and over breakfast, myself, Anita, Ziad, and Anita's friend Maria with her husband Amir and their young son also joined us. We were armed with a map and started figuring what route would be best to take, where to start, what the locations are and so on. Ziad would be the driver, and Amir knew all the place. I was armed with the newspaper which I would have to take to the people who would have to stamp my newspaper as proof that I visited the place.

Come 930, about 100 or so cars are lined up at the Creek Park, and at 10am, the start off! I felt like pretty much like the contestants on The Amazing Race. Our start time was 10:07am. We decided to begin with the places which are the furthest from Dubai's city center, and work our way inwards. Our first destination was a furniture store at the other end of Dubai in Jumeirah.


(We passed this new mall, which has the skiing slope. This mall opened this past Wednesday, albeit a partial opening.)

We had already made a wrong turn somewhere and lost about 30 mins. Anita was upset. Others were calming her down. We finally got to the place, and got our stamp. There were other contestants rushing in and out of their cars. The tension began to develop. Some of us in the car became competitive. Ziad drove the car amazingly well. Amir gave perfect directions.

Soon, we were getting more and more stamps on our paper. On top of this, when we left the starting point, we were handed a clues sheet, which were extra set of things we had to answer or get. So one had to get a ticket from a weighing machine, another had to get a picture of a celebrity. As we were seeing other contestants out on the roads, we started panicking as we had one hour left, and several more stamps to get. Anita and Ziad erupted into a fight in the car. I tried pacifying them. It wasn't helping. The atmosphere in the car was one of fear, tension and such competitiveness. Some of us gave up hope, and figured we were losing. We heard on the radio one team was 15 minutes away from completion. Another were close. We felt we lost the game, but Amir gave us the encouragement. BE POSITIVE.


(Passing through Dubai Marina)

Near Dubai Museum, which is located in Downtown Dubai, complete with small interconnected roads and paths. We were looking for one of the photo developing studios. There were people running here and there, and I got out. Running in and out of the lanes, holding the clues sheet, people were asking one another where the shop was. Such level of tension made me panic, and I realized the shop was elsewhere. I left and got back in the car and it took a while for us to find the place.

Then we headed over to our last area, where three stamps were close to each other. Anita ran inside the mall to get the ticket from the weighing machine. Maria looked for the picture for the celebrity. I called up the police to ask for the answer for one of the clues. Ziad was driving like a formula racer. Finally, we made it to the park, and realized we had to run inside into the park and submit the form. We had done all this within two hours, and there was still 40 minutes for the deadline. We all sighed a huge sigh of relief. We all thought we did good.


(Creek Park, where we sat and enjoyed the remainder of the afternoon.)

It was an amazing experience for me because such times calls for team-work, team coordination and good communications. When the big fight took place in the car, we all had to keep our heads and egos on the ground level and not let the situation get the worst of us. I certainly learnt new things about my friends, as such situations exposes our characters and how we would react.

There was about an hour and half for the declaration of the final prizes. In the meantime, those who made it early were given the opportunities to participate in the smaller games they had prepared. I went up to one which called for the "hairiest leg -male." I thought I was hairy, when I saw the other boys and men expose one side of their legs...and they made my leg seem hairless. One Indian boy, probably a teenager, did not even raise his pants up to his knees, and when he did raise it a little, he had gorilla haired leg. GASP! We all just walked away knowing he would win the gift certificate!


(Games!)

Other categories included largest tattoos, longest hair, man-woman coordination games, etc.

15 mins after 3pm, they announced the winners. We were team 202, and all we had to do was keep our ears open to hear the three numbers: 2-0-2.

"The first team, in 5th place" shouted the man into his microphone, "is, 1-3-5!" Applause erupted from the audience. Ok, we still have a chance. "The fourth place goes to, wait for it, team 2....0...." We all sat up in our chairs- is it us?? "2...0...5!" Another group close to us shouted in joy and ran to get their prizes. Don't worry, we still have a chance, we told ourselves. "The third place is 2...8..3." 3rd place was gone. "The 2nd place goes to....1...8...4...." Do we have any chance...? Myself, Anita and Ziad were gripping our chairs. Is it us? Is it us? Please! Let it be 202! 202! 202!

"The team that wins the 29" television, microwave oven, watches.." the host trailed on. We don't care, is it us? Is it us? "The team that came in first is....hold your breath ladies and gentlemen, is...2......." Tension!. ".....0....." We literally gasped. We need to hear the number 2 now. Is it us? Come on! The host started laughing, and deliberately postponed the final number. I got up from my chair. "The number is, 2....0.......zerooooooo!!!!"

I sat back down. We were a little disappointed.

However, despite the brief intial disappointment, I think the experience in itself was good enough to go through. I would do anything to do something like this again. It was fun, it was exciting, it was challenging, and it was certainly much much better organized than that poorly organized hopeless 6km run by McDonalds yesterday! Dubai does it better. Even the host spoke in English to satisfy the different nationalities there. The organization was top notch. We all left with a huge sense of achievement. What would have been a lazy Friday morning otherwise, turned out to be one fun-filled, adrenaline rush, action packed treasure hunt as we dashed into and out of shops and malls, frantically filling out the clues, asking other contestants out on the streets for answers and loctions, making phone calls, searching for the stampers and raced through the Dubai roads, giving us a chance to see Dubai from a different perspective.

Mansur