Flight of the Night Owl heritage trail 2008

I had the most amazing time last Friday evening with my friends treasure hunting!

Isn’t this pretty?

The was the ‘Flight of the Night Owl’ event organized by the National Museum. I only knew about the event when Juli persuaded me to join in her team. Initially, I was a little apprehensive. After all, it was held on a Friday night in the heart of the city – the traffic is crazy there! But at length, I relented since it was something that I’ve never done before. It will be an experience!

My friends Juli, Redzuan, Raimie and Sri and I, were at the National Museum and by the time I reached there, there were already a large a number of people congregating around the area. All participants participants were given glowsticks, making everyone looked so festive!

Star Wars Kid from rinaz on Vimeo

At length, the event started with a dude wearing a Malay outfit, complete with the headgear, Samping and keris – he was roleplaying as Sang Rajuna Tapa, the Royal Treasury Officer. And he was angry that the Sultan had insulted his family name! He wanted us to recover the Sultan’s hidden treasures.

Everyone there was so enthusiastic and started to cheer loudly. And not before too long, the Sang Rajuna Tapa started the race, and everyone scrambled to get their first clue.

Off we went, running past the large group of people who were picnicking by the museum with an outdoor movie from the Night Festival. Past the Singapore Management University and past the Substation. The first place that we headed to was the Peranakan Museum where we met the game-master and were were given 5 tasks to complete in there.

The tasks were really tough! One of the challenge was to find an object that matches the one in the picture. But with the museum being spacious and about 3 stories high, it was quite a challenge! Another challenge required us to search for a particular person in there to give us a piece of parchment. With no clues to what he looked like or what outfit he was wearing, Sri ended up asking random strangers if they had the parchment to which all of them looked as us strangely and said no.

At length, we had all the answers correct and we were given the next clue. We were given a crossword puzzle with the answer to head to the next location – the only clue that was given was “This placed used to be a place for pious people, now it has been converted where many weddings and hip restaurants are”

When we saw ‘ROM’ at the side of the crossword puzzle, we immediately scrambled to the registry of marriages. But it was so quiet there, and after awhile, I was sure that something was amiss. Pious … pious … I thought to myself while staring at the crossword puzzle. And thats where I finally saw CHIMJES!

CHIMJES! CHIMJES! I screamed excitedly! And we rushed off there where we were given a new clue to figure out. It was a logic riddle where you had to figure out who was telling the truth and who is lying. If you got the answer wrong, you’d be sidetracked to the wrong location. We took a while to figure out the right answer and eventually agreed on the Arts Museum and we had to search for the 10 different symbols hidden around the area.

One of the ten symbols, sitting insouciantly on the wall

It was quite a legwork scouring the entire museum for the different symbols! It was so tiring!

Other memorable task that I remembered was to figure out a trivia such as “What was the highest watchtower in Singapore in 1903?” We were all stumped. Eventually, after a call to my sister who googled the answer, we found out that it was actually the ‘Central Firestation‘. Ah the convenience of modern technology!

And another another task was to figure out a location by this clue  :

“Thousands of girls has passed by this school gate before it was relocated to Queen’s street”

I was completely clueless. What school was that? It was only by sheer luck that we stumbled across some student which helpfully pointed us to the right direction.

And when we reached the place, I actually saw the original Raffles Girl’s School gates. I was flabbergasted! I’ve walked on this road, countless of times but this was the first time that I’ve noticed it before.

I like em perky!

Finally with our next clue, we headed to the National Museum and then the Philatelic museum to do another round of searches. While scouring, I remembered wanting to linger a while longer to look and read the different displays. There have been so much changes since I last been there. It was fascinating to me. But being in a treasure hunt, I could not stop for too long!

Posing at the Philatelic Museum

Eventually we were informed that the last search was at 11.30 pm. By then, my legs felt extremely sore. This was even more intensive than any of the aerobics session that I’ve been to! We headed back to the National Museum and we were dejected that we were not able to complete all the tasks given. It was there that I saw a group of very fit looking runners triumphantly announcing to the gamemaster that they had completed all of the tasks. I felt very envious of them.

Some of us still use these mortars to blend our spices together

Regardless, I had loads of fun, it was surprising! I enjoyed discovering new things about Singapore. And the heritage trail really gave me a new perspective – it was already so physically tiring to join in this treasure hunt, that I have a newfound utmost respect to anyone who joins the Amazing Race. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ll ever regret in participating in this 🙂

Here is a montage of the race :

Flight of the Night Owl Treasure Hunt from rinaz on Vimeo

Have you ever joined a treasure hunt before? And have you seen our new museums? What was your experience like?

Related links :

• Asian Civilizations Museum
• National Museum
• Singapore Art Musem
• Philatelic Museum
• Peranakan Museum

You might also enjoy :

• Visit to the Malay Heritage Center
• The innocently risque Singapore Art Museum
• The museum of Shanghai Toys