Yesterday Mr Shallot and I participated in the inaugural City Chase event for Hong Kong. As part of the world’s largest urban adventure series, we received 16 clues for checkpoints of which we had to pass through 10 to complete the event.

The clues are written in an abstract way so you’re allowed support people at home accessing the internet and using their own general knowledge but you are not allowed to meet any friends or family out on the course. Our support was Mr and Mrs Wave who outsourced some of our questions to others and made good use of Google Maps!

Armed with nothing but an Octopus card each, Lonely Planet HK, some maps and our mobile phones, we began the adventure. We were given the list of clues as the pre-race briefing ended and briefly discussed our strategy. With hindsight, we should have just made a run for the nearest bus to ensure we had a seat and could then devise a plan and start making phone calls. Instead, we were stuck standing on a bus with sweat dripping off us trying to figure out where the checkpoints were. We know for next time.

The day saw us dress as members of the opposite sex (complete with either lipstick or shaving cream – man that stuff stings!), make pizza and give to unsuspecting tourists (the base was either jam, vegemite or peanut butter), climb, abseil, sing in front of the Bruce Lee statue ‘Jack ‘n Diane’ for more unsuspecting tourists and play Twister plus a few other challenges which I seem to have already blocked from my memory.

Of all tasks, the one that we found most challenging was Mr Shallot diving into water that had been cooled with 100 bags of ice and collecting specific bottle caps while I ate two small bowls of some chili concoction. A tip is that after chili, eating sugar neutralizes the flavour. So we headed to Starbucks for a teaspoon full. Unfortunately there was nothing that could be done about the seeds that were stuck in my teeth!

Using all forms of public transport aside from taxis (this would mean instant disqualification), we arrived back about 5 hours 30 minutes after we began. The winners did it in 2hrs 59mins. We’ve learnt from our mistakes and will definitely be more competitive next time.

Beer and food was supplied while the presentations took place. We then went to watch Australia slacken off the in the second half to Wales as part of their World Cup campaign.

All I wanted was a shower.

Great day was had by all and we’re keen to do it again. Just not yet though, I’m spending today recovering and the League starts on TV soon.

Oh yeah, life goes on……..

* Thanks to John Mellencamp for the title to this post (that was his name during this particular period) and apologies for butchering the song yesterday.