fav challenges!

Ok, I have just a few more minutes to get this blog caught up before jumping on a plane….. I have to say…. The best prep for this trip? TRIAL…. The similarities are endless--- no sleep, your mind is running 24-7 and you give up a lot of luxuries (like eating 3 meals a day!). But we are seriously having so much fun and knowing we are supporting such great charities just makes it 1000x better!! Ok some of our favorite “challenges” to-date?
(a) Hindu pilgrimage in Kaola Lumpor: We had to go to one temple to start the pilgrimage and then go to the end of the pilgrimage route which was another temple built in the hills - with a 100 foot gold statute of a Hindu god and next to it is a step flight of stairs up and into a gigantic cave. All off the way up the stairs - there are wild monkeys sitting on the banisters who try and steal you hat and sun glasses... and chat to you. Lots of naught baby monkeys making mischief. (b) Hell Money in Singapore - in Chinatown we had to find, buy and burn some "hell money" which turns out to be large paper monopoly like money that you burn to buy your way out of hell (just to be on the safe side, we bought a whole stack of it). (c) First Red Herring Scavenger (there are a few that are purposefully un-doable to trick us): We decided to do the scavenge in Beijing that told us to go to the courthouse and watch a court proceeding. Us dumb-dumbs actually went all the way over to the huge and beautiful court building - only to find armed guards at the gate house (the erst of the compound was ringed with very tall fences). So we start talking and gesticulating and asking whether we can go in -- we get told to wait by this counter and within 5 minutes an official PR person from the Chinese Government arrives who wanted to know who we were, why we were there and who explained quite patiently that their courts are closed to both chinese residents and especially foreigners - and without official government permission - no-one can go in. And they mean NO-ONE. So it was a wasted hour and no points .. but what a real eye-opener. (d) Bumboat in Singapore - We had to take an old, stinky bum boat up the river that runs through Singapore. What a contrast between the boat (a local mode of transportation) and the new, very modern skyscrapers.(e) Enter Toto: That was all the scavenge said. It is not pronounced the way you think so it took us 5 false starts before someone recognized what we wanted - which was a lottery ticket for the Singapore lottery. It draws today and we now have a ticket - so maybe we'll win big money ...and never come back.... (one can always hope).