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| Do Hai An, a racer in TMR, explains to a foreigner at Ben Thanh Market that they need her to fill in a questionnaire as one of the race challenges - Photo: Thanh Hang |
No one can argue that those young guys are definitely smart, as they are from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, one of the most prestigious schools in HCMC. However, since their summer vacation starting in late July freed them from study pressures, a few students came up with a competition to test their street-smarts, and have fun.
They called it The Med Race (TMR) – a race for medical students and friends around HCMC’s famous destinations with puzzles, challenges and traps along the way. The most challenging part was the no-Vietnamese rule. Competitors had to communicate with each other, approach and solve every puzzle in English, and they had to talk to the local people strictly following the English-only rule, even when it was at a local market early in the morning.
Thirty seven racing pairs entered the first round of TMR August 6, only 7 teams made it to the real races on August 8 and 15. Teams were gradually eliminated until there were only four teams in the final leg on August 15. Escorted by a supervisor, teams followed the clues at stations to find the next station, using three transportation modes including taxi, bus and foot with only VND100,000 – 200,000.
Some clues were obvious and the others drove them crazy. Racers quickly jumped on a bus to Ben Thanh Market when they read the clue “I’m a clock - With four faces - on the top - of a trading place.” But hit with a question about where the oldest organ in Vietnam is, only sheer luck helped the winning team of Ho Thuy Nhu and Nguyen Vu Hoang Trang when they ran into a music expert who knew the answer was the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Ho Thuy Nhu, 19, told the Daily, “We had to face the physical challenge as we were the only girl-only team. Sometimes we got too tired and we took a taxi, making us almost run out of money. Yet we had one considerable advantage in being born in HCMC with a bit of knowledge about its history and culture. As a freshman student, I found the greatest thing in joining this competition for the first time was the opportunity to make new friends. We competed, but we made friends and shared the amazing moments together.”
