Racing with Insomniacs: Nokia Soul of the Night Race

Racing with Insomniacs

Words: Pam Pastor

Photos: Rico Ramoso

Photos: Francis Yllana

MANILA, Philippines—I still have a clear vision of myself lying on top of a piano singing O Lumapit Ka while my race partner Amina Aranaz-Alunan filmed me with her Nokia N95 for last year’s Nokia Adventure Race. Despite that embarrassment, I enjoyed myself immensely and didn’t think twice when the opportunity to race came again.

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This time, the race was to be held in the evening. Teams were set loose in the city with one quest—to find the soul of the night. My partner was actor, former MYX VJ and my fellow insomniac Geoff Eigenmann who I met only a few hours before the race. Our team, Music Fanatics, was competing against nine others—Trissie Corpus and Aris Ladaw (Culinary Quest), Jane Chua and Christian Wong (Audio Attack), Alfred Vargas and Michelle Callanta (Voltage Up), Charlene Go and Andi Manzano (Media Mavericks), Kathy Moran and Paolo Valenciano (Sound Tech), Katen Pimental and Sharon Domingo (Aftershift), Vina Veronica Cruz and Ramon Rodriguez (Free Spirit), Nikki Santiago and Justin Rivera (Ticket to Ride) and Therese Camet and Karylle (Femme Fatales).

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On your marks…

The kickoff point was Jumbo Restaurant in Roxas Boulevard. Armed with Nokia N82s and survival kits, we were all ready to go. At 8 p.m. (which was also Earth Hour), the race started.

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Sandeep Khanna gave the teams the first task card. It read: “Need help? In trouble? Want assistance? Flex your thinking muscles and decode the Help Line Number below… Remember: no calculators and phones will be used.” Geoff and I ran to our van with our crew, ready to face the puzzle. It was not easy—not when you have equations like “MDAS: 536 x 345 / 2 + 97531 – 189,989” and “35.3563 + 19.6437 + 6.1718 + 18.8282 – 53 + 20.512 + 22. 488 – 65 + 15.32587 + 12.67413 – 32” to solve with just a pencil and one sheet of paper. My hands trembled the entire time. I am a complete idiot at math—thank God Geoff isn’t. Soon we were running back to Jumbo where we had to make a fruit platter. On our way in, I saw Alfred wolfing down fruits. “Uh oh,” I said to Geoff as he attacked a watermelon with a sharp knife. “Don’t use too many fruits, we’re gonna eat them.” After having our photo taken on the second floor of Jumbo, we went back down because the task card read, “You must consume all the fruits of your hard labor.” Geoff started eating the melons while I choked on the pineapples. I found the entire scenario funny—I couldn’t stop laughing.

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Sticky hands

With our hands still sticky from all the fruit-eating, we ran back to the van, followed closely by our crew—a race marshall, a bouncer, a cameraman and an assistant cameraman. That’s when I realized I had a problem—my pants were loose and I had forgotten my belt. My pants kept sliding down as I ran—I had to keep pulling it up. I felt bad for the cameraman who I knew would spend a huge chunk of the race assaulted by the view of my underwear. Our next destination was SM Mall of Asia. We hooked up the Nokia N82 to one of the TVs at Extreme Gaming Ground and Geoff played the Asphalt Street Rules 3 NGage Game. Because he rocks at video games, Geoff was the first to finish the three laps.We got our next destination card from a guy who was surfing the Internet at one of EGG’s stations. We had to brave the Manila to Makati traffic. It was time for karaoke at Red Box in Greenbelt 3. “I can’t sing,” Geoff said. “That’s okay, I sing,” I said. Karaoke session We ran into Room 72 at Red Box and recorded a music video of us wearing Chinese costumes and singing I Love the Nightlife. I am ashamed to admit this but we found the song in Red Box’s system quickly because I know who sang that song—Alicia Bridges.We finished the task quickly and were soon running down Greenbelt 3’s escalator so we can jump into our van. Our next stop was the TShirt Project Store in Tiendesitas. Although our driver had been given a suggested route, Geoff told him there was a better way to get to Pasig from Makati. The driver seemed reluctant at first—but when Geoff told us that his dad used to have a store there, we trusted his directions. Soon, our driver was channeling Schumacher. He pulled up in front of Tiendesitas in no time. We were the first to get to the TShirt Project Store. “With your Php2000 budget, choose 2 shirts and letters to make a statement that best describes the Soul of the Night. Remember that you can’t go beyond your budget,” our task card read.

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Say it with a shirt

While I was trying to think of something profound to put on our shirts, Geoff said something funny. I replied with, “Yeah! Insomniacs unite!” He said, “Hey, that can be our statement!” And so we started hunting for our letters and sticking them on bond paper so they can be pressed onto our shirts. A lot of bystanders were watching. “Di ba si ano yun?” “Oo..” “Ewan ko sino yung babae,” one woman said snootily, as if she was annoyed by my anonymity. Never mind me, lady, I’m just a nameless shirt-making freak. Other teams were arriving as we ran to the other side of the store to have our photos taken with our shirts on. We were the first ones out of there and we were headed for Eastwood.

Fire-dancing

Our task card read, “Look for the Poi Dancers and take their pictures in different creative angles. Get your poi ribbon from your Race Marshal. Each of you must perform the dance for one minute straight. Take pictures of your partner during his/her fiery performance.”I felt my knees buckle. I cannot dance with fire. I am scared of fires—I can’t even light a matchstick or hold a lighter. But we had to focus on finding the poi dancers first. No wonder we had a hard time—we found the girls standing in a quiet corner, talking amongst themselves. Knowing that we were losing time as the girls prepared to dance, I decided to ask Geoff for poi pointers. Klutzes and zips do not mix. We took photos of the poi dancers, Geoff performed well and even had footwork to match his hand movements while I fumbled and laughed as the crowd laughed with me. After my poi embarrassment, we used PanoMan, a really cool feature of the N82, to take panoramic shots around Eastwood.Then, we searched for the mime who supposedly had our next clue. That turned out to be one of our biggest challenges. We walked around Eastwood for long minutes and couldn’t find the guy.

Missing mime

One stranger said mysteriously, “Sometimes they’re in the comfort rooms.” But the guy was wrong. We kept crossing paths with people from the other teams who couldn’t find the mime either. Geoff kept walking to a quiet corner of Eastwood. “No, that’s a dead spot,” I said. But the mime was there—away from everyone else’s view. In his excitement, Geoff clapped the poor mime on the chest and the stomach. I have to hand it to the mime—he still didn’t move until after we took our clue. On our way out, Geoff used his acting skills, making Alfred believe that we still hadn’t found the mime. But we made a mistake. We walked straight out of Eastwood and they figured it out. Team Voltage Up retraced our steps and found the mime too.Soon, we were in the van on the way to Piedra where we had to wear masks and find five models in masquerade costumes and pose with them. There, Geoff once against showed his flair for finding people—he was the first to find the last model who was hiding near the toilets. At Piedra, we were handed our next card. It read, “Your last destination. Discover sweetness as you race your way ON FOOT to Café Xocolat at Serendra.” Soon, we were running to Serendra. “Give me your bag,” Geoff said. “No,” I said. I was out of breath but I hate asking people to carry my bag. I kept running, holding on to my pants again so they wouldn’t fall off. “Give me your bag,” Geoff said again. I had to admit, the Nokia backpack was slowing me down. I handed it to him. I was red-faced and gasping for breath by the time we walked into Café Xocolat but I didn’t care because we were the first ones to get there. We read our last task card. “Cap off tonight’s amazing Wireless Adventure by telling a story using your photos of your exciting experiences. Throw in some music, add some graphics to show just how much Soul you’ve got.” We grabbed a table at a quiet corner and started to work. Alfred’s team arrived after a while and they too started working on their slideshow. Teams arrived one by one and the place started to become more packed.

Playing with pictures

We had taken a lot of photos at every destination using the N82’s camera which is equipped with a 5-megapixel Carl-Zeiss lens and a Xenon Flash. Using the N82’s photo editor, we played with our pictures from that night—turning them into sepia and adding frames, thought bubbles and captions. Alfred and Michelle beat us to submitting the slideshow first. We gave ours second—with almost two hours to spare before the deadline. I was actually sad when we finally handed in the slideshow. Sure I was relieved that I could finally take off my race shirt because it was a bit tight—but I had so much fun completing the tasks that half of me didn’t want them to end. This year’s race may have been shorter but it was definitely more intense than last year’s.

The party

The race’s final stop was Embassy, where the Nokia Soul of the Night party was held over a week after we completed our last tasks. There, surrounded by people from Nokia, the N82’s ambassadors and their family and friends, the awards were given out to the race participants. Alfred and Michelle were declared the Souls of the Night—they went home with the grand prize of P100,000 and a trip to Macau. Geoff and I lost, yes, but the truth is, I still felt like a winner. We did pretty well all throughout the race, we fulfilled our plans of completing each task under 20 minutes and we had a blast. And losing this year means I can join again next year. Sure, the race was a chance to test the features of the N82 but it wasn’t just that. It was an opportunity to explore the city while it’s shrouded in darkness, to see how technology can bring people together, to push one’s limits and fall in love with your city even more. That is a huge prize in itself.