Following the matriarchal custom, a Khmer wedding ceremony is conducted at the home of the bride. Traditionally spreading across three days in relation with the Three Jewels in Buddhism, “Chaul Raung”(Day of Entering the Wedding Hall) occurs on Day-1, followed by “Haèr Chom-noon”(Day of the Groom’s Parade) along with several other rituals, and to end on last day with “Sotr Muonn”(Religious ceremony and Benediction by Buddhist monks). Nowadays, the wedding ceremonies are mostly shortened into one day, and only the essential rituals and ceremonies are being performed to keep the essence of a traditional Khmer wedding.(*)

“Khann Sla”: As the name suggests (“areca nut / cup”), originally this object was to be a hemispheric cup, probably made of metal, containing an ornamental arrangement of areca nuts or a set of betel nut “chiques” preparations. Khann Slais synonymous with marriage, that is, the object is the symbol of the ceremony. It is said pejoratively of a couple that it is “without Khann Sla”, when the bonds have not been sanctioned by marriage. The expression is still in place. Not only does it take place, but one of the rites of marriage is called “Katt Khann Sla”, “fixing the price of the cup of areca”, which is to ritually fix the price of breast milk that fed the bride, which is supported by a most moving dance and song. This price is therefore that of the bride. One can imagine the solemn presence of the cup (now absent or confused with other objects), symbolizing the final agreement and the “surrender” of the bride to the groom’s family, so to speak. (**)

“Katt Khann Sla” (fixing the price of the cup of areca) aka “Jeav Khann Sla” (buying the cup of areca nuts) is being commonly translated as “holding umbrellas over parents”. This extremely moving ceremony honors and thanks the couple’s parents by reversing their roles. As their parents have taken care of them over the years, now that they’re marrying, it is the couple’s turn to shield and take care of their parents. Fruit and sugar are being provided to the parents and golden parasols are being held over their heads (for almost a whole hour) while the MC and layman “achar” talked about responsibilities to take care of the respective parents.

A most moving part is when the singer retells and reminds of how the bride’s mother recalled her dream of having Preah Èn (God Indra) bestowing her a diamond ring, and how she feared of “not being able to reach the shore” – from the still in use traditional expression “Ch’laang Tonlé” / crossing the river/lake, meaning giving birth, from how hard it was for parents to raise the children, how she watched her daughter growing into adulthood to reaching the wedding day. During this ceremony, the bride and groom sit behind their parents and hold an umbrella for them in the meaning of re-paying all the things they owe to their parents. It is definitely one of the highlighted moments of a Khmer wedding and a moving time for the bride and the groom to reflect, so they will remember and cherish this moment throughout their couple’s life.

“M’phei Muoy Damleung, Dob Pi Saleung, Buon Baat” (in ancient currencies and way of settling the amount) is the cut-off price of the Khann Sla set by Khmer ancestors in wedding ceremonies

Click on above photo or the link below to listen and watch the moving Tribute to Parents, especially the Tribute to the Bride’s Mother (and to all women in their many dedicating daily tasks) in the Khmer wedding ceremony Pikthi Katt Khann Sla.

If you want to explore Phnom Penh in a different way, come join our Phnom Penh Urban Tales interactive walking tour.

Sources: Photos & Texts

(*) camdevel / Le mariage cambodgien (Sakou Samoth) / Les rites du mariage khmer (1964 Mme Pich Sâl) / Le Livre du mariage khmer (1965 Nhieuk Nou)

(**) Bulletin #13 de l’AEFEK (Association d’échanges et de formation pour les études khmères) – Janvier 2008

2020 has been rough for everyone. In order to help everyone change their mind and take a dynamic step into the upcoming festive season, Ubiquest Phnom Penh has created an awesome program for adults and grown ups. More information in this article from he Phnom Penh Post. Merry Christmas to your all!

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/lifestyle/ubiquest-brings-cheer-during-pandemic

Looking for a different team building activity for your next work event? Let’s get out of town !

Ubiquest can help organize a fun day out with your staff and colleagues, outside the city.

Few months ago, we have launched a new corporate program as an alternative to our urban existing products, in the Mekong Delta region. The location is not far from Saigon; it is easy to go there for just for the day. Least but not last, it offers beautiful sceneries and natural playgrounds for a perfect day out.

Our new program is called Mekong Quest: it is a thrilling competition on a specific game zone that is quite large. This full-day program offers the participants an ultimate mix of outdoor activities and strategic missions.

The concept: teams have to locate a chest that is hidden somewhere on the game zone. The first team to find it and open it win its content. With a dedicated road map, all teams join the program and have to complete series of challenges in order to locate the chest. Participants have to complete tasks and each team will be scored points.

Icing on the cake: to go from one challenge to another, the teams will be riding bicycles, giving the activity a sportive touch!

On the menu: orienteering activities, riddles & puzzles to solve, codes to decipher & many more!

Mekong Quest provides rich opportunities for communication, strategy, and bonding for your team and creates fun memories.

Have a look right here to get a sneak peek of our Mekong Quest !

We had the pleasure last weeks to organize our Interactive City Hunt for different companies last week.

Different groups, different locations and options. A good mix between physical challenges and brain exercises!

It is a very flexible activity to organize as we can do it at different time of the day.

It is fun and combines the exploration of the city, an innovative scenario and a competitive dimension.

It could be used for residents and for visitors coming from different international backgrounds. It makes you explore popular city landmarks in a different and active way while completing funny challenges.

This team building activity is a winner and has been our best of in the last months.

Contact us to get more details or visit our website.

We are looking for ENGLISH SPEAKING facilitators for a HALF-DAY event in Saigon (fun environment)
Date: FEBRUARY 25th 2020
Working hours: 7:30AM to 12:30PM
If you are interested, thank you to contact us: van@ubi-quest.com
(NB: we need people speaking perfectly English & Vietnamese)

We are so grateful that ECCO chose us again for their third team building of the year ! We thank them a lot for their loyalty and their energy.

As they already joined two of our urban games in the heart of the city, that time they requested us an activity in the country side. We created for them a totally new product that we operated 2 weeks ago in Cu Chi province.

That was a very intense and fun day out! All participants divided into 7 teams and as the zone of the game was quite wide, all team mates had bicycles to wander around. A map, a compass and a riddle lead them to their first challenge.

4 challenges awaited them in the dedicated zone and they had to wisely manage their time. The goal was to finish the race with the best time score!

Time Zone is an excellent activity if you are looking for something challenging for your teams. It requires orienteering skills, decision making, creativity and cooperation. And mostly it requires a good time management!

Contact us if you need more information about this activity!

Last week, we had the pleasure to organize and operate a Saigon Quest for Amazon Global Selling team.

5 keys for a successful SAIGON QUEST

1- A bunch of energetic participants

2- One “xe lam” per team taking the players around

3- Five special challenges to fulfill – mixing physical, strategic and funny assignments ️⏳

4-  A hidden box to locate somewhere in the city ️️

5- A great team spirit & time management  

*   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *

That’s what we need for a successful Saigon Quest and Amazon Global Selling team had it all!

All participants had a great time racing through the city & using their cooperation skills to complete the assigned challenges.

The winning team managed to locate and open the hidden box only few minutes before the second team! It was very close!

If you want to learn more about our other team building offers, please click here!

We are very happy to introduce you to our new video about The Rally team building activity. Take a sneak peek!

It is one of the most elaborate team building program we have designed: it combines 3 workshops. Each of them focuses on special goals and special team skills to improve.

1/ MARSHMALLOW CHALLENGE

Each team has 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure capable of holding a marshmallow on top. To do so, they have to use 20 pieces of spaghetti (uncooked, of course!), a yard (=0,91cm) of masking tape and a yard of string, a marshmallow and a pair of small scissors. Nothing more, nothing less!

Goal of this workshop:  create a teamwork experience that can be debriefed along various angles such as roles in a team,the importance of a well-functioning team or what it takes to innovate.

To learn more about the origins of the Marshmallow Challenge, watch Tom Wujec’s TED Talk.

2/ SCAVENGER HUNT

It is a fun recreational activity that promote cooperation and teamwork between participants. They will have to work together to solve clues and get to the final destination.

Goal of this workshop: create tighter, cooperative relationships between team members who usually work independently or on separate teams, discover hidden part of Ho Chi Minh City and complete fun challenges & riddles.

3/ PIPELINE OF THE CENTURY

Using a limited amount of supplies (PVC pipes, balloons, bamboo stakes, rope, packing tape, marbles, special decorations etc.), all the participants must build a large free-standing “pipeline” that will deliver 10 rolling marbles from a starting line 25 feet (around 7.5m) away, into a bucket sitting upright on the ground. Each team is responsible of one part of the pipeline and all the different part should all connect and fit together.

synergistic team development event where participants collaborate to build a large marble delivery system

Goal of this workshop: work on collaboration, communication and synergy within each team and between all the teams,  practice problem-solving skills, practice goal setting attainment.

Escape room games have been very popular since few years.

You can read right here a whole article about the phenomenon of escape rooms in the United States. The trend of “urban gaming” is growing worldwide and you can find few escape rooms in Asia and in Ho Chi Minh City.

However, as the article explains, “the room is not the important part” and “not all escape rooms are about escaping a room”. The real concept of this activity is a “collaborative adventure” allowing the players to be together following the same scenario & working on solving puzzles.

That’s why at Ubiquest, we decided few years ago, to design and offer residents & visitors the perfect “opposite” of an escape room game in Ho Chi Minh City… Or rather many people would still call it an “escape room ” except that the perspective is different. We can describe it as a merger of a self-guided walking tour and an escape room. It is in fact a reality adventure game in Chinatown. It’s called Urban Tales and we developed the concept in Vietnam and in Cambodia.

Launched in late 2014 in Saigon, this interactive experience allows the visitors to dive into the thick ambiance of Cholon (Saigon’s Chinatown) . They start by a crime scene and then get ouf of the room to find out the clues and solve the case.  In a way, all starts in a room but you don’t have to escape from it. Instead, you are “thrown” in the streets of Saigon in order to gather information to understand the reason of what happened in the crime scene room. This real-size investigation is of course a pretext to explore the neighbourhoods and its best-kept secrets.

To progress in the story, players will meet and interact with locals and among them will be local actors … This is a great experience, especially because you don’t know who is acting and who is just a real shopkeeper… Finally you will find out who is the murderer and by this you will have visited many places you would never have explored on your own. That’s the icing on the cake!

Our Urban Tales tour is very much appreciated by escape room game lovers as well as visitors who want to be independent and autonomous during their exploration of Saigon. It is a great activity as well for a team building half day out.

So if you like escape rooms or if you are interested in exploring the city in a very active and stimulating way, don’t look any further : this unique and immersive experience in Cholon (Saigon’s Chinatown) is for you and will wake you up!

You can find more information about this reality adventure experience right here.

Dear customers, fans, friends and partners,

Ubiquest just turned 5 this month!

It is a great opportunity to thank you all for your continuous support and trust. They have always been our best reward.
This 5th anniversary is the perfect time for us to look back at the road traveled since we designed Urban Tales, our first concept, in 2014.
Ubiquest today offers 15 of the most original activities available for tourists and companies in Vietnam.

In 2018 and 2019 only we hosted more than 70 events and thousands of guests.
The trend for Urban Gaming is growing worldwide and we are proud to have been the precursors of it and to have gained your trust all along these years.
This anniversary is also an opportunity to think about the future. As tradition requires, we kept the best news for the end… We have the great pleasure to announce that Ubiquest is expanding its operating horizon.
Our original & innovative urban games & live-action activities will soon be available in EUROPE… We are all super excited and can’t wait to operate our first events in this new city.
Can someone guess where Ubiquest’s European office will be based?

We’ll give you more details later on… 🙂

Last Saturday, we had the pleasure to organize a half-day team building activity for SCC Vietnam. This activity is called “The Rally” and is designed for medium to big groups. The morning program was divided into 3 workshops, each of them having a specific goal, and the teams had to act into different immersive and exciting situations.

First part was the “Marshmallow challenge” (the goal is to build the highest structure in 18 minutes, following specific rules); second part was a “Scavenger hunt” in District 1 (where participants have to orientate themselves & complete challenges in different locations, some of them being quite hidden and fun!); third & last part was the “Pipeline challenge” (using a limited amount of supplies and in a limited time, the goal is to build a pipeline crossing the room which would transport 10 marbles.)

Those 3 workshops are excellent to make people work closely together and embrace collaboration.

Well done to all participants and thank you for you enthusiasm and your energy!

Are you looking for an original team building activity for your team & partners? 🇻🇳

Look no further: our Interactive City Hunt is the one!
It combines the exploration of the city, an innovative scenario & a competitive dimension. 🏃🏻‍♂️
Have a look at our video right here.

Our Interactive City Hunt has definitely been one of the most popular activities for team building events this year.

It is the perfect experience you can offer to your team for a fun and memorable half-day out.

Why? Simply because it is a truly exciting mobile app-based activity, combining the exploration of the city, an innovative & interactive scenario and a competitive dimension.

On the menu: quizzes to answer (it could be about city landmarks or other local features), funny challenges and riddles to fulfill, GPS pointsto look for and  codes to decipher !

As the participants progress through the activity using one tablet per team, they will earn more or less points and get a final score,  depending on whether they are quick enough or whether they manage to answer all the questions…. Exciting!

Our Interactive City Hunt has been designed for up to 30 teams.

It is an easy and flexible solution for groups who want to explore the city and bound teams together at the same time.

Last but not least, we can tailor made some parts of the activity, in relation with your department or your company,  upon your requests.

The route to success to complete the hunt: competition but of course also cooperative skills, sense of direction and time management!

If you are looking for more information about this product or about other urban games for your next team building, please have a look right here!

Join our exciting Interactive City Hunt!

During this 3-hour activity, you and your team will be completing series of quizzes, riddles & funny challenges. Lots of fun guaranteed.

This one is our Mystery Man challenge!

More info on our website right here: http://ubi-quest.comcorporate/ 

#quizzes #challenges #city #hunt#interactive #interactivecityhunt #teambuilding #teambuildingactivities #vietnam

#hochiminhcity #corporateevents

A TRAVELLER reporter joined our Saigon LaDalat / 2CV Tour last December and we are very proud to be featured in his last article, right here!

5 keys for a successful SAIGON QUEST

1- A bunch of energetic participants

2- One “xe lam” per team taking & driving the players around

3- 4 special challenges to fulfill – mixing physical, strategic and funny assignments ️⏳

4-  A hidden box to locate somewhere in the city ️️

5- A great team spirit & time management  

                                      *   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *    *   *   *

That’s what we need for a successful Saigon Quest and ECCO company had it all!

On the 11th of April,  ECCO participants had a great time racing through the city & using their cooperation skills to complete the assigned challenges!

If you want to know more about our other corporate offers, please click here!

Send us your CV & cover letter in English if you are interested: info@ubi-quest.com

Before April 30th 2018.