Singapore launches grueling cable-car survival challenge

Asian Economic News, March 22, 2004

SINGAPORE, March 16 Kyodo

Not for the fainthearted or queasy, a survival challenge that requires contestants to stay in a cable car for a week was launched Tuesday in Singapore, involving 68 participants from six Asian countries.

The ''Surviving the Sky'' challenge is said to be first of its kind in Asia where contestants have to stay cooped up in a moving cable car suspended some 90 meters above ground for a seven-day stretch with no more than a 10-minute daily toilet break for each couple outside the cable car.

Singapore Cable Car, which is organizing the event to mark its 30th anniversary, said it was swamped with more than 500 applications from people who wanted to take part in the competition.

In the end, it selected 36 teams, each comprising a male and female couple, of which 21 teams are from Singapore, and three each from South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. However two teams from Singapore backed out Tuesday, leaving only 34 teams.

One of the participants, 38-year-old Eng Tiang Wah, who proposed marriage to his girlfriend on national television during the selection interview, is taking part in the competition with her. He is worried about the sweltering tropical heat, boredom and claustrophobia, but believes his stint in the army will bolster his endurance.

But any hope of quiet moments together will have to be thrown to the wind as each couple will must share a 1-square-meter cubicle with another team. Mobile phones and radios are also not allowed.

The contestants will be provided with three meals a day, pillows and blankets by the organizers, but the 10-minute break every 24 hours will be allotted per team, not per person. Teams exceeding the 10-minute time per day allocation will be eliminated from the challenge.

The oldest to take to the challenge is a 54-year-old man who is a retired teacher, and the youngest a 21-year-old man from Hong Kong who is a student.

The cable-car line links Singapore's southern coast with the nearby Sentosa island resort, with each two-way trip lasting about 20 minutes.

The competition, in which the first prize is a luxury cruise to the Mediterranean worth S$30,000 (about US$17,600) and S$20,000 cash, was only opened to contestants from the five countries besides Singapore because the cable-car trips are most popular with tourists from these countries.

The cable-car line suffered a disaster in January 1983 when seven people died after a towering structure of an oil rig struck the cable line and caused two cable cars to plunge into the sea while trapping others.