Pray For Nepal

Posted on April 28, 2015 by jipp

I’m so shocked and saddened by what happened to Nepal – which is for me one of the most amazing countries that I’ve ever been to. The powerful earth-quake of 7.8 magnitude with the epicenter located somewhere between Lamjung and Gorkha District rippled through most of Nepal and part of India and even China. Up until now, the estimated number of casualties had shot up to almost 4000 people with so many others left injured, many more are homeless and desperate for food.

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Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nepal-powerful-earthquake-aftershocks-death-toll-passes-2200/

Even more saddening is the fact that most of the historical places in Kathmandu – of which some are UNESCO World Heritage Sites – are so badly damaged that there is no way they can ever be restored back to their original settings ever again. The stupa of Boudhanath was reduced to rubble. I remember having my lunch at one of the restaurants that overlooks the gigantic stupa and looking at the eyes of the Buddha and finding that they were quite hypnotic that I had to look away. I can’t believe that there are now gone.

Then the Durbar Squares. I remember marching my way up one of the temples while my travel buddy Ulai tried to get the best shot under my strict instructions. I looked at the picture this morning and that very temple was reduced to rubble and dust too. Then the Pashupatinath Temple where I spent quite a bit of time witnessing with my very own eyes how they purified a dead body with water from the river and later set it ablaze. The eerie smell and the thick and smoldering smoke that ensnared the whole area stayed in my system for quite a long long time. I remember rushing myself to a shower the moment I returned to the hotel room in Thamel area. Most of the buildings at the temple had to bow to the powerful magnitude of the earth-quake and collapsed to the ground too.

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Durbar Squares after the earthquake

Then the Monkey Temple – which is my pick of my favorite place in Kathmandu. I remember walking up the stairs from the swimming pool where monkeys do actually swim in – to the ancient temple on top of the hill where I could see the whole of Kathmandu city beyond the colorful streamers that centered to the top of the stupa. A friend of mine twittered to me a picture of Monkey Temple before and after the disaster and it was so heart-wrenching to see quite a major part of the buildings had collapsed too. There was a little bit of relief that the stupa had remained standing though.

Of course the saddest part is the suffering that the people of Nepal have to go through. When you travel to a country and you spend quite a bit of time with the people there, being among them and talking to them, you’ll develop some kind of what I’d call human-to-human bonding with them. People that you see there, people that you run into and say hi to, and they’ll hi back with the warmest smiles that you’ll probably ever see, they are the people that make you feel so welcomed and happy even in such a foreign land.

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When I trekked to the Annapurna Based Camp, quite every now and then I’d bump into a group of children. Some of them are quite shy and some are quite bold – even asking for sweets and money but it doesn’t really matter because it is the tourists like us that spoiled them – if spoiled is even the correct word to describe it. I’d always tell my trekking buddies that one of these children could be the President of Nepal one day. I mean, you really get to develop some kind of care and concern for these people and what may lie ahead before them in the future. Unfortunately, quite more often than not, you’ll bring that with you when you return home.

Which is why – when I heard about the earthquake in Nepal, and the scale of devastation that it caused, I can’t help but feeling so concerned and worried and above all sorry for them. The faces of people especially the children that I had talked to, took pictures with and even made jokes with would come to me and I can’t help but wondering how they are doing now and how badly affected they are by the earth-quake. I think that happens quite to most travelers which is why they are usually the first ones to react to whatever disaster that happens to a country especially those that they’ve already traveled to. It is just the bonding that they developed with the people while traveling to these countries.

As for now, I can only pray for the people of Nepal – for their strength to pull through this very challenging time, and for their rise back to normalcy. It’s not going to be easy but we are talking about a country that has in the past gone through so many difficulties and hard times. I have a full confidence in the people of Nepal. Amen.

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New Section on Books

Posted on April 22, 2015 by jipp

I’ve always been an avid book reader for as long as I can remember. I remember how I’d go to the public library in my hometown Keningau, which at that time located on the 2nd floor of an aging shop lot before moving to what had then become the largest library in Sabah upon completion, and I’d spend the whole day there trying to read as much as I could before the librarian shooed me away came 5.30pm. Being a kid that was full of imagination, my favorite books had been those of fairy and folk tales – Cinderella, Hensel and Gretel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Badang, Si Tanggang and so forth.

Then as I grew up, my interests changed more towards traveling, urbanization and geography, so I’d spend many hours looking at pictures of cities and mountains and everything that has to do with geography. I’d try to locate where Iran was in the world map, and Tunisia and even some famous cities in the US that I heard about from movies that I watched and I even had interest in the number of population in each country in the world and made a comparison. That was when I first saw a picture of naked women (and men) on a hard-covered book that featured a nudist beach in Germany. I remember how I was so fascinated by the 7 wonders of the World so I’d look at pictures of Taj Mahal, Giza Pyramids, the Great Wall of China and so forth. Of course at that time, I didn’t see the possibility of me traveling to some of those places that I could only admire through pictures on books that I read at that very library.

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I never stopped reading, starting from primary school to secondary and on through to my uni years. Of course, all throughout the years my interest in books had to evolve with my age. I started reading ‘heavier’ books when I was at the University. I remember buying just about every book by Stephen King that I came upon, usually at my favorite bookstore – the MPH outlet in Section 14 of Petaling Jaya. I started with ‘It’ which I think was adapted to a movie because I remember watching that movie when I was a kid and I had difficulty going to sleep for days.

Then I bought another of his book called ‘Insomnia’ – a book about an aging insomniac who spends most of his time watching over a street from the veranda of his house. Then one night he begins to see things. He’d see a balloon hanging over the head of each person that he sees. That balloon reflects the fate of that person – and he’d even know if the person is going to die soon. Then another book had Salem’s Lot for a title. Damn, that book was about vampires and I can’t believe how I’d skip classes (especially TITAS – damn. I hated that subject so much) just so that I could finish reading it. The story was full of shit and nonsense but still my nose was glued to the book until the very last page. I even re-read it just in case there were things that I had missed out on somewhere between the lines. Erkkk!

Then I began to turn to Sydney Sheldon. It all started with Master of the Game, a book that I borrowed from my dorm-mate so that I could pass my time while waiting for the next semester to begin. Damn, that book really got into me. It was a damn long story, spanning through 3 different generations but I got hooked so much to it that I lost counts on how many times I had actually re-read it. I found that book very uplifting especially that part when Jamie McGregor – the main character for the first generation – traveled all the way to South Africa to find diamonds (he was born into a very poor farming family in Ireland). That time when he squeezes into a tiny mail cart that takes him on a very rough ride – on rough and bumpy roads and across deserts for many many weeks on end. The ride was so rough that even the horses had died so he had to continue his journey on foot.

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“The raced through the long night, traveling over dusty, bumpy roads by moonlight, the little cart bounching up the rises, plunging down the valleys, springing over flats. Every inch of Jamie’s body was battered and bruised from the constant jolting. He was exhausted, but it was impossible to sleep. Every time he started to doze off, he was jarred awake. His body was cramped and miserable and there was no room to stretch. He was starving and motion-sick. He had no idea how many days it would be before his next meal. It was a six-hundred-mile journey, and Jamie McGregor was not sure he was going to live through it. Neither was he sure that he wanted to”

Of course my favorite part of the whole story is that part when he and his friend Banda took a hand-made raft across a raging ocean towards a place called Namib Dessert where they found diamonds laying in the sand. Gosh, I remember pausing several times when I was reading this part because my heart was racing too fast and I had to calm myself down so that I wouldn’t pass out! And it still happened even after I re-read it several times. Yes, to that extent. Heh.

So, the bottom line is, I love books. I love reading stories. Just recently I started to read motivational books – something that I had been distancing myself from before somebody gave me How Starbucks Saved My Life. It led me into buying The Man who Sold His Ferrari when I was in Nepal and I believe there’ll be more to come although it has not been easy for me to find time to read since I took up this master’s program that I’m doing now. I try to finish reading a book – and if possible two although it is quite too ambitious – every month.

For the love of books, I have allocated a section of this aging blog of mine dedicating my passion for reading books. I love traveling but there are more to life than just traveling and reading books is just a tiny fraction of them. Heh.

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3R International Marathon 2015

Posted on April 20, 2015 by jipp

So, I did another run today – in fact it was my very first Full Marathon this year. I could only be grateful that I did Kemensah Krazy Run a week earlier so I could tell myself that I wasn’t entirely unprepared. 3R International Marathon as it was called, although I’m still not sure what exactly it was about. I do know that it had something to do with recycling and saving the environment and so forth so I was actually running for a good cause – a cause that was quite close to my heart. Heh.

So, after eating half a bowl of brown rice and sardine, we drove over to Putrajaya expecting a smooth kick-off. What we did not know was that the organizer had dragged the flag off time to 4.30am, half hour earlier than what was announced on the website. I was in the toilet when I heard the 3 bangs that marked the flagging off and we had to run to the starting point together with some others. I had to run like hell before I could catch up with the pack. Damn. LOL.

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I would say it wasn’t an easy run. Putrajaya has always been hilly and we are talking about a run that takes runners from one corner to the other and everywhere in between to meet the distance requirement. My main problem this time is the lack of sleep. I went to bed at about 11.30 and it must be almost midnight when I managed to put myself to sleep.

Then I had to wake up about 2.45pm and readied myself up before my running buddy KJH came to pick me up at about 3.15pm. Bottom line is, I only had about 3 hours and it was far from enough to be fresh enough to do such a long run. I was so sleepy that I’d doze off several times while running – I kid not! I thought it was gonna go away after awhile but when it wouldn’t go I was beginning to contemplate a DNF.

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But then, as I was looking for the right place to make a silent retreat I noticed that I had actually run quite a distance off and it wasn’t long before I made it past the half way mark. I knew then that I was not going to quit that easily. It was actually my first time of running a full marathon without an MP3 player so I was not sure if running without music on my ears (and head) would sustain me.

Somehow it did, in fact running without earphones made me feel more connected to the surrounding because I could hear everything within my earshot – the conversations by other runners which made me laugh at times – because seriously, runners have some of the greatest sense of humor – and the footsteps, the heavy breathing whether it was from other runners or from within me, the words of encouragement from the bystanders and volunteers and all.

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Another challenge came in the form of heat. Putrajaya is said to be one of the hottest places in Malaysia so running any time after 8.30 am on a clear shiny day can be quite challenging. The heat really got to me when I was in the last 10 km so I was very thankful that there were sufficient drink stations. Some of the volunteers were so cheerful and they’d cheer me on and even gave me a high-five. I used to dislike it may be because I looked at it as more of a distraction but of course that has long changed now. I mean, running is all about having fun so I shouldn’t take things too seriously. In fact, that was all part of the fun kan. 😛

The number of participants was just nice – not too many not too few. I remember how I had to squeeze into the crowds while running at the Penang Bridge International Run last year – also at Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon a few years before – and it really was such a turn-off. This time, everybody had more than enough space for his/herself so there was no excuse of slowing down. Heh.

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All in all, it was a great run. It had a beautiful Finisher T-shirt with a great combination of colors and the medal was cool too. As it had always been in other runs before, my problem was more on my leg muscles – on the Achilles tendons especially – and not so much on my stamina. I think my training of running uphill did the magic for me that I was better in running uphill than downhill.

I have not registered for any other running events yet but I foresee more marathons in the near future. There are just so many runs nowadays and I have learned to be more selective now. We’ll see how 🙂

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Kemensah Krazy Trail Run – My First Trail Run

Posted on April 13, 2015 by jipp

So, that was it. I did my very first trail run today (or rather yesterday), a full trail run since the one that I did in Muar was not really a full trail run but more like a combination with a road run. I noticed how the registration fees for trail runs are more expensive than those of road runs which are probably due to the logistics. I mean, most of the trails are not reachable by car so they probably have to hire people to carry all the necessities and set things up at the drink stations and all. They need more physical and labor arrangements compared to road runs which are probably much easier to pull off.

I actually registered for Kemensah Krazy Trail Run almost on an impulse. I mean, I didn’t really check all the terms and regulations which I found out later were quite too much. I mean, I really don’t understand why they would ask each of the participants to buy an emergency blanket and a whistle and even made them compulsory – or you will not be allowed to run – as they put it on their website. I found it quite so meh.  A quick search on emergency blankets – which is also known as space blankets – had led me to the discovery that Space blankets are often given to marathoners and other endurance athletes at the end of races, or while waiting before races if the weather is CHILLY! (Wikipedia).

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Seriously, the organizer had an organizing problem. I’m not even sure if any of them had ever run before. They flagged the runners off at 9am which was already hot and expected people to freeze while running under the blazing hot sun. Not surprisingly at all, the organizer published on their website that emergency blankets could be bought at the registration counter for RM10 as opposed to RM5 at which it is sold for at most sports shops in KL. I mean, I know running events have become a good money-making business nowadays but I found this one is a bit overboard.

So, trusting my hiking experiences in the past, and knowing for sure that that piece of shit called emergency blanket would not be necessary in a hot and humid place like Kemensah, I didn’t buy any. And true enough, they never checked on all these compulsory things as opposed to what they had stated in their terms and regulations, that they’d check every bag and if they saw something was amiss that participant will not be allowed to run. Grrrr!

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Then the brochure. My gosh, I had to laugh at how they elaborate the trail to every detail of nooks and crannies. I mean, seriously, who would want to read through all the repetitive turn-rights and turn-lefts? I do appreciate how they try to elaborate the trail so that the participants would know what to expect but haven’t they heard of something called map?

So, it was not really a good first impression for me. I didn’t like it when I got stuck in a long line of people because the trail could only accommodate one single line at a time. There was one time when I had to wait for almost half an hour just to get down a quite steep trail where (most) participants had to use the help of a rope. Then I didn’t like it when I had to hunch down every time I came upon something so low over my head or I’d get it scratched. It really was tiring and made my neck stiffen. The ups and downs were quite expected and I had to stifle myself from bursting into laughter when a young female runner – also a first-timer – complained to me as to why the organizer made us run up a hill when they knew that we would have to run back down later. I mean, what did she expect? We were running in a very hilly area. LOL!

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I have no complaints about the water stations and all. I think they were quite sufficient. And I gotta say the trail was very challenging for a first timer like me but the scenery that came with it was really breath-taking. I mean I am a frequent visitor to the Rimbawan Kemensah where the run started and finished but I never knew that there was more to it than just the beautiful creeks, fishing ponds, return-to-basics chalets and the run-down (intentionally) close-to-nature cafes.

We ran through beautiful farms from where we could see part of the beautiful Titiwangsa Crocker which is more like the backbone of the whole of Malaysian peninsular, then through Orang Asli villages where I came upon a lovely couple of pigs – my first sighting of pigs since I moved to KL about 4 years ago, and the Orang Asli kids were there to cheer us on and of course the beautiful jungle (or bushes). The funny thing is, they are all only a stone’s throw away from KL. They’d really make a good brief escapade from the hustle and bustle of the city and thanks to Kemensah Krazy Run – I now know where to head to when I feel like getting close to nature. Heh.

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I’d say I went to Kemensah Krazy Run quite unprepared. I mean, I had always wanted to buy a trail run shoes but I didn’t manage to get around to it – not quite in time for the run. I had no choice but putting on my old New Balance shoes which were more for road-running. The trails were quite dry so I didn’t encounter much of grip problems but problems came when I ran downhill when I felt a pain to my toes probably because the shoes had not been designed to hold my feet from slipping down while running on an extreme downhill trail. I spent most of the time looking at other runner’s shoes and I’ve come to one conclusion – that Salomon is still the most popular brand among trail runners. I still remain indecisive on which shoes to buy though.

All in all, I did enjoy the run. There’s still so much to learn especially when running downhill which I’m not good at but of course it is a learning process. I saw how some of the runners were really struggling not because of their stamina but more on their lack of skills which came with lack of confidence. They were afraid that they might stumble so they were being a little bit too careful then they probably needed to.

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Yippie!

As for now, I’m fixing my eyes on another run next week. In fact, the Kemensah Krazy run is more like part of my preparatory training. Then I’m gonna have to figure out whether I should run for another trail run or sticking to road runs. Let’s see how it goes.

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My RunKeeper tracking

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A Year Full of Uncertainties

Posted on April 6, 2015 by jipp

So, I’ve decided to change the outlook of my blog to a simpler theme. With so many things at hand, I find it quite impossible to come up with long posts that I am quite well known for (ehems) so I’d like to make things shorter and simpler and this is probably the right theme for now. I used to be able to write a blog post so effortlessly probably because I had all the time in the world to do all the thinking and put them into writing right on the spot. But then, I’m afraid that has to change now. My life needs a little bit of adjustment. There are just so many things that I have to squeeze into this little head of mine so I can’t really put them into my writings as easily and effortlessly as I used to. Uhuks.

I’ve been quite busy lately, I mean, I’ve always been busy but these past few months have been quite a few notches up. My times have been pre-occupied by all these things surrounding this pursuit for a master in research that I’m doing now, so much so that I’d find myself breaking my back trying to dig for research materials whenever possible or I’d get swept away before I could even catch up with this ever flowing thing called time, and sometimes I’d find myself spending long long hours in front of my lap top trying to do whatever I can do before the next presentation (or I’d end looking so stupid without nothing much to present out in front of my professors). One thing about doing a research is that, there are always deadlines to meet. I have no choice but making myself get used to it.

And then, there are quite a number of people that I have to deal with almost constantly like my supervisors (lecturers) and dealing with these people are not that easy. These people are academicians so I like to believe that they have a very high level of intelligence. These are the people who know pretty much about everything, at least in the fields that they are experts in. But then, after dealing with them for quite some time, I have come to discover that they are just human beings. Things can slip off their minds too and I have to put these things back into their heads especially those things that concern me and my research. Heh.

I mean, I’m a working adult now so the approach is different from the time when I was still an innocent undergrad student back at the university. Back then, I couldn’t even look straight into their eyes. I’d go into their rooms with my shoulders intentionally slumped down so that they might sympathize and think twice before spraying bullets at me. I remember when I was doing my final year thesis and I came to office of my supervisor – a highly respected professor in the country – and he threw my thesis progress report to the floor and shouted “YOU ARE FAILED! YOU CAN PACK YOU BAGS NOW AND GO HOME”. I really didn’t understand what he meant by packing my bags and leave but then I was so shocked I couldn’t even say a word. In fact, I found myself shaking. I left with a lot of things going on in my mind.

I was in my final year so failing the paper means I had to extend another semester at the university. The mere thought of missing the next convo which means another long year of being a student was just unbearable (I was so eager to start working!). I couldn’t even sleep for days. Of course I returned to him with a pledge to do the best I could to drag things up to his expectations. And I did keep my word even though it meant I had to spend many days of sleepless nights that there were times when I began to hallucinate from staying up for too long, even more than 46 hours straight.  That was probably the only time when I saw ghosts. They looked so real I really thought I could almost touch them. Jeez!

I passed the paper in flying colors and I told myself never to put myself into such a situation ever again. Then I found myself doing this master in research which seems to almost certainly bring me back to that situation again, hopefully, oh gosh hopefully, to a much lesser extent. Uhuks.

Of course, that story with my professor happened more than 10 years ago. Now that I’m a working adult with quite a number of years of working experience tucked neatly under my belt, I’d find myself talking and joking and laughing with my supervisors say, at a McDonald’s for hours and I’d even pay for the food so you know how people are gonna react and treat you when you pay for their food – lecturer or not lecturer. It does make a difference (I hope they won’t by any chance read this. LOL). I can even ask if they’d ever find the time to have sex with their wives with so many lecturing and supervising works at hand. I mean, literally because we are talking about an adult-to-adult conversation here. LOL.

Busy might my days be, I try as much as I can to find the fun in all the things that I do now. I mean, it’s not easy to stay positive all the time – it has its ups and downs – and not that I have not been warned about it before I took this challenge (my favorite word nowadays), in fact all of this was not unexpected, but then I have come to discover that there’s always fun in everything that we do if we know how to find it. For now, I’m just gonna do what I have to do and finish what I have started. Positivity is the keyword here right. Heh.

Bringing you to a totally different topic (although quite co-related, anything that has to do with time is related), jeez, I can’t believe it’s almost halfway through 2015 and I haven’t traveled to anywhere other than Sandakan! Not only I haven’t traveled, I haven’t even participated in any running event! How can I ever declare myself a real traveler and an avid runner if I haven’t traveled and run for 4 months in a row? I feel so ashamed that I feel like bitch-slapping myself when I come to think of it.

But then, I might get the chance to change that soon when I join the Kemensah Krazy Run next weekend and the 3R Putrajaya Marathon the weekend after – a gamble that I took blindly because I knew I wouldn’t be able to find the time to do all the training even for a half marathon, let alone a full. But then I always keep in mind that it’s always about having fun and there is no pressure in joining any of these runs. Getting to the starting line is a thing and finishing the run is another. I keep telling that to everybody.

For me it’s always about getting to the starting line first and whether I finish or not is another thing. I don’t pressure myself. I can always stop, flag a taxi down and go home, except that I’ve never really done that ever before. LOL! I don’t know if my ego is too big to do that but I’d usually find myself walking and walking has proved to be good enough to bring me back to the finish line without really breaking a sweat. Heh.

Talking about traveling, I do have a few places in mind – or rather a few countries. It’s almost certain that I’m flying off to Lombok next month after a series of bitter postponement. And yes, I don’t have to tell you what I’m gonna do there because it think it’s a very easy guess. Then I’m gonna go back to Sabah for my annual balik kampong holiday to coincide with the Harvest Festival. Then I might go to some mountain again which I can’t really confirm now because I am not even sure if I’d ever get a leave with my research coming into its most critical part.

This year, as I’ve been telling everybody, is full of uncertainties. In fact, I had to say no to a few invitations to travel together because I don’t want to put myself in a situation where I have to cancel it at the very last minute. It happened before which was quite a big mistake to me personally because I were the one who asked that friend to come with me so doing a mistake once is a lesson but doing it twice is a stupidity. I don’t even know what to call it when I do a stupidity twice. LOL.

So – no solid plans for now. Let’s see how things would go.

Opppss, this is not really a short post after all. Heh. ZZZZZZZ.

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