And I Did it Again

Posted on September 30, 2013 by jipp

I used to marvel at people’s courage and will to run in a marathon. 42 km seemed like an impossible distance to run for me.

After sticking to 21km for quite a long time, I finally decided to stretch it further by running for a marathon at Penang Bridge International Marathon in Penang last year. Seriously, it took me a lot of courage to even think about doing it. In fact, I still couldn’t believe I actually did it.

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I since then declared myself a marathoner. But then, I later decided that may be running for a single marathon doesn’t really make me a marathoner. So I challenged myself to a 2nd one. This time at Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon, one of my favorite marathon events in the country. Continue reading →

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Visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ayutthaya

Posted on September 28, 2013 by jipp

Of all the places that I went to during my recent weekend escapade to the neighboring country, there was one place that I was most excited of going to. The place is called Ayutthaya.

I first found out about Ayutthaya when I searched for the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Thailand. Strangely enough, Thailand doesn’t seem to have a lot of UNESCO World Heritage sites despite being a tourist magnate in Asia and the world over.  I was even more surprised that despite all the hoohaas about Bangkok, there seemed to be no UNESCO World Heritage Site in the city at all.

Ayutthaya – the nearest site – is located some 80km to the North of the Thai capital city. Being a UNESCO sites enthusiast, I convinced my two travel buddies to take a full day out to go there, telling them that it’s always worthwhile to go to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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I was even more excited to know that traveling to Ayutthaya involved going on a train ride. The last time I went on a train ride (real trains, not those urban trains) was from New Delhi to see the Taj Mahal in Agra and I loved every moment of it! There is always something so exciting about going to a place on a train. Continue reading →

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A Weekend Escapade to the Neighboring Country

Posted on September 24, 2013 by jipp

Thanks to the public holiday in conjunction with the Malaysia Day, I grabbed the opportunity to do a little bit of weekend escapade to the neighboring country – Thailand. Being one of the most visited countries in the world, one will never run out of things to see and do in Thailand.

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The Victory Monument – Where it all began ..

I landed at Don Muang airport this time, unlike in my previous visits when I landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport. It is closer to the city center but it has no direct train connection to Bangkok. We had to take a taxi (if you’re on budget, get a public taxi outside of the terminal and not at the counters inside the terminal. They are damn expensive) to Mo Chit which is the nearest train station from the airport and take the BTS from there all the way to our hotel in Ratchathewi. Continue reading →

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Another Year Older

Posted on September 20, 2013 by jipp

So, today is my birthday anniversary. Don’t ask how old I am now. It doesn’t really matter. In a conservative environment, people would raise their eyebrows when they know that I am still not married at this age. It’s not really so much of an issue back in Sabah or at least in the town that I came from where the trend of late-marriages is quite normal.

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I’ve got many friends, cousins and relatives who are still not married at about the same age as mine. Some got married because they got somebody pregnant. Some got married because – well – living in a small town or a village with nothing much to do, what else can they do right? Starting a family to complete the circle of life as they call it. Continue reading →

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Why the War in Syria is Suddenly a Matter of Personal Concern to Me

Posted on September 2, 2013 by jipp

I’ve been following the development of the internal war in Syria ever since it erupted three years ago. Not that I really care because as far as I’m concerned, Middle East has been in wars for as long as I can remember. There’ve been too many wars in that part of the world that whatever is happening there doesn’t surprise me anymore.

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I do feel sorry for the people though although many of the problems come from the people themselves. Call it a revolt, or a revolution, or whatever but in the end there seem to be more bad than good that come out of it at least in the years that followed. The prices paid by the people for striving for changes are very high – even at the cost of their own lives. Continue reading →

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