Hit by the ball

Former Chelsea star Khalid Boulahrouz let fly with a stray shot from the other side of the pitch during warm up which hit Jessica Kastrop a sports presenter for Sky in Germany. If only he can shoot with that accuracy in the actual match.

Climbing Mount Kinabalu : a Chronology

I could just as easily call this blog post : "I climbed a Freaking Mountain !"

It wouldn't have been shouted out with a sense of achievement or pride. Indeed, it would have been exclaimed with anxiety, fear, nerves and yes, a touch of relief.

It was just a few months ago that I started to organize a trip for the company's sports club. For some reason, climbing Mount Kinabalu was selected as the first trip. I would much rather have organized a trip to the beach or something but nooooo.... a mountain was chosen. And so, the wheels were set in motion.

A series of bookings, training hikes, equipment purchases and briefings followed - which all led to me boarding a plane at 0750 hours on Tuesday, 24th August 2010.

Tony's crew were there to send us off

view from the plane approaching KK. you can't separate sea from sky.

at Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, Kinabalu Park

my group contemplating what lay ahead of them - literally

then it was my turn

If you squint really hard, you can see two white dots near the peak.

That's the Laban Rata resthouse - a van ride and 6 km hike away.

August 25th : We were up at 0530, breakfast at 0630, followed by prep and a van ride to Timpohon Gate. Hiking started at 0850 hours.

view from Timpohon Gate

Rocks

Rocks

and more Rocks

Did I mention that there were Rocks ? Sometimes there were stairs and the occasional flatter stretches but mostly it was different types of rocks. Quite a lot of them sharp rocks.

Going up with a walking stick and disposable rain coat reminded me of Gandalf leading the Fellowship of the Ring over mountains in Lord of The Rings.

I accompanied the slowest member of the group and consequently took a longer time to hike but finally at 1555 ...

@ the rest house balcony, with Mt. Kinabalu in the background

At 10,700 feet above sea level, altitude sickness kicked in, which I alleviated with a panadol.

A shower, dinner at 1730 hours and then straight to bed.

I got in about 5 hours sleep before waking up at 0100 hours. It was now D-day, August 26th.

Went to the washroom, packed, got my gear on and headed for breakfast. Took another panadol before we started the climb at 0240 hours. 6 from my team of 8 would be heading out.

It was perfect weather for climbing. There had been no rain, and the moon was out. Still pitch black, but the head lamps and night hike training sessions were proving their usefulness.

First up were the stairs, then rocks, then stairs, then rocks - and this went on for quite a bit. It was also getting more difficult to breathe because the air was getting thinner. Then the stair-rock sequence broke because we got to the Ropes.

The Ropes.

There was the physical exertion of climbing - the breathing difficulties resulting from altitude - but suddenly I was much more awake. Because now I had to add in Fear. There was a short period of climbing with hands and feet, and then we hit this ...

I clung on to that rope and crept sideways along the ledge. There wasn't enough space to walk normally. It was pitch black so I didn't know how far the drop was.

I only had two things on my mind. 'Hold that rope' and 'Watch your next step and take that step'. Fear has a way of sharpening one's focus.

Got past that ledge and then more climbing on rocks followed. I was relieved to reach the Sayat Sayat hut check point because it signaled that the slope would not be as steep going further up the summit. At 12,000 feet above sea level, Sayat Sayat was only 900 meters away from Laban Rata. By now, I had lost track of time.

I didn't stay long at Sayat Sayat and headed on up again. 1.6 km to the peak. For some unknown reason, I took this photo.

Taken at 0445 hours, you can see how dark it was beyond the light from my head lamp. The exertion and fear was grabbing from my reserves of energy and I would finish the 500 ml of water that I had budgeted for the climb by the time I reached the peak.

By this time, I could only go 20-30 steps before stopping to rest. And I always rested with my back against a rock because facing the other way wasn't something I even wanted to contemplate. Of course, this meant that I would be looking at the lights in town and would constantly be reminded that it was a long way Down. And I would feel drowsy too because of the thin air. I was unaware of it, but altitude sickness had again kicked in.

Most of the climbers had already gone further ahead including 4 of my team. 1 had stayed behind at Sayat Sayat, which meant that I was pretty much alone when I started climbing from Sayat Sayat. My guide usually stayed some distance behind me.

Sunrise at 0545 hours. I was still some way off the peak.

I was still heading up when the first climbers started their descend. Eventually, I would be the next-to-last climber to reach the summit that day.

Passed by 4 of my team coming down at this stage

And finally, reached Low's Peak at 13,400 feet above sea level. It was 0645 hours.

My first thought was : "I have to climb back down." It wasn't a cheery thought.

there was nobody left, so the guide took my photo

my guide, who kept my ass out of trouble on the climb down.

In case you're wondering, that IS a sheer cliff that he's hanging over.

I didn't stay at Low's Peak for long. Took a few photos and then I started my descend. There was a schedule to adhere to and I wasn't feeling that good anyway.

the rock surfaces would have made for some gorgeous photos

but I was more focused on going back down

since I was the only one there, my guide had to follow me back down

Loved this photo when I first saw it. It's captioned :

You mean we climbed this at 3 a.m. ?'

heading towards Sayat Sayat hut

After a short break at Sayat Sayat, I started out again. I dreaded the thought of repelling down the rocks and creeping across that ledge again, but this time my guide was there to hold the rope steady.

Made it past the Ropes and hiked down to Laban Rata. I tried to have breakfast but altitude sickness was really getting a hold now and my interest in food was practically nil. Two panadols didn't help and by now the canteen floor was sloping at an angle. I switched tables and the floor was sloping at an angle there too. Gave up on breakfast and went to the toilet - the floor was sloping there as well. Finally got some temporary relief when I threw up. The floors were level again.

Knowing that the only remedy was to get out of high altitude, I forsook breakfast and a shower in favour of getting out faster. I didn't have to persuade my team as they too wanted to get out quickly. So we packed and prepped and departed from Laban Rata.

most hiking trails only have the top 2 lines

but Laban Rata's sign has a 3rd one

That downward hike of 6 km didn't hurt as much as I thought it would but it still took me 5.5 hours to get down.

Reached Timpohon gate at 1600 and chose to have a shower instead of lunch.

After some last bits of paperwork with Sutera Sanctuary Lodges, we got into the van and headed for the airport.

Reached the airport at 1845 hours. The flight was at 2125 hours. There was time to eat, sit and check-in. A group of tired bodies wasn't interested in much else.

Some day, I'll look back on this trip and realize that reaching the summit of Mount Kinabalu was a decent achievement. And I got some pretty good photos out of it.

Today is not that day.

But the penny will drop.

Some day.

That is what you called traffic jam

So we all compliant about traffic jam in KL. But it is nothing compare to this huge massive jam. This pictures show how thousands of vehicles were trapped in an epic traffic jam stretching for more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) on a highway leading to China's capital Beijing. Unbelievable.

One day, in a little corner of the world

One day, when Catriona is old enough to look back, I hope she'll realize that there was a lot of mother-daughter bonding going on. And that she really had a lot of leeway to turn the world into her playground.

playing "what's the time, Mr. Wolf?" at The Gardens, MidValley

spotlight on The Dance

........

...... !!!!

sharing ice cream

Mark Van Bommel reduced to tears in front of 60,000 fans

To be frank, this is a guy who really can irritate people to the core on the football field. He has the typical " 欠打" look, translate into "blardy arsehole" look. But he is a good player. He lost in the Champions League final and Word Cup final but he didn't cry in public. Like a real man, he accepts his defeat.

Some wise man once said: "The reason a hero doesn't cry is because he hasn't meet his moment yet." Mark Van Bommel met his moment in this friendly match. The sign board in his hands was a poster about a little girl who is missing, as part of community service to draw public attention towards missing children in Germany. So I guess being the father of 3 kids, that really touched his heart and voila, we see the humanity in Van Bommel.

Happy Chinese Valentine's Day

It has not being promoted and commercialized as compare to 14 Feb Valentine's Day, so I guess not a lot of people realized that today (Qi Xi, 七夕）is Chinese Valentine's Day. For some reason, Chinese has two valentine's day; one is Chap Goh Mei and the other one is Qi Xi. Errr... I thought Chinese man suppose to be totally hopeless in romantic stuff. Anyway the story of Qi Xi goes like this.

So no overpriced roses, romantic candlelight’s dinner and diamond rings for proposal, here is for all the happy couples; Happy Chinese Valentine’s Day.

How daring you are

It should be a super view but it take quite some courage to ride on this thing. Only for the brave.

How many of you still play this?

I had one of this Rubik's Cube at home when I was growing up. Left by my uncle who used to stay with us. Frankly speaking I never really like to play with it because most of the time, I will not be able to get it back to the original phase as above. Definitely not the 20 moves as report here. But being the only few toys which were available to us back than, this was precious. I can still remember that particular place where we stored it.

And now every time I saw one of this in the toy shop or even a picture or it, it remind me of the days when I had this cube, a portable radio and whole stack of fishing nets in the "store" room all by myself to spend the afternoon.

discovering Melody Gardot

She's been around, but I've only just noticed Melody Gardot. Shows how much I've kept up with what's out there in the music scene.

She's good. Check out "Baby I'm a fool" and "If the stars were mine". And also this little gem which absolutely tugs at heart strings - "Gone".

"English" Clubs??

I mean seriously which part of it is “English”? The top players are mostly from all over the world except English, the top managers are from Europe and Scotland, and the owners are from Russia, US and China, even Malaysian started to venture into the club business!!

So tell me, should we change the name to something else? Anything else but English???

Talentime

When watching Yasmin Ahmad's Talentime, I was struck by three songs used in the movie. The first two are Pete Teo compositions (he of 15Malaysia fame).

'I go' by Pete Teo. Aizat's Bahasa Melayu version can be found here.

Atilia singing 'Angel'. The Bahasa Melayu version can be found here.

These two Catriona has declared as her favourite which is basically a synonym for 'Catriona likes it very much'. As good as the songs are, it's this last song which I like the most - Fateh Ali Khan's rendition of 'O Re Piya' :