Swordie Bloggie

Manage to hike Bukit Padang today evening… missed my hiking yesterday coz I have to do my own Paramedic Jobs after almost completely knock out by gastric yesterday morning… I really not sure if it was gastric coz I don’t think I have gastric problem…

The food I took yesterday to recover… chicken rice, porridge and tea.

I’m trying to figure out what lead to my migraine or gastric yesterday… so, the day before, I ate fried rice with some sausages before I went to hike Bukit Padang in the morning. It was windy, I not dare to go to the top… so I turn back. In fact, I was so exhausted at that time… I thought I will be fitter after returning from Mount Kinabalu… but probably the fatigue is still eating me up… Then I skip my lunch… I only ate a bar of sneakers and two can of Milo… dinner, I did not eat much… so I guess, lacking of energized food was the reason I got knock down the next morning… but lucky I recovered although there is still slight pain on the left side of my head every time I cough… hope it will completely gone by tomorrow morning… coz I’m going to have meeting whole day tomorrow which I really hate… if meeting every day, when can I do my real work?…

Sunset at the top of Bukit Padang today.

Anyways, today hike was great… I was quite energized… and I met Gusip training there too who is also going for the Malaysia Guinness Book of Record in two weeks time at the peak of Mount Kinabalu… hopefully it will be a success.  And I also met a Datuk there… he look so active and fit… we chatted a while and when I told him that I just came back from Mount Kinabalu and I’m not fit coz I took almost 12 hours to reach Laban Rata through Mensilau route, he laugh… he said he did it 4 hours only and carried his own backpack… without porter… I was like ARRGGGGHHHH…

I have lots to blog but time is not really on my side… wanted to write about my preparation for Mount Kinabalu climb end of this month… well I do have some times to spare… but every time I’m in front of my notebook, I will start playing games on Facebook… or surfing at news portals… 😛 I’m just too tired and lazy… I can’t concentrate writing…

I have been training by climbing the small hills at Bukit Padang… about 200m high… with my friends and colleagues… during weekend, I can climb 2 times now… but during weekdays, most of the time I only manage to make to half way coz not enough time. I have to rush from office at 5pm… go home, change, then rush back to Bukit Padang. By the time I reach there, it will be about 6pm… and I will reach halfway of the hill around 6.20pm… and it will be quite dark already… 😛

This week I wanted to carry a backpack while climbing so that I can get use to the heavy loads during the actual climb at the end of this month… but I feel awkward carrying backpack at Bukit Padang at the moment… so the only thing I can carry with me are my watch, handphone and a small bottle of water… luckily I’m not the type wearing jewelry… 😛 the only jewelry I have is my watch… and I miss my old titanium jewelry… my titanium Casio G-SHOCK MRG-1 Metal G… now I have the Casio PRO TREK PRG-500-1 which is not made of titanium… I like titatium G-SHOCK, but I guess since I’m into outdoor adventure now, I have to forget them and go for PROTREK… 😛

Anyways, that’s all about my preparation for now… there are lots more to talk about… 😛

Last Saturday, our boss… err… our office had a dinner at Kampung Nelayan Restaurant, Bukit Padang. This is the first time our office had a get together dinner… We supposed to be there around 7.30pm… but I only manage to sit at around 8pm… that place is super pack… can’t find parking space… made worse with the arrival of the tourist… about 5 or 7 stage bus… I have to do a few circle to find a parking… lucky someone went out and I took over the parking space. When the food stated to arrive, everyone were happy… all are hungry… appetite suppressants is the last thing anyone will think of… the food are wonderful… the food almost not enough for all of us… each time a dish arrive, it will be gone in a few minutes… everyone are hungry like a dinosaur… and karaoke is one of the fun part… but I don’t know how to sing, so I just take photos… 😀

Yesterday I went to climb the hill at the back of Taman Tun Fuad Stephen, Bukit Padang… the hill behind the jogging park. I went there with 2 friends. One knows all the hiking trails there… coz he was doing the hill climbing there with his parents since he was still in primary school… and they were going there like almost daily and way early in the morning… something like 5am!!!

I reach at the park’s parking area around 5pm but it was so crowded with cars… even spilled out to the main road… some parked at the road islands at the main road. My friends are also still looking for parking space on another car.

Well this is common in this area they said… parking spaces are not enough and so many people want to jog, climb the hill and eat at the restaurants and stalls. Maybe the relevant authorities should look into this problem. Further more this is a good place… a good park… even has a small water theme park.

Anyway, after we parked, we walk around the park, the same path I took last Sunday for the Borneo Downhill Challenge 2009. But, instead of using the path with steps I took last Sunday, our friend brought us into a small trail… which is more challenging to me coz there is no steps. And it also a bit dark coz it’s really going into the jungle. If you don’t have personal insurance, maybe it’s good to have term life insurance quotes first before doing this hiking… for first timer, I’m sure this is creepy… wild animal, insects, fall…

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Sometime last week, Disney told me about the Borneo Downhill Challenge 2009… a cycling challenge event. The challenge was held on 16 & 17 May 2009 at Taman Tun Fuad Stephen, Bukit Padang… the hill behind the jogging park.

Since it was a rare opportunity, we decided to go for it… but we only went for the final day, Sunday. As far as I know, both of us never attended any fast event photo shootout like downhill cycling. I did help a friend for a woods ball (paint ball) game last moth, but it was not that fast coz it was held in a huge area and I was shooting from a distance.

So, on last Sunday, we met at the parking area of the jogging park around 8.15 am. We saw a couple of photographer but we don’t see any cyclists or bicycles… so we were like blur blur… wondering if the game is really at the park… further more I don’t know the exact program of the challenge… I was relying what ever Disney knows 😛

Then Disney ask me about water… shoot, I did not bring any but luckily I have a large 100 Plus Lemon Lime in my car… I bought two days ago which I have consumed some and kept in my car. But I don’t want to carry that big bottle since my camera bag is just enough for my gears. Lucky second time, I have a small empty mineral water bottle in the car… I transferred the drink into the smaller bottle 😉

Still not sure what’s going on, we decided to walk around the park. After walking like 1 KM plus… which was good for warming us up… we ask a jogger how to go over the hill… mind you, both of us never climb the Bukit Padang Hill, so both of us don’t know what to expect from the hill!!! The jogger pointed to us the path to the hill… we actually pass over it but we thought there is another path.

We back track for a short distance… but decided to take a shortcut by climbing a low steep path. My sling bag starting getting heavy 😮 damm… I’ve not done any climbing for like 15 years?!!!

Then when I saw the steep steps… holly cow!!!… it’s like highway to heaven… endless…

The path we have taken so far…

Almost reaching at the end of the steps, we saw an old man… not really old… going down… with the MARSHAL tag… we ask him where the event is… he said up there, not very far… I ask if it over already… coz he was going down the steps… he said no, he just want to warm up… WARMING UP!!! We were like dying climbing and this old man is going down and up the steps like walking on a flat land ground…

We reach the last steps and saw the track… halleluiah, we finally reached heaven!!!

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