Delay to Sipadan Post

Hi all. I'm back from my trip to Sipadan. However, the update I promised is on hold for now because I'm busy picking up a new skill - Photoshop.

So far, here's what I've picked up.
Give me a week or so and I'll tell you all about my wonderful vacation, complete with photographs. Cheers!

Sipadan-Kapalai Dive Resort

So far I've only accomplished one dive trip this year - Tioman back in May. It's kind of disappointing yet with the way things are going, it couldn't be helped.

At least nothing's coming between me and my next dive trip. On 7th October 2009, we're scheduled to fly to Tawau, Sabah, where we'll be picked up and driven to the small seaside town of Semporna. From there, it's a quick boat ride down south to Kapalai where I'll be spending a good 4 days in paradise!

There's only one resort on Kapalai island - which is technically just a sand bar. Note the satellite image courtesy of google maps.

View Larger Map

That's the resort we'll be based at during our stay. During this time, apart from the diving, Robert & Grace will also be taking the opportunity to capture some pictures in paradise for the pre-wedding photo album. Trust me when I say the pictures are going to turn out gorgeous.


And if you think that's the highlight, think again. Both of them are getting pretty hyped up to trash the dress. We're going to be putting Soon Yean's underwater photography skills to the test. I will of course be down there with them just for the heck of it.

I'll have to stop here for now... but I promise there will be one very long post, if not multiple posts when we come back.

I can't wait. I can't wait!

Off Road

For the lack of inspiration, updates are rare. But here's something worth penning down - yesterday's riding at Bukit Kiara.

I've been talking to Kennie over the last couple of weeks on training for a triathlon. If you've followed my ramblings, you know I'm keen but have been putting it off all this while. Well, Kennie's already started his training and has even completed his first full marathon. Now's he's all hyped up about biking.

As we both only have mountain bikes to begin with, we went along with his idea to take a ride to Bukit Kiara yesterday afternoon. The ride from home to Taman Tun was a good warm up... which left me without enough energy to get myself up the hill. Wound up pushing the bike instead.

Then came the bright idea of going off road. If you didn't know, Kiara hill is full of off road bike trails. What we didn't realize was that it's really easy to get lost if you're not familiar with those part of the woods because it's so FULL of off road bike trails. Naturally, don't expect to find any sign boards in there.

Kennie's ability to ride far exceeds mine and he was well ahead of me going up the hill in the jungle. I lost him within the first 10 minutes of entering the jungle. As I prodded along hoping to catch up to him round the next bend, and the next turn, and the next slope, no sign of him.

To make things worse, I was being swarmed by mosquitoes, much like my last experience in that same jungle some 2 years back when I first got my bike. Again I was lost. And every time I lost balance and fell off the bike, I was just as quick to jump back on to avoid having any mozzies land on my exposed arms and legs. Didn't even get a chance to stop for a drink, let alone pick up the phone to call Kennie. But then again what was I going to do? Pick up the phone to ask for directions??

"Um yea, landmarks... I see trees... mosquitoes... dirt... mud... more trees. So which way should I go again? A left at the next tree... right! Oh which tree would that be again?"

Naturally, the lost got... er... LOST-ER! I was pushing my bike along in the woods for well over an hour trying to find a convenient exit to a tarmac road, but to no avail. I finally chanced upon an opening, at which end I could see a I nice tall condominium. Sadly, I was standing at the top of a cliff which towered 10m over the road below. Wandered around a bit more before finally finding a path which led out to that God-sent road.

Lo and behold, I was in front of Kiaramas Ayuria. No idea where that was. First instinct was to drink water. Then call Kennie. He had no idea where Kiaramas Ayuria either. Worse still, the poor chap was even more lost than me.

Anyway, turns out Kiaramas is in Mont' Kiara / Desa Sri Hartamas area - a good half hour away by road to where I first started out. Sure it would have been nearer to go back through the woods but I knew better.

Finally rode back to the guard house at the bottom of Bukit Kiara where we began. Waited there another half hour before Kennie finally found his way out of the jungle, at the Equestrian Club. Took him a bit to reach me. He showed up all muddy. LOL! Apparently he wanted to wait for me early along the trail, but the mosquitoes just wouldn't have that and chased him all the way.

Well, this experience has taught me to stick to the road. More biking to come!

Underwater Bubble Rings

Check out the video. Awesome stuff. I want to have a go at that the next time I'm in the water!

Ageing

I celebrated my 27th almost a month ago and forgot create a post about it. I cannot begin to stress enough how important it is to blog about one's birthday. I'm secretly hoping that this applies to everyone and not just only me.

During the week of my birthday this year, I started to wonder what I did for my birthday last year. I couldn't remember.

I ask my girlfriend but she ended up relating my surprise birthday-do from 2007 instead. And I thought I had a bad memory.

So I resorted to asking my two closest buddies. One of them went with the 2007 story. S2pit! The other one had the decency to admit that he can't remember.

Alas, even my blog has no post on my birthday in 2008. So here I am, making sure that what I did for my birthday in 2009 is recorded, although a bit late. :)

9 July Lunch - Bought lunch for AccuCap at Decanter in D'sara Heights.

9 July dinner - Birthday dinner with Mom, Dad & Joanne at home. Mom cooked, and Joanne tapau-ed some additional dishes from the nearby restaurant. The was a cake too, and a photo of me without a shirt on.

10 July - Happy hour with Lee & co. Went to this place called "Parking" in Kota Damansara - not so happening. We hopped on to After-5 at Damansara Perdana. Lots of beer! Kenny failed to get Yen's number.

11 July Dinner - Joanne organized a surprise dinner with my dearest group of friends. Steamboat in Sunway. Those present: Mervyn, Joanne, Elizabeth, Yen, Jessie, Robert, Grace, Soon Yean, June, Chee How, Wei Wei, Jason, Tomo, Chow Phang.

11 July After Dinner - 69 Bistro in Damansara Perdana (right next to After-5). Cake cutting.

And yes... I did figure out what I did for 2008 birthday - nothing special. The closest thing to a celebration we had was Jo's house warming in Damansara Perdana. But it wasn't actually to celebrate my birthday. Just a pot-luck get-together.

So my dear friends, let me re-cap by saying - LOG YOUR BIRTHDAYS... even if you did nothing special. Coz with each additional candle on the cake the ability to remember the event fades.

Men's Health Night Run 09

Long story short - I completed my first >10km running event.


It was also my first proper running event because the 5km Fun Run at KL Marathon was botched (read previous post).

Heck, even on a normal day I barely manage to finish a 5km training run. So completing this 11.5km is something I'm quite happy about.

According to Robert who paced with me all the way, we completed the course in 1hr 21mins. That's an average speed of 8.5kmph - not bad at all for my first time. But I'm sure Robert would have done it in about an hour had he gone on his own.Nonetheless, his encouragement and the added pressure of not wanting him to be too slow because of me kept me going. When we saw the "4km To Go" hoarding I was all ready to give up. But it just wouldn't do Robert justice if I did so I pressed on and completed the entire run. Moral of the story - running with a buddy can go a long way.
All in all I didn't really prepare myself that well. Though I have been running short distances regularly for 2 months now, I didn't bother much with the pre-run regime. Didn't pay too much attention to keeping myself properly hydrated and I wasn't well-rested either. I only had 1 meal on the day of the run and I even went out for happy hour the night before, leaving me with diarrhea throughout the day of the run.

Must be good next time. Mizuno Wave Run on 25 Oct 2009.

Of Late

It's been a busy period for me, thus the lack of updates. Here are a few just for the record.

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009
It was my first running event. I signed up for the 5km fun run just to try it out. Truth be told I really enjoyed the running as I prepared weeks before the event. So much so that I looked forward to finishing work on time just to go home to do my usual 3.3km round the neighborhood.

The 5km event itself was a disappointment. I was at the back of the group of I don't know how many people at the start of the run. If I had to guess, 5000 maybe? It really sucked that I wanted to run but couldn't because everyone around me just began by walking. Had to slowly weave my way through the hordes of people. This alone is enough reason for me to want to try the 10km. Hopefully people actually run!

What's more, the route wasn't clearly marked and someone in front decided to take a wrong turn, with the whole group following. We wound up back at the start only 3km on. Didn't get to run the full 5km.

Next run - Men's Health Run '09 on 25/Jul. I signed up for the 11.5km just for kicks. Have to start improving my stamina immediately.

Work at Desaru
Reason I've been so tied up with work these past couple of weeks is because I've been heavily involved in one of my company's projects to supply IT hardware for Lotus Group's new resort in Desaru, Johor.

Bulk of the work was in the planning and coordinating of the delivery of goods. The past 3 days was spent on-site setting up their over-spec-ed server and office PC's. It was a lot of waiting around as the office was barely ready for our arrival, but good fun just the same.

MIDE 2009
I was in a big hurry to finish up at Desaru so that I would have my Sunday free to visit the Malaysia International Dive Expo at PWTC. Today's their final day. I had only one intent which was to find good rates for our upcoming dive trip to Sipadan. It's a big crowd of 14 people so I wanted to make sure we got some good rates.

Funny thing is that this time I was surrounded by dive gear left, right and center, all on promotion, but I wasn't at all tempted to purchase anything. I guess I've already spent more than necessary and own all the equipment I really need to enjoy a good dive. The only money spent this round was RM25 for a stainless steel pointer, since I have a fair eye at spotting stuff underwater.

Quick check based on one of my previous post More Diving...
To-do list before next trip:
- Tusa Passage due for service.
- Atomic Aquatics B2 due for annual check.
- Suunto Mosquito 3 bars battery left and quite unstable - buy battery replacement just in case.
- Lubricate wheels and zips for bag.
- Clean & lubricate torchlight o-rings.
- Buy motion sickness pills. CHECKED
- Buy metal rod. CHECKED
- Check new Atomic subframe ARC mask for fogging, bring extra toothpaste if necessary. CHECKED

We've decided to drop plans to dive over Merdeka weekend as we're once again reminded that we don't have bottomless wallets.