Before Hatyai International Marathon - Part 2/2

This is the second half of the 'Before Hatyai International Marathon', you can read the first half here.

As I was just woke up and still in blur blur mode, I asked the tuk tuk driver is it 150 Bhat per pax to Bethai night market, he quickly asked us to hop in. As my wifey asked me, isn't it just 30 Bhat per pax? Then, I realized I offered the wrong pricing for the tuk tuk service. I put that behind my head until we reached the destination.

On the way, we did some camwhoring and Proton Savvy was spotted. Not bad, Proton, you made your way into Thailand which is full of CKD of many cars, including Toyota, Honda, GM, etc....

After reaching the destination, the tuk tuk driver asked for 600 Bhat, which is 150 Bhat times 4, then I clarified again, then he quoted me 30 Bhat times 4 = 120 Bhat. Luckily I dare to counter offer, else we become the super big fish on the Thailand chopboard. By the way, he was being dishonest as well :P

Then we went separate ways to pursue the shopping mission and meet at 8pm for dinner. We took chicken rice and some sushis, except ah Huat who does not eat raw sushi. The sushi was very cheap, 5 Bhat each, and buy 10 free 2. What an offer? Can we find anything with that type of pricing in Penang or Malaysia? I doubt it!!!!

Then we continued to shop in separate ways, wifey keep her eyes on the merchandizes while I looked at somewhere else, not really interested in buying new T-shirt or other things. I already have abundance of it. Did I mention that I bought 3 running pants and 1 cap? All budget used up.

The rain started to pour and we saw something quite creative, many stall owners use the gutter shown below to guide the water to flow to ground, rather that let it sprinkle around. Nice move.

 At 10pm, most of the stalls were closing and we decided to go back to the guest house. We hop in one tuk tuk with good Hi-Fi system that was playing Lady Gaga's song. The driver charged us 100 Bhat for the way back, 20 Bhat cheaper this time, some more with the entertainment. Value for money.

My legs were tired after those walking and driving, so I decided to go for a foot massage. It was darn cheap at 200 Bhat per hour. Initially, the masseur was a bit harsh on my fragile legs and I had to ask him to slow down, soften the massage a bit, because I still need my legs for the 42km in another 6 hours. I was not sure whether it was the correct move to massage before the race, because of what had happened in the run that I will share in my race report later.

You can see my face expression, it was so natural until I did not notice or realize how ugly I was.

Then we went back to bed after I informed WJ to meet at 2.30am at the guest house lobby.

Good night.

-woohoo-

Before Hatyai International Marathon - Part 1/2

Well... I supposed many things to happen this (previous) weekend including:

1. Much delicious Thai food.
2. Wifey going on shopping spree.
3. Adrian Ong Soon Huat coming north from KL all the way to join 13km.
4. Woei Jye going debut on Full Marathon after accepting my challenge or I should call it offer.
5. Myself aiming for a PB.

It took us almost 4 - 5 hours to reach Hatyai due to heavy human traffic at the Thailand-Malaysia border, could be due to school holiday, or biking event or the Hatyai International Marathon. I think we spent around 1.5 to 2 hours queuing up to get our passport stamped and get my car permit. The driving experience was so-so in NSEW and I was becoming more cautious after crossing the border.

This queue took me more than 1 hour to get my passport stamped.

I still wonder why the Thailand immigration officers collect RM1 or RM2 from the each person that went across the border. Is it an official fee? or?

From 99.7 My FM is Malaysia, my car radio was in Thai FM at 99.75, I guess. Although I do not understand the language from the radio station, except those numbers, like neng, song, sham...etc ... but the music kept us entertained. 555....

We used ah Huat's GPS to reach Be My Guest Apartment. I'd booked 2 rooms with Anne's help and the rate was very good. RM60 per night, the room is clean, the hot shower is working (but not many need it in Hatyai due to the hot weather), and the receptionist speaks Mandrin. We wanted to go to Gan Ying (甘英) to have our lunch and we were not sure whether is it and we were planning to hop on to one of the tuk-tuk, but after getting the consultation from the receptionist, were were asked to walk straight out of the entrance of the hotel and go straight. We followed the instruction and we were in disbelief because it is just 300m away. Save 20 bhat per pax for the walk. Look at the dishes we had.

After the lunch, we drove to Jiranakorn Stadium to register for the marathon event. It was very very hot and the registration did not take too long, maybe around around 10 minutes for filling up the form, make the payment, choose the vest/T-shirt, check the timing chip. Then, we're done.

After that we were checking out all the merchandizes on the booths in front of the stadium, there were so many things, we were not quite sure whether they're genuine or counterfeited products. Anyway, no risk taken, so we did not buy any running shoes there although some of the Adizero Adios only 1000 Bhat per pair, tempting. However, I will never let go the chance to buy running pants which are quite expensive in Penang or Malaysia.

I have bought 3 pieces of running pants, I guess 2 are Nike and 1 is Adidas, I guess all are counterfeited good but I can live the quality of the pants after trying them in the 'Hong Nam' - toilet. 3 for 450 Bhat equals to 1 Adidas running pant after 40% discount, imagine buying those normal price item. Besides, I grabbed one dri-fit Siamdidas cap for 150 Bhat too... it was just too hard to resist.

Look my wifey's face when she cannot tahan the hot weather. After spending quite some time there, we decided to go back to the guest house to rest, everyone was tired after exposing under the sun for quite some time.

We gathered at the lobby around 6:15pm Thai time and we headed to the Bethai Night Market. Wifey did not get anything in the afternoon, she was so eager to shop at the night market. That's the whole purpose that she wanted to join this trip.

To be continued ...

FM Clashes with CQE Courses

I was lining up my races throughout 2012 and planning early in good for myself to have an overview of 2012, apart from the 2012 new year resolution. But, again, it happens again, something else came up. There is no big deal if there is no clashes between those events, or if it is just one time deal.

I was told that CQE, stands for Certified Quality Engineer certification training courses was available, and it would cost me an arm and a leg if I choose to take it myself. From the internet, I saw it is only USD399, which could convert to a few thousand ringgit, quite expensive, indeed. I was happy to know that it is open for enrollment, but bad news is it is a 24 full days course, from 9am to 5pm. OMG.... it will suck up all of my energy, to make thing worse, most of the training are on Saturdays.

Sweating....

I have to skip the first class this Saturday because of the early planning of my own race schedule, because of the late notice by HR and the intention of getting the CQE certification. After I marked all the course date on the calendar, I could miss out as many as 4 classes. (Seems like I'm giving higher priority to FM :P )

Maybe the priority will change, but the money paid for race registration will be 'tong ko sui'. The RJM and Taiping International Marathon would be on the line now...

We'll see how they (the other colleagues) that attending the course negotiate on the course schedule, it could be better or worse, so no point talking too much about it now.

For sure, Hatyai... I'm coming.

--woohoo--

2012 Blog Facelift

phew.... just completed the facelift after changing the template a few weeks back. Now it looks different with the collage that I have just created, it is still oven hot!!! yey...

My wife still mumbling about how stupid Picasa is, at times, I think the same way too, but they make good collages if you have your photos ready. Need to spend some time with it as we don't ready user guide and manual, do we?

I have done mine in 45 minutes (too long), including downloading Picasa, installing Picasa, I skipped the photo editing because I'm lazy to do so, resizing and uploading.

Anyway, it is good to have something looks new in 2012.

LOL... good night.

@.@

Just back from 2011 trip

I just came back from the last trip in 2011 and I'm tired, had a great time at China with my lovely wife. We did some tidy up last night and we both were sleeping soundly, at least my wife still does.

It was the first time we spent so much money on a single trip, with a vision that we would earn 100%, 200%, 300%... back in 2012. We bought a lot of things, although it is still in the winter. I'll need to wrap up my 2011 by today and list out a few resolutions for 2012.

It is going to be a tough 2012, with very very steep learning curve, but I believe everything would be fine with me putting in effort, doing things with great patience and diligence.

Still not in a mood to write long story kok... give me sometime to wake myself up.

Bangkok Standard Chartered Marathon 2012... Yes? No? Yes?

I'm still checking the event calendar for 2012 regularly, afraid that I might miss the early bird offer, although it could be just RM10 or 10 dollar in particular currency. I saw the Bangkok Standard Chartered Marathon 2012 has been rescheduled to 12 February 2012 due to flood. I saw the post before, I clicked on it once...then I found that the registration fee is quite expensive, even more expensive than the Sundown Marathon 2011, how could that be? Does the official want to collect more money to help Bangkok city?

2000 Bhat for non-Thai. I'm a non-Thai, so if I want to register RM200 is a gone case. Never mind, I try to justify myself from the package stand point, so I take a look at the flight and accommodation. Ngam ngam I received an sms from AirAsia for priority booking and I looking for a bargain of the year. Sadly, only the air ticket from AirAsia will make me fork out RM500, just to fly... how can that be?

I'm so sad. I still need a place to sleep. I still need to eat a lot. Most probably I will shop a little bit too. Most most probably I have to pay for my wife to fly together, too. It is too expensive, I have to call it off. Hopefully I can make it next time.

RM200+RM500+eat+sleep, I rather make a few trips to KL for some runs that I never participated.

A Few Things I like About Singapore

1. It is a vibrant city. Relatively more modern than Kuala Lumpur, not to mention Penang. Guys and ladies dress up nicely to work. Most OL even dress up sexily, revealing the cleavage of fortune (no offense), it is good to look, not sure whether good to hold.
2. The city is safe, much much safer than Kuala Lumpur. I can leave my luggage somewhere in front of the wash room and not worrying a second that it would be missing. In KL, ermmm.... I hate to say that, but things tend to get lost.
3. People Q' up. Singaporean or some other people in Singapore might think that 'WTF, every day need to queue up for everything'. I totally disagree. I like the organized way, because I do not like what I'm seeing some old uncle aunty take it for granted. Yeah, you have the privilege but respect is earned.
4. The public transportation system is fantastic. The MRT, LRT even public buses have tolerance of +/- 5 minutes, but Rapid KL could easily beat the mark by 3-6 times slower.
5. Singapore Dollar (SGD) is a strong currency. I was born in Penang and live in Penang since then, I pay MYR1.95 for one litre of RON95 and in Singapore I pay SGD2.00; not much of different though. BUT... I could earn MYR4000 with 3 years working experience, and SGD3500 in Singapore, but the cost of a pair of Asics shoes MYR299 and SGD125 for the same thing. One economy rice with 2 meat and 1 vege is SGD2.50, and RM4 is considered cheap if you happen to know one.

That's all. I'll add on if I can think of more....

Kuala Lumpur - Christchurch

Oops, the wallet is bleeding again~!

O.o

Taiping Heritage Run 2010

Met a few Seagators in Taiping Heritage Run 2010 recently... Eunice and Lay See. I was wearing the striking green colour singlet, and Lay See was in pink shirt and cap. The singlet was not suitable for run, probably the size is slightly bigger than by body, and tends to drop from my shoulder during the run, luckily I chose to ignore it. :P

A photo of 3 little kittens in Esplanade, Taiping.

It was a nice run, managed to finish the 15km race in 1 hour and 15 minutes, that's unbelievable, approximately 5 minutes per km, but the after race was suffering. At least, I achieved my goal to get at least a medal (for first 200 runners in men open category), 81st place, not bad laa...

A finishing shots with Lay See. (She did a few marathons already O.O!!!)

Really thanks to Man Qing (my dear girlfriend) for accompanying to the run, taking nice photos, although did not get the finishing line shot. Never mind, we have more races to come, meaning that we have more place to visit next time.... hurray. Love ya...

又上班了

刚从 Gem Island 回来，和女友在那私人岛过了开斋节，享受到温暖的阳光，美丽的沙滩，还后很多很美丽的珊瑚，只可惜没有很多浮潜的机会。

回来后，发现自己的体重又上升了，每天吃好料，刚巧遇上开斋节，吃了 rendang， ketupat，沙爹，BBQ大餐等。Genting Trailblazer 就只剩下一个月罢了，是时候好好锻炼了。皮肤也变黑了，但是我喜欢这个 tone，喜欢阳光，沙滩和比基尼就是得牺牲的啦……哈！

还在解决一些工作上的难题，希望可以更加好地管理时间，好让各方面都可以平衡发展。加油！

Dear，it was a nice trip！Next time must take flight already :p

@.@