Sri Lanka Trip = Post #5 (29 Dec 2008)

I hereby list the top ten questions that Sri Lankans asked foreigners( in order of the most commonly asked)

1. Which country are you from ?
2. What is your job?
3. How much is your salary?
4. Are you married ?
5. How long have been in Sri Lanka?
   
6. Where are you going?
7. How old are you?
8. Where do you stay?
9. How much is the air ticket from xxx?
   
10. Sri Lanka, good ?

I have been asked one or more of the above ten questions, at least a dzoen times over the past 17 days. In my case,the locals also ask two more questions:-

1. Do you want to marry a Sri Lanka girl?
2. Are you from Japan ? (sometimes, replace Japan with Taiwan, Thailand)

I am now at Hikkaduwa near a beach and staying at El Dorado guest house, 150 m from the main road. The guest house is very good value at only Rupee 850 (USD 7.80 = RM 30) per night. Yesterday I did a quick 3 km run along the road in front of the guest house. The road runs besid4es many houses in the village butis a good running route with two to three undulating sections.

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #4 (24 to 25 Dec 2008

I am still at Nuwara Eliya (NE). I have been here for 3 days which is too long as I don't have much to do. The places to go are to tea plantation (been there). Single tree mountain (won't go climbing because of knee problem) Horton Plains national and World's End View (can't go as it is too costly, USD 60 for car and entrance fee, running out of money) and botanical gardens (been there).

The locals described Nuwara Eliya as "Little England". The cold climate (18 deg. C daytime temperature) certainly fits English weather in Spring or early Autumm. But sometimes, is a bit hard to view this place as being England when a passing bus or truck belches a copious amounts of black smoke. The black smoke is the result of a struggling engine to burn fuel in the 1850 m altitude.

I will be leaving NE tomorrow morning. At first I was planning to go direct to Galle on the ancient rust bucket bus non A/C (8 hour travel time). Fortunately I came to my senses yesterday and found out a better alternative. I will take a private minibus hopefully with a working A/C to Colombo (5 hours). From Colombo, I will take another bus to Galle which will take about two and half hours. I think I can survive a 2.5 hrs trip on a non A/C bus.

Sri Lanka Trip = Video Post #1

This video was taken during the performance of Kandyan dances at the Lake House, Kandy.

Sri Lanka Trip = Photos Post #1

Photo 1 : Dambulla caves Exterior

Photo 2: Sigiriya rock (the palace in on top of the 20om high rock)
Photo 3: Then murals inside Dambulla caves

Photo 4: View of Kandy city from elevation

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #3 (21 to 23 Dec 2008)

Continuing from post #2,

Tourism
Tourism is one of Sri Lanka's major income earners industry with 300,000 people directly or indirectly involved in the trade. December is usually the busiest season with package tourists from European countries especially Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries. However global economic turmoil turned recession has dealt a devastating blow to the industry. Hotels that are normall fully booked are empty with the hoteliers counting on local tourists to fill their rooms (Dec is the school holiday in Sri Lanka). Not all of supply can be met by local tourism:-

• The company that I booked my tour had laid off 10 out of 13 drivers. My driver returned to his village to farm his relative's rice fields since April 2008. In December he was called back to drive me around for one week
  .
• The tour guide who showed me around Sirigaya rock said now has 3 to 4 tourists (foreigners) per week. In previous years, in a typical day there were 30 to 40 buses (1500 foreign tourists) arriving at Sirigaya per week. The situation has become so dire that the 120 licensed guides now to take turns to provide their services. Since working as a tour guide at Sirigaya 10 years ago, this year was the worst in terms of the number of foreign tourists.
• Last week it was reported that hoteliers at Hikkaduwa, a seaside area popular with package tourists appealed to the government to give them loans due to poor business.

Getting a supply of petrol has become a serious problem in Sri Lanka since last week. Three people sued the goverrment to reduce the petrol price. The supreme court ordered the goverment to reduce the petrol price from RP 12o (USD 1.1 = RM 4.00/litre) to RP 100 per litre (USD 0.9 = RM 3.3o/litre). Of of two companies, one company run by a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation agreed to comply and dropped their petrol prices to RP 100/litre immediately. A second company owned by the government did not and was waiting for goverment orders. The outcome was predictable with everyone going to the first company to fill up their tanks. There is now an artificial shortage of petrol in Sri Lanka. In the mean time, the government postponed the decision on whether to comply to the court decision or not. They have indicated their reluctance to reduce the price due to the need to fund the ongoing war with the Tamil Tigers and a potential hedging loss at USD 130 per barrel. Comparison of current petrol prices :-

• USA (USD 0.35 per litre)
  
  
• Malaysia (USD 0.50 per litre)
  
  
• Vietnam (USD 0.70 per litre)
  
  
• Sri Lanka (USD 1.10 per litre)
  

It looks like government profiteering to me.

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #2 (16 to 20 Dec 2008)

I am sitting in the Giritale hotel's room (Giritale town) to access the Internet. 5 days after I left Colomobo on a train journey to Kandy, I have visited several places I has planned to visit and learnt a few things about Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, I found out has many UNESCO world herigate sites ( Iwas told there are seven sites altogether). I hope to visit most of them by 30 Dec 2008. Outide of CoombSo far I have visited Dambulla cave paintings, Sirigaya - a fortress located atop a 220 m high rock, several ancient sites in Anandaphura city. Tomorrow I will be visiting Pollonaruwa, located 15km from Giritale. I won't write in detail about these places due to the limited Internet speed here here but I write about what have I discovered so far:

Safety
Yesterday, I was asked to hand over my passport at army check point for the first time. Tbis happened on the road approaching Anandhaphura city. A stern and suspicious sargeant asked the driver some questions irst and asked him where we were going. Then he turned his attention to me and asked several questions:-

Where I am from ? My answer : Malaysia
Where I came from ? My answer : Sirigaya
Where I was going to ? My answer : Anandhapura and a few other places.
How long have I been in Sri Lanka ? My answer : One week
What I am doing in Sri Lanka ? Tourism

At the end of the questions, he asked for my passport. I observed he took particular interest at the various visa stamps in my passport. Lastly he checked for my entry visa to Sri Lanka. Satisfied that I was a bona fide tourist/traveller, he nodded and we were permitted to continue our journey.

BTW, Anandaphura city is only 50 km from the Notherm Tamil dominated regio where the government is waging a war agansnt the Tamil Tigers

Tip : If you are stopped at military check point and being asked some questions, it is best that your give answers that arare short and precise. What you don't want to do is to give a rambling answer. Look at the questioner in the eye when you answer.

People
I have found the people here to be friendly and helpful. The touts. tuk-tuk drivers and vendors are less a hasslem than those in India. Here if you say no once (OK - in some cases, seversl times), they will leave you along. In India, they will follow you around even you say no in several different languages.

Cost
The costs have been higher than what I expected. To move around the places I mentioned, I booked a tour with a driver. The whole package (beb and breakfast) excluding entrance fees was USD 470 for 7 days or roughly USD 67/day. A local man I met in the Colombo to Kandy train said I had been charged too much. He said the cost should be about USD 240 which was unlikely considering it costs USD 35 to 50 per day to hire a driver inclusive of his accomodation and meal costs. I estimated the hotel and guest houses that have I stayed to date cost about USD 20 per night minimum.

He described the guys at the tour ageny "Rail Tours" run by JF Tours in the Fort Railway station as bunch of crooks having come across similar cases of overcharging.

I will check out his claim of prices later. (It is is too late for me to anything as I have fully paid for the tour).

To be continued........

Sri Lanka Trip = Post #1 (12 to 15 Dec 2008)

It has been three days since I arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon. The trip from the airport to the guest house where I was staying took almost 1 and 1/4 hours although the distance was only 30km. The van passed through heavy traffic in Colombo and several towns lying at the outskirts of Colombo. There was a heavy army presence at Colombo (capital city) in the form of numerous check points manned by armed soldiers armed with AK-47 semi automatic rifles. At each check point, there is post with a soldier surrounding by a pile of sand bags.

I will be staying at Mt. Lavinia located 10 km south of Colombo, Mt. Lavinia is the closest beach to Colombo and has lots of budget accommodation. I was staying at Mrs Mendiz guest house run by a family with same namesake. The cost per night is RP 2,000 (USD 18) including breakfast. There are only two rooms in the first floor with the family staying on the ground floor. Mr Mendiz, an elderly man of 80 years of greeted me when I arrived.

In the evening, I took a stroll along the beach which was only 50m walk from the guest house. To get there, I had to cross two railways tracks which serve trains running to several towns to and from Colombo. Being a Saturday there were a lots of people on the beach. If you are expecting a classic beach vacation, Mt Lavinia is n0t the place to be. There were no palm trees swaying gently in the wind but there were plenty of restaurants or fishing nets to trip over.

One thing I discovered near the beach was a monstrous hotel "The Berjaya Mount Royal Beach Hotel" owned by the same Berjaya group from Malaysia. Experience the exotic charm of Sri Lanka at the 95-room Berjaya Mount Royal Beach Hotel. The hotel website describes the hotel as such "The hotel faces the stunning beach front on one side and is bordered by lush tropical vegetation on the other, makes it a perfect setting ideal for both business and pleasure. The beach front hotel combines harmony and tradition in which you will feel right at home. "

The reality was two railway lines run along side the hotel with trains running every 10 minutes or so (the website doesn't mention this of course). If you can call a a huge functional rectangular building (it was easily the largest building here) as combining "harmomy and tradition", your are either be blind or dumb. I guess the "Royal" in the name is just a marketing gimmick. The hotel cost USD 60 if you are so inclined to stay there.

On Sunday I went to my first tour in Sri Lanka. I booked a three wheeler (Tuk-tuk) for a day to bring me around various sights in Colombo. The cost was Rupee 3,500 (USD 33).

The first place I visited was Galle Face Hotel built in 1864. In its heyday, the 19 and early 20th century,this hotel was a favourite of visiting royalty from Europe. It is still a fine place to stay if you willing to pay USD 90 per night.

The other places I visited were Peetah market, fish market (it stank of fish), a Hindu temple Gangaramaya temple, Queen Victoria park and National Museum. The Gangaramaya temple contained a mish mash of deity statues from Buddha, various Hindu gods and even a Chinese deity. The national museum contained a vast collection of varios historical ariticats from the 3rd B.C onwards.

Today I will be going to Kandy by train, a town 110km north of Colombo. I will travel in this region for about 10 days before hitting the beaches in the South. I plan to retun to Colombo ohn 31 Dec, stay for two nights before taking my return flight on 2 Jan. 2009.

Off to a Long Holiday

Yesterday (Wed.) I had a good run by my current standards. I managed to run 3 km on the treadmill. My speed was 8.2 km/hr (improved from 7.5 km/hr last week), jogging speed by the standard of a regular runner but it was the fastest speed I've run over the past year. The other good thing was I felt quite relaxed throughout the run (A positive sign of increased endurance). At the moment, I am limiting my runs to 3 km or less and not more than four times a week due to my knee condition (it is not getting better).

I will be going to Sri Lanka this Saturday for a three weeks holiday until 2 Jan. 2009. As a precaution due to the civil war in Sri Lanka, I have taken a travel insurance today. I hope to post a few reports from Sri Lanka over the next three weeks.

Since I won't be in Malaysia until 2009:

I wish all my friends : Selamat Maal Hijrah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

See you in 2009.

A 3km run

After many months of not being able to run and a futile attempt to stave off weight gain by following a "No lunch" diet, I finally gave in and starting running again. My right knee is slightly better but I'll doubt it will ever be cured.

On Tuesday, I did my first run at KLCC park. It was a modest effort of 2 laps (2.6km) at a pitifully slow speed. One of the regular runners noticed me and asked about my long absence. I pointed my bulging stomach and replied "I am not fit". He replied "Yeah, it shows". Ouch!.

I had to take a 2 days rest due to a sore knee which was the consequence of running on a "hard" surface. Yesterday (Friday) I ran again and despite the wonderful cool evening from the afternoon rain, I decided to run on a treadmill. I was reminded again about my pathetic state of fitness by the metrics on the treadmill LED screens. After I finished running, the workout summary read "Distance : 2.5 km, Time = 20 minutes, average speed : 7.5 km/hr". It is a start anyway.

I read various posts here, here and here about the Penang bridge marathon. This year the crowd was bigger (16,500) than last year (12,000) but it is astonishing that the same problems happening every year; insufficient water and mixing the full marathon runners with the rest of the runners.

Long Overdue Update

It 's been 6 weeks since my last posting. As far as running, things are not looking good. I have been forced to stop running due to a severe deterioration of my right knee. I am not sure if I will ever be able to run again. Time will tell if I will be able to run again in the future.

My new blog title

Slow Running and My Other Stuff. This is my new blog title. Slow is an appropriate word for my current running ability. The following events justifies adding the Slow word:-

2 weeks before Thursday : stopped running

Thursday : Ran on the treadmill for 3 km. Speed : 9.0 km/hr. I know some people who can walk faster than 9.0 km/hr.

Friday: Did not run. Coffee drinking session at San Fransisco Coffee for my colleague who resigned and is going to the UK. The other three had coffee with fancy words. I had water in a styrofoam cup and a piece of banana walnut cake.

Saturday : Walked six laps and ran 2 laps at the Klang stadium.

Tan Sri's Report on 4th Pacemaker's Anniversary Run

The 4th Pacemaker Anniversary Run was held this morning at Metropolitan Park in Kepong today. This venue was certainly the best over the previous places (Taman Tasik Perdana and KLCC park). There was lots of space for the runners and to place the race equipment. I was one of the timekeepers with Julie(KLAVA) as the stopwatch timer and shouter (she can certainly shout), me as the team team spotter and Dineshh recording teams A to N. There was another pair looking after the other 14 teams. The race results are at Ronnie's website.

It has been one year since my last race in the Penang Bridge Run so it has been some time since I've meet the regular runners. I haven't been running mostly running on a treadmill over the past one year. While it has helped to maintain some stamina, it certainly hasn't help mucg to reduce further damage to my right knee. So I have decided to lay off running for a few months. I have to take it month by month. Another runner I know is also having the same problem (meniscus and cartilage damage) and is laying off running for several months. In my case, my injury has lasted 7 years.

I have been thinking of going on a long holiday. Last week I was checking my leave record and discovered I have not taken a single day's leave over the past 5 months other than a public holiday. I have also travelled to 5 countries and been overseas for business trips about 10 times over the past 5 months.

I got a kick of reading this report about the PAR 4 Run. To set the record straight, the Pacemakers have two VIP members:

• Datuk Yaziz (Pacemaker #7), involved in the financial business.
• Yours truly, a Tan Sri (Pacemakers #33) involved in the petroleum business.

While both are us are considered VIPs by Malaysian society standards, unlike most of our well connected peers, we don't own a German made car or live in a large bungalow at Bukit Tunku.

Tan Sri's Rohaizad PAR 4 report
with the Tan Sri titled bestowed by the receipt of numerous honours and pewter medals from races since 1999.

USA Trip Report - Very Brief

I was in the USA last week for a business trip. I spent one night in Los Angeles but I can't write much about it as I didn't leave the hotel after I had checked in at about 6.00 pm. The next day I took a flight to Houston, Texas. The USA has one the highest obesity rates in the worlds and while I was in Houston, I figure out why.

Nobody walks very far to go anywhere in Houston. When my colleague and I wanted to walk to the company office located about 10 minutes away,the hotel staff told us not to walk there. They said we might be run over by a vehicle, in the worst case by one of the monster 18 wheeler trucks. So we didn't walk and took the hotel shuttle bus. When we ate, we were faced with huge amounts of food.

The second thing I noticed is the US economy is really bad shape. Every day, there are some bad news written in the newspaper about the US economy. The shopping centres are noticeably devoid of shoppers eevn during lunch time.

I didn't run a single step while I was in the USA. I only started running on Sunday (3.2 km) and Monday (3.6km).

Not much running lately

I haven't run much since missing out on KLIM. Since then, my knee problem has not improved at all. So I am running even less now for only 2 to 3 times a week and 3.0-3.5 km per run. All are done on a treadmill and the short distance hardly causes me to break sweat. I should really stop running for a few months. If this year's Penang bridge run will not be held as reported by PM1, my decision to rest for a few months will be easier.

Tomorrow I am going to the US for a business trip. The time it takes to get there (KL-Taipeh-Los Angeles -Houston, total = 48 hrs) and back will take longer than the 2 days that will be spent in meetings.

Last night when I was packing, I considered leaving my running gear behind but I am taking them with me in case I have the urge to run.

KLIM 2008 - In the end of it was a DNS for me

After spending, three months of mostly running on treadmills in four different countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and United Arab Emirates) in addition to my regular training at Sweat Club in Malaysia, this morning I did not show up for KLIM. The night before I had my gear ready with the timing chip securely fixed to my Asics shoe. My bib (H7522) was also securely fixed to my dark blue Coolmax T-shirt.

On Sunday morning, at 4.00 am, I woke up and went to prepare my oatmeal breakfast. When I walked this morning, I realised that I would not make it to KLIM this year. My right knee was too unstable for me to realistically run 21.3 km. Stamina wise, I think I could have run at least 12km if my knee lasted that far but I didn't think it could. It was going to be a Did Not Start (DNS) for me.

Another missed KLIM in addition to the two (2006 and 2007) I had also previously skipped. I will just have to wait next year.

A Brief Update

Last weekend I made it back to Malaysia from my overseas trip to vote I flew from Abu Dhabi at an unreasonable time of 3.00 am and reached KLIA at 2.15 pm, Saturday. I had to wait almost 20 minutes to get a taxi. On my way home, the main road of my kampung (village) was festooned with posters and banners. As usual, the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) had more posters than the perennially cash poor opposition parties. I had a shower, rest and rushed through my lunch and took the 5 minutes drive to the polling station. I made it to the polling station at 4.30pm, 30 minutes before the closing.

The BN supporters had a tent equipped with several lap tops. PAS, one of the opposition party also had a tent with one lap top. Unlike last year, the BN supporters were less boisterous, perhaps sensing the general mood against the BN. In less than 10 minutes, I had casted my votes for the candidate standing for the Selangor state assembly (Batu Tiga) and parliamentary seat (Shah Alam).

The counting of votes started after 5.00 pm. I stayed up until 3.30 am to watch the results on the TV. The outcome was a massive swing against the BN with the opposition parties for only the 2nd time in 40 years was able to deny BN 2/3 of seats in the Parliament. To top it all, five states will be ruled by opposition parties. I have to say it was a most satisfying feeling that my one vote had contributed towards a historic result.

Over the next four to five years, I hope that with a stronger opposition to BN, there will be greater transparency, improved governance and less racial based policies in Malaysia.

Alas, my return is very short. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am going overseas again to three countries; Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and United Arab Emirates. I will be back on 27 March, three days before the KL International marathon.

Drop In Fitness

After 2 weeks of very little or no training, I started running again on Tuesday last week. My fitness has certainly noticeably decreases over the past 2 weeks. My suspicion was proven last Friday when I ran on the gym treadmill. Running at 10.0 km/hr took more effort than it did two weeks before. My effort running at 10.0 km/hr was about the same as 10.5 km/hr.

I still have about one months training before KLIM with 2 "long" runs (12 km to 15km) planned.

More Business Travel before KLIM

Next week (26 February) I am will be going to Uzbekistan, the third country I've visited with the country's name ending in "Tan" (the other two are Pakistan and Turkmenistan). This will be my first trip to Uzbekistan.

After one week in Uzbekistan, I will be going Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E.(United Arab Emirates) for one week to review a gas field project. After one week, it's off to Turkmenistan for five days. For the last leg of my trip, I will be flying back to Abu Dhabi from Turkmenistan and spend another week for a design review workshop.

I am going to return to Malaysia about 8 to 9 days before KLIM. The one month trip through three countries is not exactly the ideal circumstances to train for a 21 km race but I will try to maintain some level of training as far as possible.

Honestly if my right knee was 100% OK, I would be quite frustrated to scale down my training because of a long overseas trip just one month before a major race. As it is now, my right knee has become unstable again and I will have to stop running for a few days.

Chinese New Year Training

Friday : I ran at Klang stadium. Covered 4.0 km.
Saturday : Heavy rain fell just before 4.30 pm. Luckily it stopped raining just after 5.30pm. I ran 4.4 km (30 minutes - slow pace).

I was kept busy over the past 2 days preparing the materials for my presentation on Sunday and Monday. Not much of a holiday.

I won't be bringing my running shoes to Sudan. If everything goes to plan, I should be flying back to Malaysia on Tuesday taking Qatar Airways from Khartoum to Doha. After 4 hours transit in Doha, I will fly to Singapore (another 1.5 hrs transit) then to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. Return travel time = 20 hrs including 5.5 hrs transit time.

I was looking forward to the Chinese New Year but now........

I had 3 days of solid training.
Sunday : ran 5 km at the Klang stadium
Monday : 6 km on treadmill. Followed waterman's formula; 8 km/hr for 10 minutes, 9 km/hr for 10 minutes and 10 km/hr for 10 minutes. I keep going after 30 minutes until I finished 6km.
Tuesday : 5 km on treadmill

Today : Rest

The chinese new year is tomorrow and it is a 2 day public holiday. Fourdays of bliss, not having to wake up at 6.00 am and being able to spend quality training time.But now I have to attend a meeting in Khartoum on Sunday. My flight will be departing on Saturday morning at 3.30 am. No more bliss.

Gong Xi Fa Chai to all of my chinese friends.

One week of Not Much Running

I haven't done much training over the past one week since my first 8 km training run.

I had to attend a workshop from Tuesday to Thursday at The Holiday Inn, Glenmarie in Shah Alam. The hotel has a huge golf green and an adjoining golf club 'The Glenmarie Golf and Country Club". I was sorely tempted to run on the green as there were some nice hilly sections. In the end, I ended up at the Health club which had ancient looking machines. I ran 4 km on a dusty treadmill. I guess golfers are not really into serious exercise. Otherwise, the club would use better machines and spend the money to maintain them.

Friday : Hit 8 km today but.........

I left the office a bit late today and only reached the gym at 6.15pm. As usual, the exercise crowd is a bit sparse on Friday evening.

My aim today was to run 8km and with grim determination, I did it. The woman and mat salleh (Caucasian) guy walking on the treadmill beside me were giving me funny looks. Maybe they were thinking "Why is this guy running so hard for?" Maybe they saw the read-out that displayed 10.0 km/hr (he must be fit). Or maybe it was the other two read-outs that gradually increased from "40 minutes" and "5.0 km" to higher numbers (When is he going to stop?). By the time I reached 6.0 km, my right knee became quite sore but I keep going until the read-out showed "8.0 km". Afterwards I felt quite exhausted and drained for 15 minutes. I could not even remember the last time I had run more than 6.0 km in training. I think it was probably way back in February 2005 when I was training for the KL International marathon (KLIM).

The price for running 8km? My right knee is still sore 5 hours later. I wonder if am going to make it to KLIM (half marathon) in two months time.

Post script :It's 1.00 am and my knee is still sore and I am wide awake.
Nine years ago (August 1999) when I started running consistently, I thought I could and would be able to run until the day I die. One day before my Time is Up, my prayer would be "Please God, let me just finish my 20km long run first!".

Tuesday : 6 km

Yesterday was a beautiful day to run outdoor but I decided to run in the gym instead. I can't believe I actually managed to run 6.0 km on a treadmill. (10 km/hr). The pace of 10.0 km/hr was as fast as I could run comfortably.

Back in 2003 and 2004, I regularly ran 8 km (12.5 km/hr) on a treadmill using the in-built program. My favourite was "River Run" which consist of an undulating "route" of 8 km. Sometimes after I reached 8 km, I pressed the Start button and keep going for another 2 km. Unbelievable to me now, back then I actually ran 12.0 km on the treadmill a a few times.

I have somewhat come up with a training plan for KLIM bearing in mind constraints from my injured left knee.

Feb : Run 8 km per day at 10.0 km/hr. Attempt to increase pace to 10.5 km/hr.
Do "Long" runs up to 12.0 km. On the treadmill, include the River Run program.

March : Increased distance to 10 km per day. Possibly attempt to increase pace to 11.0 km/hr. Do "Long" runs up to 15.0 km.

Going to Abu Dhabi

I will be going to Abu Dhabi In United Arab Emirates for 5 days. The UAE is one of the wealthiest countries in the world with the 16th highest GDP per capita in the world (USD 35,516 in 2007). There are lots of shopping complexes selling the usual western branded goods. But as I am not much of a shopper, the numerous shopping complexes are of no particular interest to me.

Today, after 10 months I bid goodbye to my faithful Saucony ProTriump4 shoes. The fabric and padding inside of the heel of the left shoe has worn and was ripped out. I had a badly chafed heel on Thursday from the exposed plastic rubbing against the skin. I have bought an ASICS Gel Cumulus 9 which will become my regular training shoes.

Losing the Battle but not the War

I think I have become noticeably "fat". My attempts to lose 5 kg over the past 3 months were not successful. If anything I have gained 1 or 2 kg extra. I have lost the battle but not the war. If I could only run normally, losing 5 kg would be easy. I just need to run 8 km a day and 50-60km a week. Alas that is not possible so I am trying to run as much as I can, injured right knee permitting.

I am taking glucosamine again for my knee. I bought a combined glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM tablets from the USA through the internet. I also got a "Final Warning" letter from the Ministry of Health, Pharmaceutical department. The letter said "
Importation of Medicines, Pharmaceuticals, Health Supplements and Cosmetics without registration/license is an OFFENCE under Regulations 30(1) of the Control of Drugs & Cosmetics Regulations 1984 which is punishable with a fine up to RM 25,000 and /or 3 years imprisonment under Section 12(1) of ther Sale of Drugs. Act 1952.

In Malaysia, only glucosamine sulphate tablets are available. The combined products are not available even under prescription from the pharmacies.

I have about 3 months supply. After 3 months, I have to figure out a way to get them into Malaysia.

I was satisfied with my run (3.6 km) yesterday at the Klang stadium. I felt quite energetic this evening and ran 5.0 km on the gym's treadmill at 10.0 km/hr. I could have continued for another 3 km but currently I am limiting my runs to 5 km or less.

The C and F Words

I came back from Kedah on Monday, 31 Dec. 2007. Kedah state is known as the Rice bowl of Malaysia. But nowadays rice fields close to the state capital, Alor Star has been converted to housing estates.

On the 1st day of 2008, in the evening I went to Klang Stadium to do some excercise. A*** and Kong were into their 2nd lap and I joined them. As soon as A**** saw me, he laughed and said the C word, "Chubby". A*** too had become chubbier as he had not run much since the Penang bridge marathon in July. I thought if I am not careful, the F word would describe me in the future. F as in "Fat". We ran together for 10 laps (4.0 km). If only I was able to run 30 laps (12 km) as did Kong on that day, perhaps I have some hope avoiding hearing the C and F words.