No more KFC, MacDonalds

I've just came back from having a decent snack plate size KFC. I went with anticipation of a nice finger licking meal, but found myself hating every bit of it.

It's very seldom that I went for fast food. I think a decent meal cooked at a stall is much more nutritious and healthy.

Think of fat, think of all the calories you are swallowing, and not using them. Rather than taste nice, somehow my brain has been rewired to expunge the taste. And not to mention the mayonnaise on top of salad. Besides, the 2 pieces of fatty clinging skin, is deep fried. Think of it. Deep fried, and while you are eating, you can still taste skin fat, with fried oil.

And then we have pepsi as a drink. Whatever happen to plain water? Notice that your set meal does not come with a choice? If you want, you'll need to get a separate bottled water at an extra cost.

It's something about fast food that makes them so mechanical, colorful, tasteful and attractive, but lacking the home made taste that we are so used to. That something is the mechanical systematic process of food production and hyped out marketing of millions.

I am not going to eat KFC, ever.

And I'm going for a 3km swim just to burn it off.

Running Songs

I am trying to compile a list of songs for running. Songs are a good way to start your motivation before, during and after run. :)

Here's my pick:

1. Bleed it out - linkin park
great song if you feel like kicking a**. Guarantee to smoke the rubber on your soles of your shoes.



2. Where'd you go - fort minor
Reminds you are so far away from house during your long run.



3. How Far We've Come - matchbox 20



4. Where Are We Running - Lenny Kravitz

more to come...

Gabai Waterfalls

Sun is shining, and it's a sunday. My brother, his friend, and I head to Gabai, Hulu Langat for a trip out of Kuala Lumpur and into the greens. There are at least 3 waterfalls in Hulu Langat, namely Congkak, Gabai and Tekala. But I think Gabai has the best scenery among them. There's another waterfall in Pangsun, which is an area where you will reach after Batu 18 Hulu Langat, but it's hard to access.

In Gabai, you'll need to climb vertically up for at least 50 meters and more. Thank god for stairs. The best places is further up, so you'll need to do some climbing.

Once you hit the waters, it's so frigidly cold, I could barely stand for a few minutes. But....it's a refreshingly bath in the tropics. Nothing beats this.

It's one thing I like about Malaysia.

But guys...if you go there, please bring back your rubbish. On many occasions, I have seen liters, not a nice view.


At the bottom of Gabai falls...it's nicer up there..


Half way up Gabai...




Finally reaching the top...there's a few pools here..


But...I like here the best...Warning..the depth exceeds 1.5m


If you go up futher, mostly are small streams, and it gets smaller...but you can walk all the way up, which goes quite a distance. I have tried it, but ended up streams that goes uphill.
Noticed the dense bamboo vegetation.

Balik kampung

After months not going back, I made an hesitant decision to go back kuantan, with my younger brother.




I needed some fresher air, and some timeout to forget about work. And driving back this time, I decided to measure the exact distance (at least based on my car meter), of how far it would take to run. So, I forgo the new east highway, and shoot for the old road. In many ways, I still prefer the old. You get to see more things. Small cities, the people, and even cows.


On reaching my house, it says 266 km. My brother says it's crazy to run it. I am still wondering...when and how I could do it.




Kuantan river at night. It's a 2km walking distance all the way up.

The next sunday, both of us, with another friend from kuantan, drove to kemaman. If you really wanted to see real nice beaches, you should head for terengganu. The water was crystal clear, and not much people. And we also did some snorkelling which was great. I saw parrot fishes , some corals, and I think...even a stonefish. That had me frozen for a moment. Stonefish has the deadliest toxin in the world of fish. You could die from its' sting. Seeing it was pure luck. Because it's so well camourflouged, I could only see both eyes. The rest blends with the rocks.



White sandy shores in kemaman.

Stopping by pulau ular in Pahang.






On the way back to kuantan, we stopped by Pulau Ular. It's a small island just 1km off the shore.



Pulau ular from the shore. It's really really near.


The trees are visible, and there's a small sandy shore. We wanted..maybe one day, do some camping and fishing on the small island. To charter a boat, we asked, cost Rm 100.00 bucks. I, on the other hand, was thinking, "that's a swimmable distance".

Only one complaint from balik kampung, I had sun burn, not so serious..but painful enough to keep me from running. Next time, it's swimming with the shirt on.



I found this ray fish stuck among the rocks during low tide. When it settles down, it'll flap it's wings, and hide beneath the sand.


This is why it's called Batu Hitam beach. There's really lots of black rocks.


More black rocks...

Another view of batu hitam.

Kuantan Beach Run - Where's the run?

This is perhaps the lamest organized run in recent memory. I tried to called up MPK (majlis perbandaran kuantan) for registration, and got redirected to an event management company in Kuala Lumpur, I think.

Then that guy in KL, said that registration is with MPK. So, I called back MPK again. Finally got to a guy whom finally I can ask "Is the registration still open?". Believe it or not, his answer was "I don't know." He said he have to check out with the event management company. So I passed him my hp number so that he could call me back. I am still waiting...

Looking Back...

Since I started tracking my training running / swimming distance, I managed to get above 1000 km and 55km swim within 4 months. If that is taken as average, it means that I could manage to run 3000km only per year. Which is not a lot.

And I am still wearing the same Adidas shoe since early this year. Although at first it was a bit tight at the front, now it fits like a glove comfortably. I have no idea when to change shoes...maybe if the soles falls out, then I am going to get one.

I am trying to set a lifetime goal of 100,000 km (if I lived that long). This will translate into 33 more years. I am currently 28 years of age. So it's still a reachable goal.

On another hand, Ramadhan is here, so I will have to observe fasting. It's a month of testing your endurance without eating/drinking during day time. But frankly, after all these years, what I did observe is people tend to eat more, because the food is extra delicious. Me included. Just walk into any food market just before breaking of the fast, and you could see arrays of delicacies.

But, I'll still continue running at night...that'll burn off the extra calories from all the mouth watering food.

Runners have big hearts

The article by Yahoo "Tour de France cyclists have big hearts" captured an insight into how the body adapts to intense long period of physical activity.

It's mentioned there that their heart size is 20-40 percent larger than normal. It made me wonder how big a heart I had. Perhaps getting an x-ray would be a nice way to know.

I have a big concern on Malaysians who eat unbalanced diet, smokes, and exercise less. Our health minister keep on emphasising that diabetes, heart disease, hypertension is going up. Millions are being spent yearly on medicine for that. But one look around our society, and you know many will eventually come to terms with these preventable disease.


To smokers: Am I really stupid enough to do this to myself?

Just go to a night mamak stall, and you can see it coming. Smokers, and fat laden food.

In my opinion, it's better for us to have a culture of sports. Like running. I have met a guy from Holland during KL international Marathon. He said he was suprised to see so few runners 1 hour before the race. Over there, it's usually full.

By adopting some kind of sports, you have an alternative to bad health choices like smoking. You will have to choose between smoking or running. Eventually, common sense should take the better hold.

And of course why runners are such nice people? It's because they literally have big and healthy hearts :)