Snuffles - The travelling bear

Snuffles with friends..(Moo Moo Cow and the Mr.Turtle (Woopps forgot what he is called.. :) )
Snuffles trying to climb over MOo MOo's cow head...OUCH..

Wesak Day - Another day of running

Its a public holiday today due to Wesak Day celebration. Its a day observed by practicing Buddhists which commemorates the birth and enlightenment of Buddha and his entry into Nirvana. Woke up at 4.45am today to prepare myself for another day of training. A last long run before my Sundown Marathon on 31 May 2008 in Singapore. The next 2 weeks till the run would be just tapering weeks! Wee! .. Agreed to meet at Chin's house at 5. 45am so that Kenneth can swing by to pick us and head over to Clock Tower. Our planned route for today is Clock Tower - Copthorne Hotel - Clock Tower and to hit a distance of 21km. Wasn't a really good run for me. Neck been aching since yesterday. Anyway managed to complete my run after 2:09. *sweat*. Not a good time though...Kenneth on the other hand did quite a good run. Completed his run 6 mins from his personal best for 21km. I think Chin did a great job as well...she ended with a strong run..

My plotted route from my watch:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96820

Forerunner 405

My new running gadget - Forerunner 405

It was indeed a great surprised to receive the gift. I was contemplating to purchase between a Polar RSD800 G3 or a Forerunner 405 for quite sometime since my Polar RS200SD had been occasionally given me problems. Case RESOLVED by receiving this gift! Tsk..Tsk
Been playing around with it quite a bit. For those who had no idea whats this gadget is all about - let me give you a short overview. Forerunner 405 is a GPS-enabled watch thats tracks training. It helps to keep track of heart rate, distance/pace and even store the running route. I no longer need to hassle myself plotting the route in google map. All I need to do is just synch the data up to the web and viola! I have all my required running details...IMPRESSIVE! One thing I'm having tad bit issue with the watch is the bezel. Seems to be over sensitive for my navigation. Kept accidentally touching the wrong option on the watch. BLARGH!



Here are some links to my running route:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87541
Note: More to come - site having some issues to load the map..

Breakfast @ Nam Heong, Ipoh and Lunch @ Ngau Kee Beef Ball Noodles, Jalan Alor, KL

It had been 2 months since this blog has been updated. Guilty! Guilty! Work and marathon had just robbed me off from everything! Blame it on my time management! Bummer! I always wonder where those runners like Dean Karnazes find time to juggle between training, working and family... *sigh*Oh well...

I'm currently sitting in Espressamente Illy in Pavilion , KL enjoying my cup of Caffe Fondente while waiting for Chin's Sis to arrive from Singapore. Since I had some time to spare, I decided to update the blog.

Caffe Fondente

Chin, Kevin and myself departed from Penang around 7am this morning. Kevin wanted to drop off some stuffs back home so we decided to stop to have breakfast in Ipoh as well. I had been craving for egg tart for the past few days..so decided to head over to Nam Heong for my egg tart while Chin ordered a bowl of soupy Ipoh Hor Fun. Kevin had a bowl of soupy noodles as well added with a couple of other stuff. I think it was called "yong tau hu " The egg tart was tad bit disappointing, seems like it wasn't baked enough...the crust was under cooked. Ahhh! Grumble..

The disappointed egg tarts :(

The white coffee

Ipoh Hor Fun

Arrived in KL around 11.45am. Initially Chin was supposed to meet up with her sisters and brother for lunch but somehow something cropped up in between so the plan was changed. Dropped Kevin off at Pudu to meet his friend. Chin decided to try the beef balls noodles in Jalan Alor, This little stall is situated around the corner of Jalan Alor...Its call Ngau Kee Beef Noodles...Actually its ain't a shop but just a stall along a pathway. Both of us ordered the dry noodles with mince meat which is served with a bowl of beef balls soup. I LOVE the texture of the noodles and the lovely beef balls....*Drool*...

Uncle preparing the noodles

The menu on the wall

The noodles and the beef balls [Cost RM5.00] - Recommended!

Location:
Ngau Kee Beef Ball Noodles
Tingkat Tong Shin,
50200 Kuala Lumpur

-Lynn-

Saturday Morning @ Batu Ferringhi, Penang

No running ! Weee! Woke up early anyway as Li Yen decided to do a photo shoot session by the beach today. Of course I wasn't the model. ( Too ugly to be one) Yoon Yan was the model while Teng Sun was the co-photographer [suppose to be Li Yen's documentary person ]. Chin became the make up artist. Me ???! Well just the helper around...Li Yen appointed me to become the hairdresser for Yoon Yan initially but I chicken out. Unless Yoon Yan decided to turn into witch then..perhaps I will volunteer! Tsk Tsk..Click Click Click! The photo shoot began.. after about 30 mins came this guy with a horse. He looked so friendly and offered to snap the pics for us with the horse. Keep asking us to give the camera to him so he can help us to take.*FISHY*. Yoon Yan spent quite sometime posing with the horse, next was Chin and myself. Felt a bit reluctant at first...and thought he is such a nice guy and haven't sat on a horse for ages thus told my myself..HECK why not try it! Took a couple of shots. Next was Teng Sun and Li Yen. FINALLY the black side reveals! He asked us for payment. At first he wanted to charge us like RM40/head. Was hilarious seeing Yoon Yan sitting on the chair with sunglasses trying to reduce the price with him. Got it reduced to RM20 per person if not mistaken. BLOOD SUCKER! Anyway all in all it was quite a fun experience. BLARGH!

Pre session :) Getting ready for the photo shoot session...

Photographer in action - Li Yen

Everyone has their turn on the horse..

Random pictures...

Adjourned for BREAKFAST next... went to Toh Soon Cafe. Situated at one of the side street at Campbell Street. This place served only toast bread [varieties type of bread - wholemeal bread, low calories bread, coffee bread, chocolate marble cake and Hainan bread] and half boiled eggs. Being a small cafe [not exactly a cafe - a shop made alongside of a side lane with around 10 tables] its popular in the morning. Business is good! What I loved of this place is because they still use the traditional way of toasting their bread. They toast their bread in a fire pot with charcoal. Due to this, its hard for them to do mass production of the toast bread. [You need a little patient for the bread and even the half boiled eggs to be served - if you're hungry you can eat the "nasi lemak" packed ready and served on the table] Don't miss out on their coffee. Though I'm not a coffee person, normally I will order Milo-0, I tried their coffee today and it was rich in taste. [good for my liking].

Coffee...roti bakar..half boiled eggs....

Apparently the coffee here was recommended in the STAR newspaper as well

"In Penang, the Toh Soon Cafe on Campbell Road is popular for its coffee, which is kaw or thick, and milky, which they say can keep you up and running for at least half a day before the next fix." - extracted from Addictive Brew- Sunday Metro 03/09/08

Finally after a few visit to this place, today I finally took pictures of the bread and half boiled eggs [grin]. Guess every time I was too eager to eat them and only realized it when I was already 3/4 finishing them. Besides toast bread, they also serve steam bread [bread placed over the same pot they toast the bread but instead using the steamed from the hot water]. We chat for a bit before Teng Sun drove us back. Spend the rest of the afternoon bumping around before dragon boat practice in the afternoon.

Ribbit

Phuket Vacation 5th to 10th March

I took a vacation to Phuket with Alan, Kenneth and Liyen. Alan, Kenneth and I arrived there on Wednesday and Liyen flew in to meet us on Friday.

We stayed at the Little Buddha Guesthouse (http://www.littlebuddhaphuket.com/) which cost around RM50 a night and came with air-con and attached bathroom. Very clean and nice. Affordable too. It was in a very convenient location as it had a 7-11 beside it and was near the Jungceylon Mall. It was near enough to walk to everything but far enough to be away from the bustle.

We had an eventful start to our trip. We finally arrived at our guesthouse, which in the end took 3hours (supposed to be 1hour from the airport) as our driver didn't know his way around Phuket at all. He had to stop for directions for each passenger. He almost didn't find our guesthouse! We were so hungry we headed straight out to the nearby mall to visit my favourite Japanese restaurant in Thailand, Fuji (http://www.fuji.co.th/wwwfuji/). So affordable and yummy! I discovered Fuji on a trip to Bangkok last year. A bento set with salmon on 220Baht.

Kenneth's bento set

Activities we engaged in while in Phuket was the Phang Nga Bay full day sea canoe tour. With that we also visited Hong Island and James Bond Island. James Bond Island was really just overhyped since it was used in the movie starring Roger Moore, "The Man with the Golden Gun". I actually enjoyed the sea canoe tour as we got to squeeze through narrow passages and slip through water caves, where we were made to lie down flat against the bed of the canoe. That was because the the ceiling of the cave was just above me. However, I wish there weren't that many people there and if only I could paddle myself.

Squeezing our way through the caves

The sea canoe company was actually very, very decent and cost on 1400Baht. You can look them up the next time you are in Phuket: http://ppt-tour.com/amazing_krabi.html

Me and James Bond island (nothing but a rock)

We also visited almost all the beaches along the southwest and southeast coast of Phuket. Patong Beach was where we stayed and it was overcrowded, touristy, full of Western restaurants, massage parlour, street stalls (like Malaysian pasar malam only, nothing special). The beach is still nice and clean considering the amount of people that past through it. In fact, I had two pretty decent running experiences up and down it. I tend to run every where I visit so I did run on three out of five days I was in Phuket.

Karon Beach is south of Patong and is much nicer and fancier. It has the glamour resorts lining the beachfront and the crowd here seems older. The beach is much nicer than Patong with very fine sand. It is also definitely less populated.

Kata Beach is by far the smallest and narrowest of all three beaches on the southwest of Phuket. Nothing much here. The longtail boat park really close to your beach towel though. We had some pretty decent Thai "chap fan" on Kata which cost 50Baht for three dishes.

Patong Beach which is packed with beach umbrellas

Alan looking cool on Karon

Kata Beach

Liyen arrived by Friday evening. We just spend a relaxing evening having dinner, and strolling around Patong doing some souviner shopping. The next day we took a tour that would take us to Phi-Phi, Maya Bay and Khai Island.

Our first stop was Khai Island where we spent an hour snorkelling. The water was amazing! So clear and there are fishes very near the shore. The island is tiny though. You don't even have to snorkel much to see them. Sadly, the beach of Khai Island was riddled with dead corals so it was painful to pick your way through. There weren't much live ones in the water either. I saw plenty of sea urchins which freaked me out a little.

Basically Phi-Phi is made up of two islands, Phi-Phi Lay and Phi-Phi Don. Maya Bay which was the film location for the Leornardo Dicaprio movie "The Beach". Maya Bay is National Park and very clean and nice but spotted all over with tourist. There really isn't much beach area. And the island is really small.

iyen and me on Khai Island (at the request of Liyen I am using a photo she chose instead)

View of Phi-Phi Lay bay from our lunch spot (which was just a regular buffet with nothing impressive and really bad spaghetti)

The beachfront of Phi-Phi Lay

Beach front of Maya Bay (spot Liyen and Kenneth)

Me on Maya Bay

Kenneth (spot Liyen in the back ground)

Solo Training

Since I am not able to join my running group to run tomorrow as I will still be at the Relay for Life event walking, I decided to do run today. Chin is still in Phuket and I didn't want to do a long run over at my place after the bad experience of mom's car being force opened at the park.[Those damn thieves!], decided to go over Penang to run. Was not feeling well yesterday, so I was doubt if I could run today. Did tell my mum that I wanted to run this morning, at 5.50am, mom came into my room to wake me up [so sweet! not so nice on the other hand because I couldn't find an excuse of not waking up :P] Drank a cup of drink and then went over to Penang. By the time I reached the clock tower [my starting point] it was already 6.30am. Warm myself up and ran. Legs had been pretty sore for the past few days. Thanks to the fartleks training on Wednesday with the dragon boat team mates I think. Pushed tad bit too much. Started with a slow warm up. I felt pretty alright when I reached Gurney Drive though I could feel that I wasn't going on my normal half marathon pace. My legs just couldn't push...was kind of frustated. Anyway tried not to stop until I reach the mosque. I managed to reach the floating mouse in about 1 hour [legs starts to hurt a little]Pushed myself not to stop but then my body and legs couldn't stand it anymore, decided to stop for water and ate my Luna gummy[yucks...taste awful- I guess I will keep to my jelly beans in future] Continued on running after that, tried to sustained running. Guessed when I hit around 19.5km I couldn't push any more, decided to walk. My legs felt like they are loaded with lead. GOSH. Tried to do walk run walk. Not sure how long in total I walked. Perhaps 2 km . If only someone stopped and sent me back to my car..I would be very happy...Hahahha... Completed my run in 2:29 [bad time for a 22.85km [as plot on google map ] Not sure if I can do a sub 2 if I continue running like that...sniff. Felt like my running had went back to square one. How disappointing...

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