Adidas 'King Of The Road' -Half Marathon

Date : 10 August 2008

Time : 6.45am

Venue : Dataran MBSA, Shah Alam

Distance : 22.7km

My PB : 3:01:37

Report on the race will be updated soon.

CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Finally I took off on 21 July 2008 to Christmas Island to check out the Mystery Island. Packed my luggage 3 hours before leaving home. By 7.15am, I joined the morning crowd on the LRT ride on a Monday morning. Stopped at Hang Tuah station to switch to the monorail heading towards KL Sentral. From there, took the ERL Express which took exactly 28 minutes to KLIA Airport. Was met by Johnson of Travel Exchange, Christmas Island (CI).

I was checked in to the business class with most of the Islanders on their way home after a long holiday in Malaysia. The flight was delayed by almost 30 minutes due to documentation problem. The flight took about slightly more than two and a half hour to land on CI.

The Airport. Only one flight on every Monday

This is just a small island with less than 1,000 population. As I was drove to the 'town', it just like one of the small town in Tapah or Batu Pahat. I began to doubt if I can survive here for a week. My biggest challenge here is FOOD!


There is only one plane flying in and out from KLIA to the island bringing in food stuffs and other essential goods. And of course some other diaries and meat like beef and ham from the mainland, Australia. You may want to bring your 'kitchen' and chef along if you intend to stay for a month if you are as fussy as me.


So, what so great about the island?EEmmmm ........ its the beauty of the nature and the serenity that one we don't have in Kuala Lumpur or even Singapore. So, lets take a look at those pictures.



After running the first few kilometres on rough tar road, the next 10km will be in the wood.



Shady and cool..............................

Along the track, you'll get to grab the wild pomelo which is slightly bigger than an orange. But trust me, its only good for the Yee Sang during Chinese New Year cos' its really sour! (by my standard).

......... and this famous and beautiful Golden Bosun.

Some friendly crabbies. Tho' the island is famaous with the red crab, there are also other yellow and blue crabs roaming around.

More ........ a great getaway from the hustles and bustles of the big concrete city. It just the perfect place to regain your sanity and do some soul searching ...........



The forest here is safe from wild animals like tiger or lion. Walk-way was built along the track leading towards the cliff. One can look deep into the wood because there isn't any plant that can grow in between cause none can survive as the crab will eat up the root of the plant.



Crab hole all over the forest. A little crab emerging from within its 'home'. Hi, little Red Sweetie!

Welcome to my Crabby Kingdom, Miss Jue. Please feel free to roam around but just be cautious not to step on my subjects.

This is another marvelous seaview. Wooden stilt walkway ran across from one end to the other. Wow!! It was soooooo peaceful but .... hey its like a never ending path.

Was getting a little curious whats at the other end but was also a little anxious. No wonder some called this their private beach. And so, I decided not to walk any further after 10 minutes and turn back ............ shame on you!!!!!!

But no worry, I got a bigger deal awaiting as Alfred, the Resident Manager of Christmas Island Phosphates took me to another destination - The Blowholes! Don't get naughty .......

I can possibly just stay here for an hour or two (even the whole day!) admiring god's creation of this scenic view. Its truly mesmerising. Where else can you experience seeing rainbows every other minutes? The answer is - JUST RIGHT HERE!





This is the biggest splash just right infront of me from out of no where! When the water gushed out in a split of a second, almost instantly there was this cooling mist splashed on my face .... ooohhh its so refreshing. After each big splash, there will be a few tiny misty water gushing from the surrounding holes and form a colourful rainbow!







This is another clear water sea side. Can you see how clear and clean the water is? I'll be back here just to soak myself in the cooling clear water in the next trip!!

There are a few other places of interest which I can't possibly download all here like the Flying Fish Cove and if you are a bird lover, you'll love this place.

So, wait for me Christmas Island. I'll be back to make my CLAIM on you!!!!!! Be really scare!!!!!

I gotta say thank you to a few.

Gee Foo of Travel Exchange who hosted my entire trip and drove me around.

Morgan, one of the local chinese who had unselfishly driving me around and into the wood. Helping me to identify few possible running routes and explaining a little about the island.

James of Christmas Island Phosphates (CIP) who spent time in drawing and mapping out the structural plan of the island and even go to the extend of driving me thru the route for a closer look.

Alfred Chong, the Resident Manager of CIP who has been very accomodative and helpful.

NAIROBI, KENYA - The Workshop

More photos and illustrations on my recent workshop on uplifting the lives of the poor settlements will be uploaded soon. Please come back and check later .......

NAIROBI, KENYA - Introduction

The Workshop on 'Get Organised with Human Rights'
JUNE 7 - 14, 2008

I supposed to leave for Nairobi, Kenya on the evening of 6th June but due to my commitment at the Pacemakers Annual Run on 7th June, my flight was delayed till o400hr on 8th June. Due to gloomy weather at KLIA, the flight was delayed for 30 minutes and finally took off at 0445hrs. It took about 7 hours to land in Doha and another connecting flight to Nairobi (another 5 hours). Arrived there approximately 1300hr local time (1800hr Malaysian time).

Mr. Humphrey, the Chairman of the Nairobi People's Settlements Network was at the airport to received me. I was one of the last two participants that arrived for the workshop which start early that morning. So, I missed the introductory session. Nevertheless, I sort of made a 'grant' entry just after lunch to a group of curious participants (I think so????).

Shalom House is an initiative of Koinonia, a lay Christian community based in Nairobi. There are 14 comfortable self contained double/single rooms, 7 comfortable self contained rooms for 4 persons, a common TV room, an IT Centre, a Cafe Restaurant, gift shop, laundry services and spacious playground for children.

Shalom House is located just off Ngong' Road behind St. Palloti Catholic Church just after Daggoretti Corner, only about 7km from city centre.

Twenty Five Community Organisers/Leaders of different communities and social movements from Africa, Asia, United States and Europe gathered for a workshop to sharpen their knowledge and skills on organising community on human rights. The programme also devote to planning together for the joint bottom-up mobilisation towards the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

'Get Organised for Human Rights' is a programme organised by Dignity International in collaboration with Nairobi People's Settlements Network and Hakijamii Trust and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland & Oxfam, NOVIB.

Group photo taken at the front garden

RELAY FOR LIFE 2008

While some runners went down south for the Sundown Marathon, Alice, her twin teenage daughters & friend and myself decided to do something different. My 2nd Relay4Life, Alice and myself decided to do more than just contributing rm10. We went round to talk to our friends that for every rm10 donated by them, we will dedicate one loop on their behalf to all cancer survivors.

In less than a week, we managed to collect rm600! Thats the challenge! 60 loops on MSN track, Bukit Jalil ...... gosh ..... the real challenge is we cannot stop or leave unless and until we completed the 60 loops.

This year, more people participated. When Alice signed in at 6pm, there wasn't any more t-shirts left. Just coincidently, Alice and her daughters was in yellow, the color they adopted this year. So, they brought out a bundle of T-shirts (for volunteers) and handed them to Alice while apologised for not being able to give us the actual quantity. Well, we are there to support and not the T-shirts so we just took whatever available.

So, at 9pm we join the full crowd on the track! Fuyoh .......

Saturday wasn't really an easy day. I am dedicated to a program in Taman Tun Dr Ismail known as OPTIONS - a basic living skills program for teenagers with learning disabilities from 17 years and above. After taking the youths out for a short walk around the few blocks of houses in Persiaran Burhannudin Helmi, we took a short break and by 6pm I excused myself from the program. Managed to feel up my stomach with a bowl of fried rice bought by one of the parents. Took 10 minutes walk to the nearest bus stop heading towards KL Sentral.

7.30pm reached KL Sentral, then jumped onto a cab to be home by 8pm. Dumped my bag and took a quick bath and rushed to the LRT station which is 3 minutes walking distance. I arrived at Stadium MSN at 8.40pm. Alice met me at the entrance to passed the wrist tag to me. All the speeches and presentation just finished. The emcee requested that family members of cancer survivors, friends and supporters to join all cancer survivors on the track. So, was just on time for the WALK!

I wouldn't want to write long report cos' thats just not me. Let the pictures below speak ....


banners carried by various groups



line of lighted bags and other symbol of love



Alice and myself with one of the cancer survivors (in
yellow t-shirt) and another supporter. We presented
her with a Teddy Bear as a show of support


Below are some of the Bags of Life & Love by survivors & supporters. (I was told its called Luminaria Lantern ..... eeemmm just learnt something new eh!)

These lighted bags represented all the inner voices of their loved ones. As I slowed down towards the end of the last round, I just kept walking ..... passing one after another around the track. It's so touching, one can almost felt the warmth and love all around.

Cancer - your existence may have separated our loved ones from our side BUT you can never take that memory away for THEY will always remain in each and every of our heart .....

This is also another side project by -

FONet (http://fonet-nawem.blogspot.com/)