Yes....I am back!!! It's been a while since I have blogged anything since my last entry which was almost 2 months now. The reason was I had been away for a month, vacationing in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. I was originally from Brunei and I went back to visit my friends and family and at the same time, I also have been busy visiting other countries in Asia. Ray came with me and it was his first time going overseas to Asia. The last time I was back was about 6 years ago. It was definitely a lot of fun seeing family and old friends whom I haven't seen for ages. Thanks for all the good food and company that everyone had given me while I was there.
In Singapore, we did about 8K run around the city by the water. It was a pretty interesting experience running in the heat/rain. I think it was the best way to explore the city. We did quite a bit of sightseeing for example, going on the Singapore Flyer (similar to the London Eye Wheel), a visit to
Sentosa Island and the weirdest thing we have ever done was the "Fish Spa". I'm sure some of you have heard about it where it helps to removes dead areas of the skin. It was really ticklish with the fish pecking on your skin but then you get used to it after a while. The whole process took about 30mins and I think if "Fish Spa" comes to Vancouver, you should try it.
The highlight of this trip was hiking Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia about 4,093m (about 13,000ft). The mountain is situated in the Kinabalu National Park, the world's most heritage site, in the east Malaysian state of Sabah. It was a very emotional experience for me hiking to the top of this mountain. I really felt like I have accomplished everything in life. The view was spectacular and breathtaking as you can see from the pictures posted here. Most importantly, I got engaged on top of this mountain to a wonderful man in my life, Ray.
The last part of the trip was a quick little visit to Kuala Lumpur with my family. The one thing I always wanted to see was the infamous, Petronas Twin Towers (452m) and to visit Genting Highlands and of course, I got to see them. As a lot of us know that in Kuala Lumpur, it is a shopping paradise. I swear that I would never shop again when I get back to Vancouver because I really bought a lot of clothes, shoes, purse, etc. I couldn't even fit all these in my luggage but it's all worth it though :)
Now, I think this is my third year and Ray's fourth year doing this race up in Whistler. It's the 2nd to last race in the 5 Peaks trail running series. I had a good run this year; shaved off my time by about 2 mins from last year. The weather was not too bad, a bit of drizzle in the beginning but then it cleared up. Every time I do this race, I always think to myself, "What was I thinking?". Yes, I know, this is the toughest of them all but I prefer to do this one over the others because this is the shortest course, about 5km. I think all the long runs (half marathon training) and the many times on the Grouse Grind really helped in improving my time for this year's 5 Peaks race in Whistler. Here are the official results : Ray came in 1st/179 overall in a speedy time of 28:13 mins. This is his first time ever to beat out everyone and came first in all the years that he had done the 5 Peaks. Way to go!!! As for me, I am proud of myself in coming 74th/179 overall, 33rd/113 for Females and 9th/38 in my age group with a time of 41:26 mins. Not bad, eh?? :)
