Freeyasoul Adventure

First Wedding Photography Experience

2008-04-12T13:16:00.008+08:00

Wow, can't believe it is mid April that I wrote my first piece in 2008. Well those of you who still visit this blog knows what I have been up to in recent months, busy with my wedding in Cebu in January and then once we got back, there was still a little bit of work to do for the wedding banquet in Hong Kong in March. For Cebu we were lucky to hired a great wedding photographer, Louis Pang, to take our pictures, please see the album for his shots. Since then Martina and I were a little bit hooked with event photography, I finally invested in a Canon40D and a Tokina 12-24mm wide angle lens with my annual bonus. Our first outing was my cousin Angel and Donald's wedding, here are some of my armature shots.

Action Asia Challenge Hong Kong 2007

2007-12-16T11:29:00.000+08:00

Completed AAC Hong Kong 2007 yesterday with Tempo Sparks teamate Andy. Photos & write up will come soon, first take a look at the race route to put things in persepective.

The Road to Action Asia Challenge Week 3

2007-12-09T09:03:00.000+08:00

On the penultimate weekend to Action Asia Challange, I paired up with Alain, my running pal in the SCB team to do the Action Asia Eco Adventure. It was such an interesting course, covering ground in a familiar area but trails that I never knew they existed. We started in Ocean Park, where the Shark and Flower mascots should lead the way with gentle stroll through the Panda habitat. But it seems all patience was lost after going through 5 speeches before the whistle was reluctantly blown, the Shark and the Flower sprinted faster than any of the runners and the race got underway.

We had to coastalteer the boulders toward DeepWater Bay, before walking up a tunnel which is the mouth of a river. Then up some brush wracking trails, through some pitch black tunnels, before going up a stairways from hell to the top of Nicolas Hills. Then down a even steeper trail so slippery as if filled with ball bearings. On the way down we caught Alan and Arthur form Sonics, the former was nursing a bad wrist and elbow from the MTB on the previous day and the latter a bad knee after Macau Half Marathon the previous week, hence taking their downhill carefully. "Bad for them, Good for us." said Alain crudely, who was eager to beat anyone in our age group.
Back to Deep Water Bay via the mouth of the river again, came the 2km kayak. We cruised down and caught 1-2 boat, on the return leg, we again caugh sight of Alan and Arthur and Alain did another trademark assault, "Come On, my grandma can go faster than that!" I started legging my kayak as I know they were not going to take the abuse lightly, an could just imagine Arthur snapping the paddle in two and start outrigging the kayak. The kayak route above was based on Alan's GPS watch marking, look how furiously straight they have paddled after Alain's abuse.
Finally, an easy jog around the coastal walk to Repulse Bay. We finished 2hr23mins with Alan & Arthur finished just 4-5 mins behind.

Coming Next Week, the Action Asia Challange Hong Kong 2007!!! The mother of all races.

The Road to Action Asia Challenge Week 2

2007-12-02T08:46:00.000+08:00

Week 2 was the UNICEF Run for Children Half Marathon. It was another great route, start and finish in the Disneyland Resort, the run takes in the coast line of Sunny Bay and the Inspiration Lake. The area could be turn into the venue of the next ITU Hong Kong Triathlon is negotiation can be successful. I started off well, reaching the 10km mark at 50mins. But soon hit the wall at 15km and finished with a disappointing 1hr55m, the slowest half marathon I have done. The event was more successful with Martina, who is becoming a great action sports photographer! Here are something to add to her portfolio.

The Road to Action Asia Challenge Week 1

2007-11-25T08:16:00.000+08:00

When it was announced that 46% of Action Asia Challange will be on bikes, we needed some extra training dearly. So stead of doing KOTH - Sai Kung (trailrunning). We did a great MTB route called Project X, created by Julien, the instructor in our previous MTB course. The route cris crosses a gentle hill on the island, we some great downhill runs but perfectly safe with brush and grass on either sides of the route.

The Road to Action Asia Challenge

2007-11-16T16:31:00.000+08:00

The Action Asia Challenge Hong Kong will be held on Dec 15. I suddenly realised I will have a race every sunday from now on to warm up for the big day:

25Nov - King of the Hill - Sai Kung: 15km of Trail Running

2Dec - Unicef Half Marathon - 21km around the Disney Resort
9Dec - Action Asia Eco Adventure - 10km run and 2k kayak

INATT Off Road Triathlon

2007-10-22T12:02:00.000+08:00

Another great day out with my new mountain bike and Martina with her camera. It was the INATT Off Road Triathlon, a Xterra style race consist of 800m swim, 15km mountain bike and 5.5km trail running on the beautiful Wan Chai peninsula in Sai Kung. Who are my gang of brothers this time? There is my arch rival in adventure race Larry and Kin, also Micah from Sonic and Andrew, podium finisher in Singapore Ironmah 70.3.

Keith the organiser can't help adding some adventure race elements into it, like after the swim we have to run across a beach, cimbing up some boulders, jumped fences and dash across the camp site to get to the transition.

The mountain bike was tough for me, I am still very cautious and slow on the bike, not quite getting use to balancing and picking lines off the downhill. But it was a glorious route, at one part, we had the ocean all to ourselves.

To finish off the run, we have to repeat the beach + boulder run again but in much shattered condition, thanks to the marshall who yelled at me and said the guy behind you was trying to catch up, that really sparked off my final charge to the finishing line.

I finished in 2hr35min, 15-20 mins behind Larry and Kin, but they are so much faster than me on the bikes, it is kind of expected. Slowly, I am building up my fitness again for Action Asia. All photos taken by Martina, my fiancee.

Back On A Mountain Bike

2007-10-16T13:39:00.000+08:00

The end of this month will be the one year anniversary of the mountain bike accident that fractured a bone in my arm. I have been staying away from MTB all these time, partly cause of focusing on triathlon but deep down I must admit I was scared. But the enjoyment of Adventure Race is so great, I couldn't hesitate from planning ahead for the Action Asia Challenge Hong Kong in December. First, I check on my race partner, Andy, he is still not training as ever, so any loss of trail running and moutain bike sharpness from my side probably wouldn't matter. Then finally I slashed out on a new machine - the Specialized Epic, finally gone was my oversize hardtail bike and instead of a full suspension cross country bike.

Then along with some Sonic guys, I joined a one day MTB skill course in Lamma Island, the instructor has built an obstacle course on a little hill, so we can practise bumps, stairs, tight corner etc in a safe environment. It was a real cool day to regain my confidence back. After lunch he took us to tackle some stairs, it was my my ultimate demon, coz I fractured my arm after falling "over the handle" bar on top of 3 steps of stairs. When it comes to my turn, I stare down the stairs, everything else in the background just fade into a blur. It was that dramatic, like soloing up a rock climb and nothing else in the world but the route itself matters. I headed down, there is hardly any difficulty with the wide stairs but my heart rate just pump right off the scale. I did only half the staircase and the flash back of the crash replayed again and again. Thankfully I had the gust to do the eventual challenge of the day, a drop off from a big stone, probably a bit over half a meter tall. It was easy when we know the right technique.

The next sunday, I head out to do a easy ride with Brian and gang in Tai Tong Country Park, the very park where the accident happens but we stayed on easy trail all day. It was part of the scheme to exercise the demon within. So much practise for now, I am gonna do a Xterra style off road triathlon coming Saturday. Should be fun. And let's hope for a safe off road racing season!

Hong Kong ITU Triathlon

2007-10-01T12:53:00.000+08:00

It wasn't my prettiest race but I did it anyway. It was the Hong Kong ITU Triathlon yesterday. I turned up barely recovered from a bad cold and felt really not in form. But I wasn't limping or coughing blood, so not doing it due to a feeling of my "form" is simply an excuse. Beside it is my first year in Triathlon, how can I miss THE triathlon race in town. The swim began with a deep water start in Tai Mei Tuk. It was hard as hell after having swam only 3 times since Singapore a month ago. Though I got out of the water along with a few Sonic teamates who were roughly similar speed as me in training, so maybe I wasn't doing too bad afterall.

Once on the bike, I felt more alive, I had rode the Bride's Pool Road only once before when I first got my bike. And this time I was tackling the hill climbs with much stronger legs. The 10km loop has two hills on either end, with an incredibly taxing 4.5% gradien hill at the far end. But then once you turn around, it is a free ride downhill reaching 45km/h. I pushed quite hard on the uphills, unlike Sinagpore, I didn't try to hold myself back. I felt I might get some presentable result today.

Came the run leg, two loops across the exposed reservoir dam, I felt quite fresh in the begining, and I saw many sonic teamates just ahead of me, doing their first loop, so if I pushed hard I would get some good timing this time. Too eager to do that, I stupidly did a wrong U-turn at mid way of the dam that was only meant for the "fun-distance" category. The helpers standing around there actually watched me doing the mistakes and said nothing, one of them even recorded my race number on the timing sheet.

I didn't realise my mistake until I was well into my second loop, it was so frustrating to have screwed up on my strongest part in such a dumb fashion after all the hard work on the swim and the bike. So in the end, between "2km short" or "3km over", I decided to ran two full loops from that point and actually tallied 13km of running in the blistering sun. In my final length of the dam there were hardly anyone left on the course . I was out of glycogen, cramps were urging to kick in and eventually when I made it back toward the finishing line, the transition area was already being cleared up. Thankfully Martina and Madoka was there for the finishing snap.

So it was incredibly frustrating, I approached the race saying it was not an important one for me, but once I got on the race course, it was diffcult to take it easy, and so although I can easily look on the bright side and say at least I completed it, deep down I will always be looking forward to a revenge in the next 12 months.

Pirate Party - Andy's 30th Birthday Bash

2007-09-16T10:21:00.000+08:00

Tempo Sparks Andy hosted a great party last night, the whole crew of the Black Pearl came alive!

Andy’s Pirates Party 15-16 Sep 07

Lecture of Doug Scott the British Mountaineer

2007-09-15T11:38:00.000+08:00

If there is an anti-thesis to this website, it has got to be Doug Scott's lecture on Thursday with Royal Geographical Society of Hong Kong. Every week I dramatised my average Joe's adventures on this blog, but when a real master of adventure speaks, it was in such a casual down to earth manner that I almost fell like going up and re-write his speech for him. Initially I thought time has mellow out this mountaineering hero but more likely he simply no longer dare to believe in the rock star status that media once crowded him. Though despite his best effort to underplay his stories, they are still tales that every climber father will read to his son.

In 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston, the summit team from Chris Bonnington's Everest South West Face Expedition Team, reached the top of the world via one of the most difficult face to be climbed at the time. The poster I held above was the moment they reached the summit and it was 7pm in the evening. As it was too late to make a descent, Doug and Dougal had to bivouac in a snow cave, which they dug, few hundered meters below the summit and survived the night in thin air and bone chilling cold. Probably the highest point anyone has spent a night in open air in the world to date.... and lived.

Two years later, he went for an expedition in Pakistan's Ogre Mountain, the team split into pairs to climb the 7000m Karakorum peak in Alpine Style (light weight small team style). Doug and Chris reached the sumit but on the way down Doug slipped off while abseiling and pendulumed across a few miles across the mountain face (recounted as the older version of Doug stroked the laser pointer across the picture of mountain like it was great fun) and broke both of his ankles. Chris later also cracked 2 ribs and contracted pnemonia. But they survived the week long descent to base camp, Doug did it by crawling on hands and knees and abseil off his bump, even crossing glaciers cravesses that way.

"Why did it happend so soon after the success of Everest.?" Doug asked himself in the lecture. "Probably because I had begun to believe in my own myth created by the media after the Everest Expedition." Hence I can see why he is now so humble when talking about these climbing tales again.
This is the attitude I admired the most from Doug, when he was up there on the moutain face, he was not there to achieve something great, just out there having a good time with his friends, doing the things that he most loved.
As with lectures by famous mountaineers I have come across, the speakers would devolve a great deal of time talking about how his closest friends' death in the moutain. A sudden rock fall, a slip off a rope, an avalanche would just wipe a dear friend away from their lives in an instant. "But we were left with fond memories of our time together on the mountains." said Doug. This is the attitude I admired the most from Doug, when he was up there on the moutain face, he was not there to achieve something great, just out there having a good time with his friends, doing the things that he most loved.

At the end of the lecture, we went up to buy some signed posters of him. We bought two for our buddy, ahdont. We told him "This friend of ours has been a big fan of you ever since he read the expdition report of your Everest trip." He replied with humour "That might have ruin his life, people still ask me when I am going to get a real job!"

Doug Scott's charity, Community Action Nepal, is supporting the poor community of Nepal to build a more sustainable life.

Ironman 70.3 Singapore Part 3

2007-09-07T13:48:00.000+08:00

13th Powergel of the Day

On the bus back to the hotel after the race, Austin asked if anyone did not have a cramp at all today. I said bemusely "Yeah." then I added "but then I had 13 packs powergel today!". That was how carbo loaded I have been. The guys laughed out loud "You ain't gonna crap for the coming week." but let's not go into my digestive function on the post race week for now.

Either that I was pushing the use of powergel to doping territories or I could have pushed much harder on the bike, I was fresh as a rabbit when I got onto the half marathon, I was able to over take most people on the course. It was a good feeling though a lot of the competitors I passed were on their second loop of the run already, so much closer to the sweet finish then I was. The real challenge on the run was the weather, midday sun hosted the party of the first 10km lap and a tropical storm took over the helm on the second. But our supporters cheers on regardless of the weather and what have we got to complain? I met Madoka, Catherine, Austin, Arthur and Dennis at different stage on route, padding each other on the back, giving high fives in opposite lane, no one could feel that they are facing this alone. Finally at the final 2km of the Half Ironman, my legs began to feel weiry, so I popped open my 13th and last gel in my pocket, my only chocolate flavour one especially preserved for the moment; unawared of any potential digestive related side effect, I swallowed it and brought myself home.

A Word of Thanks
The seed was sowed in January's Action Asia Sprint when Larry first asked if I will do the Singapore Half Ironman in a matter of fact manner. So I decided to join a tri club and prepare myself for the "2008" Singapore Half Ironman. But somewhere along the line reason and sanity gave way to dreams and maddness, and it was Alan who should take most of the credit in convincing me to sign up this year when I was drunk from the completion of the 2.1km swim in Shek O Challenge in June. I mean where is the fun when you are too ready for a race
Sume, Jeffrey and Albert should also get their fair share for making half ironman sounded like it would be a stroll in the park. I had of course never been convinced that I can do it, until it was done. So thanks guys for making me taking that ruthless step of signing up. I mean where is the fun when you are too ready for a race, that is got to be my motto.

Ironman 70.3 Singpore Part 2

2007-09-06T23:11:00.000+08:00

One Year I Swim Proper
Knowing there is nothing more I can do to the bike, I left the transition zone to join the rest of Team Sonic at the swim start. The first light was yet to be drawn and groups of sonicians were there taking photos in the dark. Then suddenly the twilight retracted and the red sun emerged from the sea. What better way to start a race day?
Unlike Ironman Korea, Singpore started in waves, so the mass suicidal scene I expected was replaced by a orderly starts. I dived in the sea along with my age group in blue swim cap. It was hard to imagine that I had dared to take part in the swim leg of Ironman Korea a year ago. For my swimming form has changed and improved so much one year on. I used the total immersion technique to glide throught the water as smoothly as I can, yet that was just barely enough to keep up with the main group.

At almost the beginning, my hand smashed into some junk in the sea as I speared it into the water, it was a polystyrene float with sea shells stuck on it. My fingers grew numb immediately, I dare not to look at them. Not willing to acknowlege an accident has happended so soon in the race. Thank god it was nothing but minor cuts and that was the last bit of bad luck I had that day.

Half way down the loop, I caught up with the tail end of the yellow cap guys (M25-29), thinking I must be doing okay, but 5 mins later the wake of the green cap guys (M35-39) stormed pass me like a tornado. Soon the orange guys (40-44) also emerged but thankfully it was like to get out of the water.

The 90km Experience
The bike leg was a sheer enjoyment. Once pass the humpy loop on East Coast, we joined the silky smooth inner city loops which we have to do 4 laps of. I maintained a steady 30km/h pace, while all the Sonic guys raced passed me in much greater speed. Never mind them, I just want to scrap a finish today. On the second lap, the "cycling jinx" manifested itself in a comical way, the cap of the aero bar mounted water bottle bonuced off a hump and so from then on every hump means a splash of isotonic drink on my face. In the end I just opened my gob and caught the spilled out to save myself from dehydration. 90km was the longest I have riden my entire life, though by the time I reached the transition there was no time to savour the back breaking expereince. Kenneth the Sonic coach was standing a T2 to urge me to get ready for the run.
to be conintued....

Ironman 70.3 Singpore Part 1

2007-09-04T13:44:00.000+08:00

Photogenic Finish
As if to taunt the competitors, there is a split about 1km into the half marathon, take left you will finish the daunting Ironman 70.3 (aka half ironman) circuit of Singapore, take right you have another 20km or 10km to run before you can find pain reliever. But this is the third time I am coming up to the junction that means I can take left with a smiley face! Approaching the finishing line the volunteer pulled up a ribbon for me to run through, I stopped for a moment, knowing that Martina should be nearby, to let her get ready with the camera; then leaped as high as I can into the air to ensure a dramatic finish on the photo. The happiest finishing line I have crossed to-date. I finish my first Half Ironman in 6hr23mins, snail pace maybe but it is a FINISH and here is how I got there.

The Jinx?
The 50 triathletes strong party of Sonic descended from their coach 1.5 hrs before the start of the race, ample of time for the final preparation. I got to my bike, setup my helmet etc. Then I thought I will give the tyre another little pump. Unfortunately I broke the valve of the front wheel in the process. What would the fortune teller have to say when you lost two inner tubes before the swimming have even kicked off?But as the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” said “Don’t Panic”! I pulled out my spare inner tube and took the wheel to the bike mechanic, they fixed the wheel and the relieved me ran back to the bike. To my shocking horror, the tyre has deflated again, the fresh inner tube has punctured! Where would I be without the bike mechanics? I returned to them, they fit another new inner tube quickly and this time the wheel has held. Deep down I recall the day when I fracture a bone in my left arm last year, earlier that morning my seat tube fracture mysteriously; retrospectively I always say that was the warning sign for something worse installed that day. What would the fortune teller have to say when you lost two inner tubes before the swimming have even kicked off? I beleive there is cycling jinx on me, but that is not a reason to back off now. I am simply too carbo-loaded to call it a day.
(to be continued....)

Fujirock Festival 2007

2007-08-08T18:30:00.000+08:00

Apart from hiking in North Alps, another big agenda of our Japan trip was the Fujirock Festival. It was Asia’s biggest open air music festival drawing in international big names in the 3 days of non stop concerts. The last and only festival I did was Glastonbury 2002, and FJR certainly lived up to my expectation.

First evening, we were united again with MUSE, who visited HK only back in March. It was definitely on top of our to-see list. Their powerful music sored through the valley, and the 3 gigantic plasma screen, displaying some really cool graphic that amplified the meaning of every song. The song “Invinsible”, which I have shared the powerful lyrics before, was my personal pinnacle, image of mass demonstration went hand-in-hand with the words ‘Together we are invincible!”.

Second day, Kaiser Chief, set the stage alive, Ricky Wilson, the lead singer was a chubby guy on the outlook, but he demonstrated so much energy that I though he must be steroid. He jumped off the stage and launched himself to the crowd again and again, bemusing everyone but the security guards.

On the final day, we waited for an hour to make sure we are in front of the stage when Mika came on. Martina danced wildly to her idol. Chemical Brothers came on in the penultimate concert. I heard they were good before, but I was never into dance music. But it turned out to be my favorite concert in the whole festival, the techno x laser x computer graphic on the plasma screen simply brings the week’s experience to a whole new level. Green stage was turned into a gigantic dance club or a massive rave party. Their set last for 1.5 hrs and after which we were so exhausted.

Here are some advices for anyone who stumble to this post and is planning to go in future:
1. If you can afford it, consider to stay in hotels instead of camping, as the camp site is outside the gate of the festival anyway, it makes little different to your experience if the tent is just a spot you go back to at the end of the day.
2. Even if it didn’t rain, bring a pair of boots with you, the Kate Moss festival look has imply caught on so well in Japan.
3. Don’t miss the cable car ride to the mountain top, the “Day Dream and Silent Breeze” stage was a real treat for us. Plan to spend 3-4 hours there away from the crowd.
4. There was some romantic installation art in the forest board walk, don’t miss them, especially in the evening.
5. Japan has a great system to courier heavy stuff anywhere around the country, people simply sent their camping stuff ahead of them.
6. Unlike Glastonbury, we were able to enjoy hot bath in Onsen, the quality of the festival food was excellent, the toilet never overflow, have a great time!

Japan Hiking Photos - Kamikochi

2007-08-05T23:56:00.000+08:00

Kamikochi Climbing Hotakadake

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Japan Hiking Photos - Takayama

2007-08-05T23:36:00.000+08:00

For you to enjoy, photos from our hiking trip to North Japan Alps:

Murodo Takayama Region

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Climbing the Hotakadaka

2007-07-23T12:34:00.000+08:00

The plan was　to trek the entire way from Murodo to Kamikochi, the classic North Japan Alps traverse, but many elements made us change our mind. With typhoon and earth quake happened just before we started our walk, we had not idea what the 6 day routes will be like. Also the snow patches have been very resilient this year, due to short of rainfall. The trek may not be too enjoyable for Martina. Maybe a project for future years. So our hiking trip became a two parts affairs, we did a one day walk in Murodo a plateau at over 2o00m attitude then transported to picturistic Kamikochi to climb the highest mountain on our original route, Hotakadake at 3190m.

To do that Martina had to walk up an one hour long snow field to get to a beautiful mountain hut in the Karasawa valley. Complain of the harshness of the condition as she may, she did find the valley to be incrediblly beautiful, with towering peaks cradling three sides of the snowfield. The hut, Karasawa Hutte sits right in the middle.

The next day, I went up the peak on my own, over an interesting rock scramble to another mountain hut that sits at a saddle point on a ridgeline. Climbing up ladders and chains, I finally got to the top. On a good day, I will be able to see every single peaks from Tatayama to Hotakadake, the journey that we planned to have taken. But the cloud rising from the valley, I have to be content with the sea of cloud beneath my feet.

Hiking in Japan is an enjoyable experience, the mountains are beautiful of course, but the huts located at the remote mountain top and alpine meadows provided us with comfort and good food is what impressed me the most. Got to come back some other time.

Japan Alps Brief　Update

2007-07-21T07:05:00.000+08:00

Just finished the hiking part of our Japan trip. Climbed Hotakadake (3190m） the third highest in Japan. Gonna write a bit more when I got back to Tokyo.

Ramping Up The Miles

2007-07-08T12:47:00.001+08:00

I've been ramping up my cycling mileage this week. On last Monday, I cycled 68km in Tung Chung, followed with a 6km run in the midday heat! The cycling was mostly flat, with a long time looping around the under-utilised road of the Disney Hotel. Then on Saturday, another long distance training in Shek O, I cycled 45km, looping Shek O Road 5 times. Then ran the hilling road between Shek O and Big Water Bay 3 times (12km). Hence I felt Sunday was well earned rest day. My bike muscle endurance is still pretty poor, take the Shek O session for instance, I managed a speed of 27.3 km/h on the first loop, but by the 5th loop and cadence of 89rpm. But by the firth loop I am doing more like 25km/h and 80rpm, yet my HR has reduced at the same time, meaning I simply coundn't work those muscle hard for too long.

Freeoursouls Wedding

2007-07-05T23:56:00.000+08:00

Just want to advertise the launch of the wedding blog for Martina and I - The Freeoursouls Wedding. What? What Wedding? In case you didn't know, check out the details.

Cycling Pedal Efficiency

2007-06-27T13:26:00.000+08:00

Let's approach Singapore Half Ironman strategically, my weakest link is obviously cycling. I found it quite taxing to cycle a road bike despite having some experience on a mountain bike; and during the Sundays' Brick trainings, I found it impossible to run even at a normal pace after being on the bike for an hour. I begin looking up resource on how to cycle more efficiently and was delighted to found that just like swimming, there is an art to cycle efficiency, I am probably applying the wrong force and ended up straining my hamstring too much. The most insightful article I read can be found in Coachseiji.com. Read on for my summary.

I used to think of cycling as an up & down motion like a piston, but if I am applying force vertically up and down, then only at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock would my force be at a tangent to the circle that the pedal is traveling at. Compare to a efficient cycling technique, I am also loading up my hamstring in both the up and down cycle leaving no room for it to relax. Since the hamstring is involved in both hip extension (down) and knee flexion (up). Instead you should be thinking of moving your foot around a circle in 3 phase.

#1 The downstroke beings at 11 o'clock of the cycle, you should used your quadricep to kick your feet forward and down to 4 o'clock without relying on the hamstring to extend the hip too much.

#2 The backstroke begins at 3 o'clock, overlaping the previous phase, use your hamstring to flex your knee like kicking backward on sands, this takes you pass 6 o'clock to 7 o'clock, providing your other foot power to move forward while it is at 12 o'clock.

#3 The upstroke begins at 7 o'clock, the aim is to take the weight of your foot off the pedal by lifting it up. The hip flexor will be used to bringing your knee up in running. The writer of the articule emphasis to "lift" the foot but not to "pull" the pedal up at this phase as that will involve the hamstring muscle which should be relaxing at this stage. It would be an in efficient use of energy to pull up the pedal anyway.

Doing it right, your cycle stroke is more horizontally than vertically, the power output will be more evenly distributed from 11 o'clock to 7 o'clock of the cycle.

Singapore Ironman 70.3

2007-06-24T17:27:00.000+08:00

The ruthless me is back! Singapore Ironman 70.3 - I have just signed up for it. It will be on 2nd September 1.9km swim+90km bike+21km run. Not much time left really for the training, so it will be another dive in and see what happen episode on Freeyasoul Adventure. I suspect this is what you guys want to see on this blog, right!

Shek O Challenge

2007-06-23T18:20:00.000+08:00

I can't wait to tell the world, the weather finally turn out to be superb on a race day, no red tide and no thunderstorm. I signed up for a Shek O Challenge, a 2.2km swim from Big Water Bay to Rocky Beach. It was a small party, I think only 60-80 people were there. After the baptism of Scottish Winpipe and Afro drums, the whistle was blew and finally launched myself to my first open water race (need reminder of my disappointment last year, read this). I tried everything I have learned recently, the total immersion streamlining tricks, the trianthlon sighting technique and drafting behind people but I just slam into everyone that I tried to draft, so I just overtook them. Finally after racing pass two floats, I can see the orange flags and finishing arch on the beach. I found that I still have an extra gear to put on. The result was a mere 48mins!!! If I was to do the same last year, it would be over an hour. I took a beer and drank to my improvement.

....With a solid 2.2km experience under my belt, I suddenly thought, "I might as well go and do the Singapore Half Ironman. It is only 90km bike ride and a half marathon to go from here." The story will be continued next time.....

Body Roll in Swimming

2007-06-19T23:39:00.000+08:00

After hearing the success of Alex, I've been spending a lot of time in the small pool practising the total immersion drills, still not quite there yet but I am now paddling at a much more leisure pace yet still being able to keep up with the faster guys in my lane during the club's pool sessions. The total immersion theory really emphasis on body roll but this week I heard from the "Tri-Talk" podcast that body roll may not necessarily mean faster speed. In this week's episode, David Warden, the host, talk about research done on 6 competitve swimmer by analysing their swimming stroke and speed. One of the interesting finding is that when the velocity of the swimmers increases, the degree of body rolls actually decrease. Quite in contrary to what was taugh in total immersion. The swimmers maintain a total body roll of 118 degree at a fast pace while 133 degree at a slower pace when doing a 1500m swim; at 50m sprint pace, the body roll was only 114 degree. Since picking up the TI swimming, I have been really trying hard to exaggerate the body roll maybe I should just be doing what it feels right.

If the weather holds this weekend, I have signed up for a open water swim, the distance is 2.2km from Shek O beach to Big Wave Beach. Let's see how much I have improved.

Same Jeans - The View

2007-05-30T00:26:00.000+08:00

This is my favourite song at the moment, a catchy tune by Scottish Band "The View". The rest of the album "Hats off for the Busker" is fantastic too. It is produce by the same guy who produced the unforgettable "Definitely Maybe" of Oasis.

But don't care about names, just press play and sing along.... I've had the same jeans on for four days now, I’m gonna go to a disco in the middle of the town. Everybody’s dressing up I’m dressing down .....

Action Asia Photos

2007-05-25T23:36:00.000+08:00

It is already May and Action Asia has yet to announce the dates for any of the Adventure Races this year. Though they have put up a few albums to show pictures of last years AA Challenges and the AA Sprints over the winter. I managed to dug out some great moments of Tempo Sparks in the the past 12 months. If you ever want the what was it like in one of those races, don't miss the albums.

Al Petra

2007-05-24T02:03:00.000+08:00

"Been somewhere exotic lately?" No, this is just a very authentic arabic cafe opened in the middle of Tsim Sha Tsui. As you probably know that I am fond of exotic cusine and have even famously cooked a middle eastern feast for 12 people all by myself in those days in England. There is a little Arabic grocery in the seedy district of Nottingham which equipped with all the strange spice I needed then. Back in Hong Kong, I have never found satisfying middle eastern food, the up market restaurants in Soho just doesn't really feel right. My shish kebab should be down to earth, straight forwardly delivered with a street food touch. That is before the arrival of Al Petra, opened by two Jordanian and cooked by a former five star hotel Jordanian chef. The tiny cafe occupied the last shop on a dead end street and the knock down front wall layout enhance the ambiance of a street cafe from Marrakesh. The night I was there, a group of Indian youth were smoking sheesha and playing card around a table on the pavement. What about the food, it was simply like the best of the best I get from anywhere around the Arabian Sea. The best bit was the chicken kebab, they've marinated the chicken for 2 days and the taste of the spice fused with the meat was astounding. And can't go without mentioning that one of the owner is a DJ and no doubt the Arabian pop music also help fooling my brain to imagine that I have just taken a little trip half way around the world.

Total Immersion Swimming

2007-05-15T20:36:00.000+08:00

As ecommended by Alex, I bought a book called “Total Immersion – by Terry Laughlin”, and learn this revolutionary swimming technique. Under the Total Immersion (TI) system, 70% of swimming is done by the core, the limps merely provide the remaining 30% of the propulsion.
When you can balance, you can reducing body drag by maintaining a body shape that “swim through a hole”.
Hence the legs only kicks to help balancing the body and to hide themselves in the “shadow” of your body down the slipstream. As for the arms, their main function should be to lengthen your body, to turn yourselves into a torpedo (more hydrodynamic). In the pull cycle of a swimming stroke the arm and shoulder is surprisingly not the source of power but merely an extension of an action that originated in the turning of the hip, an analogy is like hitting a backhand in tennis, the power comes from the turning of your waist, not the arm. Of course this makes perfect sense so far, you probably know that when you were a kid.

What I found radical is the drill in the TI system; the drills are all emphasizing body balance. When you can balance, you can reducing body drag by maintaining a body shape that “swim through a hole”. The drill also emphasis the hip turning, not only as the power source but also to bring your side out of the water at each stroke, again to reduce drag. None of the TI drills will build stronger kicks nor improve shoulder endurance, the idea is when you can glide through the water like a knife, you will become strong at the right muscle (which happen to be the muscle below the armpit, not the shoulder.) Strange huh?

I’ve been visitng the pool in the gym the last 2 days to try out the first few drills on my own, hard to tell if I am doing it right. Though being able to flow on my back and move forward is not something I can do easily before, it is definitely new insight to find that delicate body balance of neither sinking my legs nor drowning my face.

AA Sprint - Discovery Bay

2007-05-06T14:04:00.000+08:00

Action Asia Sprint 2007 Race 5 - Discovery Bay
Date: 29-April-2007
Time: 1:47
Overall: 139 / 295 Finishers
Men's Team: 11/17 Finsishers

Andy's Album
Action Asia's Album

2007 Freeyasoul Adventure - Japan Alps

2007-05-01T11:34:00.000+08:00

We are now planning the long awaited Japan Alps trip in mid-July, you might have already got my invitation already, here some more pictures to temp you to this 6 days hike. Our trip will begin in Murodo and ends in Kamikochi. Reserve your holidays now!

Tatayama - 立山

Gosikigahara - 五色ヶ原

Kurobegara-dake - 黒部五郎岳

Yari-ga-take - 槍ヶ岳

Oku-Hotaka-dake - 穂高岳

Kamikochi - 上高地

Want more click on this link for some even more stunning pictures that I can't copy off the webpage.

I've Been Shopping

2007-04-28T11:33:00.000+08:00

Finally the sad times of my family has come to an end, and I have resumed my life in earnest. I have been attending the training with the triathlon club regularly so far. Only the occasional late work or races will deter me from the weeks schedule. Then I also schedule my lunch time gym session around the club's training. Doing stretching, core training and weight training at lunch time and full throttle workout in the evening with the club. I can definitely felt that I can take in a bigger breath of air, cutting through water more smoothly and my leg muscle are gaining strength once again. The goal for this year is a modest one, just gonna do the Hong Kong, Macau and Phuket triathlon at the end of the year, the Laguna Phuket Triathlon will be a nice season finale, it is a slightly longer than Olympic distance race. I just wannat be materialistic and show you my shopping lately:

I have made some serious damage to my wallet in a second hand Kuota Kredo full carbon bike and a Giro Atmos helmet, Martina also bought me a cool Oakley sunglasses. Call me a snob as you will but a great quote I heard recently is: Why Train When You Can Buy Speed?

Luke Lau Bun Hay (1948 - 2007)

2007-04-07T10:47:00.000+08:00

My Dad has left for his place in Heaven last saturday, a week has already gone and the family's sorrow has eased day by day. We have been busy preparing for his funearal and preparing a remembrance booklet for him to be given out to guests in the funeral. Reading through the contribution from his friends, I come to grip of what a remarkable character Dad has been, intelligent, strong willed and wittyly humourous are just some of the trend that flow through those passages. Below is my piece to the booklet "Dad's Final Lesson to Be Strong". A side of him that fits so well to the theme of this blog.

Dad in his final 5 months of his life has delivered to me the final lesson of how to be a strong and positive throughout life, whatever the adversary you may face tomorrow.

*****
As I was watching my father lying on the hospital bed on the final week of his life, I was infected by an overwhelming sense of sadness. It was to me that the curtains were slowly being drawn down on the “Story of Luke’s Life”. For the past 5 months, I felt that everyone have been faithful supporting actors in the final act of this drama, in which my Dad has showed us the most admirable side of him. While facing a terminal illness, he was never seen in despair, throughout the fight he has kept up his witty British humour and has insisted on taking every step that his body would sustained. Three weeks before he passed away, Mum and I accompanied him to his office to finish up all his projects at hand, then in his fragile voice he said, “Today’s work has been completed.” Then we rushed to the hospital as he had been in need of medical attention since the night before. It was terrible for all of us to watch our beloved one to go through the suffering but in a way I was glad and proud to have been given a role in this finale.
After the inevitable has happened, my role has shifted from being a “supporting actor” to being the “tape editor” of his story as I was putting together this remembrance booklet. I saw “footages” that I have never known before when reading the contribution from my father’s friends and family members. Like putting all the “clips” into a “movie”, I began to see Luke’s story as a whole. I gained a deeper understanding the kind of person he had been and I realized how the many little things he did has shaped me and made me the kind of person I am today.
When I was 14, I asked my parents to let me continue my study in England. Immediately when I arrived in the boarding school in England, Dad has insisted on arranging a local English family to be my “guardian family”. Hence when the first term breaks comes, while most of my fellow Hong Kong students would go to London to pack some homesick cure in the forms of Dim Sums, I on the other hand barely adapted the peculiar world of British boarding school, would travel to the nearby town and stayed with a family that I have barely known. Thanks to Dad’s arrangement I have gained an insight to the English way of life and was also able to get to know the Ramsey family who took me in as one of their own. Shortly after, Dad arranged me to head out to France for a 2 weeks home-stay holiday over the next school break. I have only just made myself comfortable in the Ramsey’s and once again I have to take a lonesome journey to an unfamiliar territory. Struggling with the language and a harsh landlady, the 2 weeks in France was no smooth ride at first but I came back with memories of great deals of funs and adventure in the end. Looking back it was really through these lessons selected by Dad that I developed an appetite for exploration and adventures; henceforth I became thrilled by unknown situations and bored with familiarity. Some of the best times in my life have been my climbing trips and backpacking holiday to distant shores, I owe these to my Dad’s training.
Now going through the life stories of Dad, I am surprised to know that he was also an adventurer in his days. He has been a Scouts leader and a keen hiker as a boy, as a young adult in England he often disappeared for solo backpacking trips around England. Growing up, this strong and independent character has carried him through many hurdles in life including the 3 years of court battle with his former employer. As he sailed into the unknown and desperate territories of carrying a cancer in his body, this tough and self-reliance side of him has simply shined brighter than ever.
While my supporting role in Dad’s story is over, I must carry on playing the main character in the story of my own. And in this story, Dad in his final 5 months of his life has delivered to me the final lesson of how to be a strong and positive throughout life, whatever the adversary I may face tomorrow.

Invincible - Muse

2007-03-16T00:08:00.000+08:00

During the struggle they will pull us down. But please, please let's use this chance to turn things around. And tonight we can truly say together we're invincible I just got back from the hospital where my Dad is there struggling with his illness. He is in much pain and discomfort but he is fighting on, refusing to be pulled down, making me so proud of him as a son. Martina and I sat down to read some lyrics of Muse while listen to their songs, I found this particular song's lyrics very beautiful and inspiring in times like this.

"Invincible - by Muse"

Follow through
Make your dreams come true
Don't give up the fight
You will be alright
'Cause there's no one like you in the universe

Don't be afraid
What your mind conceives
You should make a stand
Stand up for what you believe
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible

During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Let's use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible

Do it on your own
It makes no difference to me
What you leave behind
What you choose to be
And whatever they say
Your souls unbreakable

During the struggle
They will pull us down
But please, please
Let's use this chance
To turn things around
And tonight
We can truly say
Together we're invincible
Together we're invincible

Hard Training

2007-03-07T23:47:00.000+08:00

I just got back from the second training session with the triathlon club, the training is usually an hour of running and an hour of swimming. On Monday in the first session the swimming was so hard for me that my shoulder was stiff for a day and a half, just relaxed up in time for tonight's session. Then tonight when I was pushing hard for the head above water drill, I kicked so hard that I had cramps in the calf muscle on both leg. A long way to go before I can keep up with these guys but I like those pain and ache in my muscle afterward, a sensation that has been long missed.

Muse X Youssou N'Dour

2007-03-06T13:40:00.000+08:00

Martina and I attended not one but two great concerts in a weekend, on Saturday it was one of my favourite Brit Pop band "Muse" in Asia World Expo. Then 24 hours later we went to the world's most loved Senegelese singer "Youssou N'Dour". Both were captivating performance, Muse's live act had so much energy, within a track, their music may swing from soulful piano rythum to a high octane explosive electric guitar display. Youssou N'Dour on the other hand played Afrian Music with a variety of styles. His songs imbedded political messages of social justice. In his most memorable song of the night, he said, "This song is about Africa. People often think of only 3 things in Africa, Povery, Aids and War. But there is more to it, there is also happiness." Then he went on to sang the sorrowful song that rings in my head since.

Year of Triathlon

2007-03-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

Sorry guys, it has been a lifetime since I have updated this blog. As some of you might know, my Dad is suffering some bad illness and hence I just tried to stay with my family as much as I can. Which mean I don't get home till quite late in the evening. I have only spend about 10 mins in front of this computer every night.

Setting the sorrow aside my recovery from adventure sports are more or less completed. As a consolation from lunch time bouldering in Kwun Tong, I have joined a fantastic gym 5 mins away from the office in Central. Its 20m swimming pool has served a monumental role in getting my left arm muscle back in swing. My default lunch time pass time has been running on the treadmill, cycling on the gym bike or crawling through the water with a vengence.

While on the gym bike I like listening to this podcast from TriTalk, it is a brilliant bi-weekly program on training tips for triathletes and I hope I discover this before Alex does! Coupled with much improved working hours, the condition is now perfect for me to embark on some proper triathlon training. And my first target is a the first ever Half Ironman in Asia, the SinaporeIronman703. I hope to get into the rythum of proper training soon, gonna tried out the Sonic Sports Club next week, which my mate Larry (Kin's partner in crime in Actiona Asia Macau) said it is a nice gang to be with.

Inevitably, I don't forsee climbing much this year but something had to give. I have finished reading "The Villian - The Life of Don Whillan". I recommend it in the same passion that I recommended "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". Don is a genius in climbing and mountaineering, though unfortunately a tragic character that never realised his potential. He partnered with some of the best climbers in his generation first with Joe Brown and then Chris Bonnington. Though cause of his psychological flaw, he felt out with them and brought the most successful partnership in 1950's British rock climbing (with Brown) and a budding partnership in Alpine Climbing (with Bonnington) to a fruitless end. He went on a decade without major successful ascent until 1970, Bonnington saw the fire in him and took him to Annapurna to conquer the South Face of the mountain. He summited the face with Dougal Haston and the feat was a great national achievement at the time. Though even at Don's height he was on his way down, he was portraited as a calculating person who avoid load carrying on the mountain to preserve his fitness in order to get picked for the summit bid. Eventually such bad reputation drove him out of the top league of mountaineering and was never able to met his goal of conquering the North Face of Eiger and the South West Face of Everest. Go and read it, a sad tale of a nonetheless hero of his time.

Faith in Friction

2007-01-11T23:24:00.000+08:00

I started reading "The Villain - The Life of Don Whillans" by Jim Perin recently. Right now I am at the infant stage of Don's climbing career in Peak District. I used to lived an hour's away from the climbing outcrops of the "Peaks". Reading those few chapters which he gradually evolved from a hiker to a climber brings me back all those fond memories of my first year in climbing, it was also in the "Gritstone" crags in the Peaks which I got into the sport. It is a very special rock, big bulging round rocks that is highly fritional and abrasive. It is either loved or loathed by British climbers, though I don't know whether it was the history of Gritstones climbing or my personal happy times there, it occupies a special place for me. The following is an extract in the book on Gritstone:

Its holds for the most parts are sloping and indefinite, its bulging crack lacerate your hands. It demands a style based on confidence and agility, on both sophistication of technique and aggression in approach, on ingenuity and faith in friction.

"Faith in friction" what a nice saying, I love it, and I just checked that faithinfricition.com has not been registered yet, I can't believe no one has done it.

Freeyasoul 2006 Review

2006-12-31T12:09:00.000+08:00

This is the last day of 2006, just want to do my Freeyasoul Adventure Review of 2006. It has been the only year that I didn't manage to organise a freeyasoul adventure holiday with my friends but then when I review this blog which I really started writing from the beginning of the year, I can't really complain, it has been an amazingly colourful year. And to end the year with a little appreciation is something that we should all do. Read on to see my top moments in 2006.

#1 Ice Climbing in Siguniang Shan - The trip really started in X'mas 2005 and ended in 2006. Being on top of Siguniang Shan would be another top moment but that was 2005, though when I was chopping away the ice on a frozen fall in the valley, I felt absoultely wonderful.... with my life.
#2 Topping Lion Rock with Alan and Tim - I am a nostagic person. Alan & Tim were like two of the people that got me started on mountaineering back in England, and for me to be able to share my first multi pitch climb with them in Hong Kong has such a special meaning.
#3 My first marathon - It was a real challenge, every second I had to push myself to keep up with my target. Marathon is just lifetime journey and challenge distilled into a 4 hours concentrated cocktail.

#4 Visiting Planet Finance- I went all the way to Beijing to see if there will be an opportunity for me to join this Microfinance organisation. Though it didn't lead me to a materialised opportunity, I learn much more about the field and I understand what role I am best to play if I do want to help to advance this movement. This year Muhammend Yunus and Grameem Bank has also got a Nobel Peace Prize for the work on Microfinance, MF has suddenly came to the spotlight and I am sure if I become successful in banking, suitable opportunity will open up one day.
#5 Birth of Bad Bad & Cham Cham-I was in Singapore for a conference and then on my last day I heard my then pregnant cat Yoda was in the Vet for an emergency operation, she was in labour for the last 12 hours and no one knew. When I got home, four new kittens has arrived, though only 2 of them grew up, Bad Bad & Cham Cham has filled my life with laughs.
# 6 Moganshan Misadventure- Then came the first of my 3 back to back race, I teamed up with Kin which I just met for the adventure race in Moganshan. It ended disastrously for me, reaped my knee open with an 1 inch cut to the bone and then endured a clean but brutal stiching operation in a village clinic. Thankfully it didn't kill my heart for more adventures....
#7 Bintan Triathlon - and two weeks later, I sealed my cut to attend my first triatholon in Bintan, Indonesia. I was completely unfit due to the injury, but I loved it, great weather, beautiful island and exercising myself with great pleasure. In 2007, I plan to do Triatholon properly as a sport.

#8 Action Asia Macau - then antoher two weeks later Andy and I teamed up in the AA Macau and raced against Kin's team. The race course was a lovely high speed chase, with frequent switching from swimming to running in the first half. I had this fear on the bike session but thankfully no more scratches today.

#9 Ironman Korea - I didn't get to swim in the Ironman Relay but I was able to run on the marathon course at my own pace, it was a battlefield out there, such a touching moment to see the warriors out there meeting their challenges. Fighting through cramps and defining the meaning of "Determination".
#10 Fracturing My Left Arm - In just one split second, I felt off my mountain bike during a leisure day out in Tai Lam Reservoir, it shattered many other could be top moments contenders, like hiking in Japan, Trailwalker and Action Asia Hong Kong. Though may be it was time for a break and reflect, maybe I was having too much fun.

At the same time we learned about my father's illness, the injury was timed perfectly to focus my priority. Family and career may have been neglected in these times. Though 2 weeks after the injury I took up a new job which I have enjoyed so far, being happy 5 days a week at where you are was more important than finding a moment of euphoria on races during the weekend. What have I learned this year? Nothing that can be distilled into wisdom, but I felt striking a balance is important, I think the way I live my life is correct, exercising my body all the time and pushing it beyond limit. But I have to learn to let go sometime, to be able to say that, it is not important, there are more important things in life then maintaining an arbitary level of fitness and endurance. In 2007 I will continue to fill this blog with mini adventures but I hope to bring you equal dose of progress in my other projects in live, like career, family, goals and dreams.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-23T14:44:00.000+08:00

My full squad are here to wish you a
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Why are you getting more and more intellectual

2006-12-09T10:27:00.000+08:00

In respond to Kin's comment, well as you can see I didn't find much that is adventurous to contribute to "Freeyasoul Adventure" due to my immobility and disability. So how have I been spending my time that I used to spend on rambling in the hills and picking up scars? I've been waiting to see the rise of Vietnam for ages, much just like supporting an underdog football team like Sheffield United. Sadly I have just been sitting at home reading. And my reading has never deviate so much from my course in life (which vaguely consist of solving world poverty issue, fighting capitalism, climbing mountains, yeah I know I never do any of them really) I actually started reading stuff about the Stock Market!!! Well it all began with a lunch with my friend Julius and his cousin, they were telling me that there is window of opportuniy to invest in Vietnam. It kind of strikes the bell, I love Vietnam, my 3 weeks backpacking trip there in 1999 was an amazing time. People I barely just met would invite me to go mountain biking with him in Dalat, then another stranger would take me on his scooter to join a post football match scooter parade in Ho Chi Min City. (For a more recent travelogue to Vietnam, read Kin's.) I've been waiting to see the rise of Vietnam for ages, much just like supporting an underdog football team like Sheffield United. Anyway that conversation inspired me to do some research of my own on the investment condition in Vietnam, and when you are new to a job, you just have the time to sneaky do that at your desk, one thing leads to another, I am now reading about ways to evaluate stocks and macro conditions, like equity analysts do. You know look at the PE ratio, assess the yoy sales growth, analyse the profit margin and operating margin bla bla bla. Well I hope to get this done with and build up my own H-Share portfolio before I can start doing sports again.

Building Awareness for Dakshinayan

2006-11-21T22:49:00.000+08:00

I hope those of you who has a blog can write a little post to divert your readers to those posts that I am about to write..... Let's see if we can create a snowball effect. Those who know me would probably know that on my big India trip in 2002, I volunteered for a Development NGO called Dakshinayan. I stayed in a village called Cheo among the tribal communities in Jarkhand and taught the kids some English with 5 other volunteers. It was a lifetime experience for me, I look at everything very differently since I was there. The organisation has been doing great work there, they aim to educate a generation of youngsters to take care of their tribes when they grow up. I have always been hoping to be able to help them somehow. A big contribution to their income has been the "fee" paid by the volunteers like me, though I know the number of volunteers has never been steady and recently they are struggling a bit. For the last month, I have been placing adwords on google on behalf of them. If you type "Volunteer India" on google you might be able to see my ads (if my daily budget has not ran out). I manage to direct 1-2 people to their website daily but it has not been translating into enquiries. The organisor has told me not to waste the money. Though I am not going to give up, I think building awareness takes time, apart from increasing my daily budget on google adwords, I am going to start an awareness campaign for them on this blog.

Once I found time, I will write a few posts about the organisation and the volunteering experience. I hope those of you who has a blog can write a little post to divert your readers to those posts that I am about to write. Please also invite your regular readers who also blogs to write a little divergence post. Let's see if we can create a snowball effect.

Leaving My Old Job to Meet John Wood

2006-11-16T21:50:00.000+08:00

and if even I did return with books to set up 9 libraries the next season, would this lead me to quit my job in the hope to make change to the world?I started on my new job this week, finally after 4 years back in Hong Kong, I now work in Central. Kind of childish to be pleased with take, I know most people at my age should have grown cynical about Central, but I found no better opportunity to expand my horizon after the groomy days of Kwun Tong. For example today, I went for a book talk at lunchtime with Martina, and the speaker was the inspiring John Wood of "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World". You may recall from my previous post how much I respect this guy.
We had literally the two best seats of the day, sitting right at the front of the stage, we met the social entrepreneur in real life. The talk very much recounted tales from his books. But this guy was not just inspirational but incredibly funny. (Martina was later recognised by a helper as the woman who laughed seamlessly during the talk.) John started off by congradulation himself by stealing the title of the book "Leaving Microsoft to Change The World" from Bill Gate. And he is happy to trade that with millions of dollars for donation.

Then he recounted his begining of this post-Microsoft life. "How many of you have been trekking in Nepal?" We stood our hands up proudly. Though if a Nepalese headmaster said "Perhaps one day sir, you will return with some books." I wondered if I would responded the way John did, and even if I did return with books to set up 9 libraries the next season, would this lead me to quit my job in the hope to make change to the world? That is what makes him so incredible. Room to Read now opens more library then the post-IPO Starbuck is opening coffee chains around the world at the same age.
there will be many people in this world to tell you not to take the risk, but they are not necessary the people that is worth listening to
Then he recounted some of his favourite stories in his books and finally left us with a picture that was taken last week, it was the once bookless libary that he first visted in Nepal, it is now a brightly decorated modern reading room, with books, magazines, maps and globes. One that is impossible for me to imagine the himalayan paddy rice fields were just beyond those windows.

Finally at the Q&A session he repeated those words in his books "If you have a passion, just get out and follow it.....there will be many people in this world to tell you not to take the risk, but they are not necessary the people that is worth listening to."

So once again, go and read this book, if you don't want to buy one, borrow one of the two copies that we now own.

P.S. If you want to get involved with Room to Read, read here.

The Library Thing

2006-11-11T13:20:00.000+08:00

I discovered a newsite for book lovers called The Library Thing, how to describe it, remove the shopping function of Amazon but keep the review platform, then integrate it with Flickr's tag function and allow people to join "Groups". Thus I have spent sometime trying to add the books I have read in the last 5-6 years to "My Library" and have a tag cloud for books that I have read:

Once I have done that, the site were able to recommend new books for me to read, tell me other users who shares similar reading interest, thus I can browse their library. The thing that I enjoyed the most was being able to see the front cover of the books lined up on the screen, especially on some of the topics that I enjoyed the most, like:
Mountaineering & Adventure

History

After looking at them again, I had the impulse to buy another mountain literature, just put in an order on The Villain: the Life of Don Whillans by Jim Perrin. It shared the 2006 Boardman Tasker Award.

Week 1 of Recovery

2006-11-11T11:54:00.000+08:00

It has been more than a week since I was discharged from hospital, thankfully the new job don't start till next week, so I got plenty of break before having to fight my way through crowded bus to Central with a plaster hanging at my chest. Life as a single hand cripple has not been as bad as I have imagined, I can do most things with one hand as I have learned. Taking a shower was probably the worst, I have to held my injured arm up for as long as 10 mins, while the right arm was doing all the yoga movement, to get to every part of the body (just imagine cleaning your right arm pit with you right hand!).

I am a bit worried with the muscles on my left arm, they now cramped quite often due to lack of movement. Not much I can do until the plaster is off, of become smaller in my next checkup. By the I am fully recovered, I will give Outrigging a try, may rebulid my arm muscle quickly.

I was completely hooked to a Japanese comic called "Death Note" (死亡筆記). The second film based on the comic has just been released, but as always, the comic is much better. In case you didn't know the story is about a note book dropped by a Reapper to Earth, any person's name written on it will die within 40secs. The guy who picked it up started to use it to punish criminals in order to create a utopia. A top detective who is only known as "L" secretly investigate the series of crime. Both characters were highly intelligent and began a dog fight of mind games to fish each other out. I am down to the last volume today, can't wait.

Disaster Struck Again

2006-11-02T15:58:00.000+08:00

Just got back from a 3 days spell in the hospital with some steel plate and screws added to my body. It has happened again, I had another mountain bike accident but a more serious one this time. I won't even gonna put down any narratives to make it sound adventurous. It just went out of control, I fell and landed on my arm first. I broke one of the two bones in the forearm. The two ends of the fracture was completely separated and it needed an operation to patch them together with plates and screw.

It was plain stupid for me to mess up my body like this and caused so much trouble for my girlfriend and parents to spend their time taking care of me. Lucky for me they were there when I needed them, the 3 days passed very quickly. Every visiting time I can count on them being there to cheer me up, I was never too down.

Now I have 2-3 months of recovery period in which I won't be able to exercise, I have some time to think about what I really want. Doing all these adventurous sport is fun, but not for the price of losing a limp or two, I am not a thrill seeker, I just like overcoming my own limit. Clearly two major accidents in 5 months means that I should stay away from mountain biking, but if I do that, adventure racing is also out of the window. Something I am not willing to let go.

Making Waves on Paradise Island

2006-10-29T10:28:00.000+08:00

the toughest part of that race was the first half hour when I began to wonder how I would even last for the next hour as the sun was beating down on usTwo brave friends of mine, Nancy and Amanda, has just attended an international outrigger race in Saipan. If you don't know what is an Outrigger, it is a traditional canoe used by Micronesia people, you paddle it in similar technique to Dragonboat, except you switch the side that you are paddling every 18 strokes. It has a supporting buoy (the outrigger), thus more stable than a dragon boat and therefore capable ocean crossing and riding bigger waves (Nancy please fill me in).

It was the 8th Micronesia Cup in Saipan, Nancy and Amanda represented the South China Sea Outrigger's mixed team competitng with giant paddling team from different island communities, including teams Saipan, Guam, Japan, Palau and Hong Kong (the mighty HK Island Paddler Club was also there). They did three races in two days, 500m, 1500m sprint and grueling 12miles distance challenge! They did brilliantly well but I will let Nancy to do the talking.

From Nancy's email,

"We didn't win any trophies that day but on Sunday, we did an 18km (8mi) distance race which took us 2 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds to complete which was a fantastic time, considering the best Men's team did it in 1hour 45 mins....

"For me, the toughest part of that race was the first half hour when I began to wonder how I would even last for the next hour as the sun was beating down on us and I was tired already. But as we started to round the island at the halfway point and I knocked back a Powerbar Gel pack, I got mentally psyched that we were halfway through. Plus, the water was amazingly clear and blue in Saipan which makes it tougher to keep your focus in the boat...

"I'm in Seat 3, who does the calls for switching sides on which you paddle. This means you have to be able to paddle and count to 14 at the same time (tougher than you might think!), while being careful not to call a switch when big waves might knock the ama (stabiliser) up and potentially huli (capsize) the canoe...."

In the end they came third in the Mixed Team catogroies, it was her first international race and it was such a tremendous achievement. I am inspired, maybe in the next dragon boat season I will paddle again and give the best of my effort, maybe even train with these stars for a long distance race. Afterall I always have an appetite to take on something BIG. If anyone of you are equally inspired, their club is always looking for more new blood.

Planning a Japan Adventure

2006-10-25T22:31:00.000+08:00

Finally I've got my future settled this week, I am moving on to a new job in mid November and will finished with my current company after this month. That gave Martina and I about a week to go on holiday before rushing back to do the Trailwalker. We've chosen to go to Japan this time, I've not been to Japan despite my adventures all over the world. I have been a third world countries travel specialist for all these years and Japan just doesn't quite fit into my profile. But with only a week to spare, it was a rush to some of my projects in store.Though it has been an amazing discovery to find out what adventure can be done in Japan. I have learn that there is a strip of mountain called the Japan Alps in the mid north of country in the Nagano Perfecturewhere there are some beautiful alpine scenery. There is a 6 days traverse across the alpine ridges and finsihed in a moutian resort town called Kamikochi. The beauty is you don't have to carry too much as you can stayed in moutain huts at above 2000m high, with food and bedding served to you.

Though unfortunately as I though I have found the highlight of the year, the local hostel, Nishiitoya Mountain Lodge, told me it was a too late the time of the year to get some reasonable hike, snow is due by November. May be something for the next Freeyasoul Adventure.

Now I am planning to do something less ambitious and explore the Odaigahara plateau in the Mie Perfecture near Osaka and Kyoto. This time I am hoping to do a 2 days route from Osugidani to Odaigahara, it would be up a gorge with steel chains bolted on the cliff side for us to pull on, 8 waterfalls and river crossing by traditional boats along the path. Though a local hiker from IOC Kansai has informed me that due to a typhoo 2 years ago, the route was still a closed. So right now, I am a bit stuck, but reading throught the walking guide of Japan by Lonely Planet, there are tones of day hike around the Kyoto region.

Novels by Indian Writers

2006-10-22T15:20:00.000+08:00

.... sometime you have maintain a fine balance between hope and despair". Such a terrible way to live that you can't give yourself too much hope nor despair to overcome the endless misfortunates in life.

It is kind of a belated post. The Man Booker Prize of 2006 was announced a couple of weeks ago. The Man Booker Prize is an annual award given to comtemporary English fiction. I am rarely disappointed when I select my reading materials from the list of past winners or even the shortlisted novels. It was a delighted to know that this year's Booker goes to another India novelist, Kiran Desai and her book "The Inhertitance of Loss". I have gone out to buy it the next day when I heard about the news. Why do I have so much faith Indian writers? The two previous Bookers I read by Indian novelist were among some of the best novels I have read, they were "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie and "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. Together with "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Misty were novels that have profoundly touched me.

There are certain common elements that runs through those three novels, characters from marginal communities, living in turbulent times, caste systems, despairs and unfulfilled dream, weaved through a poetic style of writing and sometimes offers me a glimpse of philosophy of indian way of life. The line that I remember most well from "A Fine Balance" is ".... sometime you have maintain a fine balance between hope and despair". Such a terrible way to live that you can't give yourself too much hope nor despair to overcome the endless misfortunates in life.

Well going back to "Inheritance of Loss", I have just started reading it, so in due course I can give you a full report about it. But at the moment, I will just share with you the opening lines of New York Times review, "ALTHOUGH it focuses on the fate of a few powerless individuals, Kiran Desai's extraordinary new novel manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence. Despite being set in the mid-1980's, it seems the best kind of post-9/11 novel." If like the review said, the novel touches on the global issues of today yet, connect them with the everyday characters with the skills of all the other Bookers winner, I am sure it will be a lovely ride to read on.

Random Rotating Banner Hack

2006-10-15T21:31:00.000+08:00

It is working!
Press "F5" on your keyboard and a different banner should appear.
After two days of trying (yep very sad, but do I care!), I have finally modified my blogger template to do random roation on the banner graphics. If you don't get what I mean, press "F5" on your keyboard and a different banner should appear, if it happen to be the same banner then press again till you see a new one. It is a standard plug-in for Wordpress but we didn't have it in Blogger.... until now. Well I think this could be the first in the world of Blogger Beta, if not it is definitely my first hack anyway. Thanks Ramani from Hackosphere who gave me a few tips. Read on to see the scripts I have used.

I am not sure if it will works for all blogger templates, so I will just show you what I have done and you may have to modified it for your template. First of all I assume you have created a few graphical banners and have uploaded them onto a graphic hosting website.

For the 'Rounder' template I have used there is a piece of script in the CCS Style Section that read like this:

#header {
background:#476 url("http://www.blogblog.com/rounders4/bg_hdr_bot.jpg") no-repeat left bottom;
margin:0 0 0;
padding:0 0 8px;
color:#fff;
}

Basically my script works by overwriting the 'background' definition at the <body> part of the template. I wrote the following right after the <body> tag:

<script type="text/javascript">

var banner= new Array()

banner[0]="http://static.flickr.com/84/269053449_acad87a793_o.jpg"
banner[1]="http://static.flickr.com/95/269053438_4ef5a3983e_o.jpg"
banner[2]="http://static.flickr.com/96/269053404_44a3b0eda8_o.jpg"
banner[3]="http://static.flickr.com/108/269053262_608edbdda4_o.jpg"
banner[4]="http://static.flickr.com/98/269053232_6f7c6f994a_o.jpg"
var random=Math.round(4*Math.random());

document.write("<style>");
document.write("#header {");
document.write(' background:url("' + banner[random] + '") no-repeat left TOP;');
document.write(" }");
document.write("</style>");

</script>

My scripts above used Java Script to define an array of 5 url locations of the banners' graphic. Then the next line generate a random discret number between 0-4. The next part will generate some html codes to overwrite the "background" definition of the the "Header" style by selection a random banner everytime.

You will need to change the following:
1) The URL Locations of your graphics.
2) If you have 5 banners, you type "4" in the random number generating equation Math.round(4*Math.random()); If you have 3 banners type "2" and so forth.

Good luck, let me know if it works.

Blog Banner Experiment

2006-10-15T01:02:00.000+08:00

I spent the weekend developing some banners for my blogs with Photoshop and Illustrator. I wanted to fused a Freeyasoul logo with the picture but doesn't seen to always work. I've also tried my best to modify the blog's template, hoping to make the banner to rotate randomly, but it didn't work. If anyone comes across this knows a blogger hack to that, please let me know. I've left message on Hackosphere and Beautiful Beta, hoping to generate some discussions on that. Anyway, let me know what you think of my banners and how I can improve on them:

Siguniang Shan

Nepal 1

Nepal 2

Lombak 1

Lombak 2

Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Founder of Grameen Bank

2006-10-14T09:37:00.000+08:00

For thirty years he has been refining the microfinance approach, working incredibly hard every day despite many obstacles. The Grameen Bank that he established now reaches 6.2 million families in Bangladesh alone

It has been a testimony to the power of Microfinance in solving the world's poverty problem. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank which he founded, one of the World's most successful Microfinance Institiution in Bangladesh, was awareded the 2006 Nobel Peace Price. Yunus has not only made an impact to Bangladesh but for the last 30 Years, he has export his successful model of Microfinance to the world and has actively drive this global movement. He is a hero to anyone who is aspired to contribute something positive to the world. Read on for an extract from Grameen Foundation on his sucess.

"The world is in a barely acknowledged global poverty crisis, one that is at the root of many other crises that grab the headlines every day. More than one billion people are condemned to live on less than US$1 per day. Such a crisis demands tangible, scalable solutions, put into practice on a wide scale. It requires leadership from civil society, and governments. Microfinance is one of the most powerful solutions to poverty in existence today, and Dr. Yunus is the leader most responsible for developing and implementing it in Bangladesh and globally. For thirty years he has been refining the microfinance approach, working incredibly hard every day despite many obstacles. The Grameen Bank that he established now reaches 6.2 million families in Bangladesh alone, and he has established more than twenty other companies, non-profit and for-profit, that attack different dimensions of the poverty problem in a businesslike manner. His story is well told in his memoir, Banker to the Poor, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about how this incredible individual started a worldwide movement.

Dr. Yunus, who was a founding Board member of Grameen Foundation, an organization that I have led since it began in 1997, has the intelligence and entrepreneurial talent to have been a multi-millionaire if he had chosen that course. Instead, he focused on creating millions of “multi-hundredaires” by developing an approach to empowering the poor through loans and other financial services." extract from Grameen Foundation.

The Race On A Battle Field

2006-10-09T14:21:00.001+08:00

Now comes the proper write up of my Action Asia Challenge, Kinmen…

“Gun, Tanks and Steel” Michael Madness the organizer of the Action Asia Challenges told us that was what we have signed up for. So team “Tempo Sparks” descend onto Kinmen Island of Taiwan for our second adventure race in 2006. It was 8:30am on 1st Oct, I have been up since 5am to condition myself for the days ahead; we have scouted the first session of the race route as soon as we disembarked the Ferry onto Little Kinmen; and we have forced ourselves all the way up to the starting line ribbon. Gripping the ribbon tightly and breathing in the dense air, every muscle was so prepared. ... his secret weapon, a banana hidden under his forearm gaiter, which has been accidentally squashed anyhow Then out of no where came the Hawaiian beach music played to us by the Kinmen County Government!! Relax, aren't we getting too serious with these races, the Taiwan Action Asia was destined to be a bit of a chill out affairs. Franz the strange South African from team “Ancient Mariner” was revealing to me his secret weapon, a banana hidden under his forearm gaiter, which has been accidentally squashed anyhow (another of his home brew gadget is the duck tape gaiters at his ankles to seal off the mud and sand). A group of Singaporeans behind us were dancing to the tasty music. We know we were up for some sweat may be but lots of laughs.

The fact that we were racing on a former battlefield wasn’t intimidating at all, rather the labyrinth of underground tunnels and waterside caves added lots of fun the thrill to the race. Once the whistle was blown, we ran up to small hilly cliff top and descend onto a pier on the other side, and then we leaped into the air and dropped 7 or 8m to the sea and swam into a military tunnel. Crawling through knee high water in the dark, we hit a steel leader at the end of the cave and found ourselves back to where we started, like in a James Bond movie! Back on our Bond mobil, our bikes, we had to circum-navigate the island. The cycling path was a nice and wide paved road around the island, but we were sandwiched between live mine fields on either side. We were told not to corner in extreme speed, in case we launched ourselves through the bared wire and onto one of the Communist – Nationalist Civil War era explosives.

Next we had to kayak across the strait to Big Kinmen, Michael said it had taken him anytime from 45mins to 2 hours in the last few trial, but with the current working against us, we shoudl expect the upper end. In the end it has taken us 1hr15mins to paddle across but we have overtaken 10 teams, helped one cap-sided team to get back onto their kayak, allowed 3 teams to re-overtake us again and witnessed those pathetic dumpsters that we helped out to go capped sided again.

Running through towns and villages in extreme heat, Andy chose to distract himself by practicing his broken Mandarin on the University Students who volunteered as human road signs. The running was occasionally interrupted by more tunnels, longer swimming, and horizontal abseils across the university, abseiling into more military caves and so forth. At one point we lost the road marks while walking through the bush and were shitting ourselves for stepping on some landmines, we found the way out safely and dashed across a wasted field in the university campus then every officials around shouted on top of their voice, ‘Wrong Way, Get Out.’ I wonder if I was close to losing a limp or two.

We were constantly exchanging our positions with two teams which we decided to call them our arch-rivals. “SART Pinnacle” a Singaporean ladies team who re-overtook us while we were rescuing the capped sided team on the kayak, and “FAH-Q” two massive American body builders whose evil deed being jumping the queue in front of me for the horizontal abseil. We out-swam both teams at one instant and had them hot on our heals, but “SART Pinnacle” finally out-biked us again. one of the G. I. Joes sandwiching between me and Andy at times on the final bike sprint, only to have Andy pushing through his limit to fight him off. When closing in on finishing line, one of the tasks in the shooting range was to throw some heavy steel grenades into the window of a brick house 20-30m away. Embarrassingly we had a dozen throws each, Andy was so dehydrated that his throws was barely hitting the wall and mines were chipping everywhere but the target, then to our despair the G.I. Joes (team FAH-Q) was closing in, they breezed through air rifle part like a piece of cake. Fortunately at this point I pulled off the sweetest throw and hit the goal, save me from watching the bigger G. I. Joe doing a hole in one.

It was a tense finish for us, with one of the G. I. Joes sandwiching between me and Andy at times on the final bike sprint, only to have Andy pushing through his limit to fight him off. Finally we arrived at the Kinmen Liquor Factory for the glory laps of abseil and flying fox finish. Result :31 out of 56 teams, 7hr44mins. We have definitely became more exprienced and more able to enjoy ourselves in these torturing events.

My Tag Cloud

2006-10-07T14:10:00.000+08:00

Man it is something I want to do for a long time, to catagorise my posting and create a tag cloud, but Blogger didn't have such function until Beta.Blogger was launched. Then I found this excellent site that taught me how to build a tag cloud for my blog. Now please check out the tag cloud (or Label Cloud) on the side bar.

Leaving Microsoft to Change The World

2006-10-04T22:36:00.000+08:00

Book Review: Ever since my trip to India and volunteer for Dakshinayan I never stop feeling that there is a destiny in my life that I need to go out and find. Sure it is not just me, everyone has a dream but not everyone dares to chase it. Though I am surrounded by brave people who dares to take on their dreams. My girlfriend Martina has decided to set up her own fashion label. Ahdont has decided to take up pilot as his career. The joy he experienced through the school kids who endorsed the books as great treasure lead him to think what is more important to him in this life.The story of this book is about another brave person who takes on his dream and happily found his role in this universe. John Woods was a high flying executive of Microsoft in 1998, over his trekking holiday in Nepal, he met a government education officer who gave him a tour to a local school along the Annapurna Circuit. After seeing the school's lack of resources, especially the lack of books, he made a promised to the headmaster to come back one day to deliver some books to the children. The next trekking season, he came back to Nepal to fulfilled his promise with few hundered books, it was a decision that changed his life. The joy he experienced through the school kids who endorsed the books as great treasure lead him to think what is more important to him in this life. Swiftly but also painfully he left his successful career, comfortable life as an expat in Beijing, his girlfriend and devote his energy to make this book delivery to third world school thing as big as possible. He ended up establishing Room to Read a non-profit organisation which now build schools, library, providing books and scholarship to children in developing countries. Though in this book, you are not gonna find too many stories of touchy moments of setting up libaries in a third world countries but about a entreprenur exerting his energy and management skill to build a "Microsoft of Non Profit". Right from the start he decided to think bold and vowed to bring education to multiple countires, though he hasn't got a clue how this will be done, but his heart and passion earned him the support of a venture capitalist as one of the first donors. In latter stage he ran his organisation with a "result focus" culture, always chasing numbers, how many new libary built, how many girls on scholarship etc. This impressed many in the business communities who like to see their donation turning into tangible result. We also we re-lived two turing points in the last decade, 911 and Tsunami, how they have ceased the opportunities to expand their organisation during those turbulence time. Though behind all this aggressiveness of a typical American businessman, John Woods still has a great heart and his desire to bring universal education to the world is much admired. And I am so happy for him to hear him said in the ending pages "Having discover my true life path, I am more ready than ever to embrace it. I feel lucky to know who I am, what I want to focus on, and the yardstick by which I will measure myself." Friends if you have a dream out there somewhere, Chase It, Embrace It.

Action Asia Taiwan, Kinmen

2006-10-03T00:00:00.000+08:00

Just got back from Kinmen Island of Taiwan for my third adventure race this year, so far so good for my year of adventure race. The race was 60km long, with half of it being biking, 1/3 running around, a bit of swimming and an hour of ocean crossing kayaking. The island is actually quite flat but the race course still has got some unique charaters in the form of military tunnels. We had to labour our way through underground maze, swimming into a waterfilled tunnels for army ships, jumping off 10m high piers. And finally a flying fox finish (below) from the top of liquor factory. A little bit tired right now, so hope to find some time this week.

Adventure Dispatches Around The World

2006-09-12T23:33:00.000+08:00

While searching for information about Gobi March, I bump into a brilliant journal of 2 girls and 2 guys from Hong Kong who completed the Gobi March this year. They were very much like you and me, taking part in Trailwalker, Action Asia Challenge, AA Sprints on the weekends, then one day something compell them to sign up for this notorious event. The blog is a chornical on how rucksacks displaced handbags, highheel turned vibram and city girls turned ultra atheletes. Take a good read!
Congradulation to Alex who completed his first sprint distance triathlon in Finger Lakes, USA. He started his triathlon training about the same time I started my swimming training, so as it said we were virtual training buddies. The last few months. Good luck with your journey to be an Ironman.

Then there is ahdont experimenting with his own series of whiskey desert. Well done for passing your multi-engine license! (not that I know what that is.)

Kin is half way through his journey of cycling from Lhasa to Kathmandu. I can't help but be envious, "I smile the whole way when I was biking away from Lhasa. It feel like as I was still a kid and got a new toy."

When you are struck in a dull office slaving away, don't forget to google "adventure" for a mental getaway.

Back to The Trail Running Season

2006-09-12T00:34:00.000+08:00

Well I just want to write something to get rid of the Ironman post. It was nice to be able to write a few nice posts with the Ironman but it always pains me a bit for not being able to swim there. Also while I am with my current job, it probably would be impossible for me to train for a full Ironman, that is the reality. And even if I can do I really want to? I am always more into trail running than marathon running, mountain biking than road biking, big wall rock climbing than technical sports climbing, adventure racing than triathlon. The only thing that I will give it to the on-road endurance sports is the people in it, they have a far stronger mental strenght than I can even fanthom. Anyway, it was good to see the Trail Running season coming back. This year, I am actually bothering to do the Trailwalker for its full 100km length. Well I am the team leader (as in my name won the lottery draw) so there is no getting away this time, as no team can change the team leader. I am doing it with Alain, Alice and Wing and we targeted 20 hours for the finish. Alain, Alice, myself and a guy from UK which I met in Korea are also plotting to do the Gobi March in June next year! So long way to run ahead.

I saw a wicked poster during my quest to find a new trail running shoes today. Check this out:

Look absoultely nutter, I would love to come back from a King of the Hill looking like that one day. The shoes that I have in mind is a relatively new brand called inov-8, by a UK company, their shoes are totally aggressive, lightweight and designed to give full flexibility to the ankle, and let your muscle do your own protection. Of course the consequence could be grave if you ankle joint is not strong enough. Anyway, I will let my waffle take you this far, good day.

Gregory Burns

2006-09-04T08:17:00.000+08:00

We are here to complete, not compete, when you compete you measure yourself again others, but when you complete, you are trying to beat yourself.
It has been such an honour to me that Gregory Burns, the inspirational athelete who completed Ironman Korea on a hand bike and wheel chair, has found my humble blog. He left me a message for his new blog, this is a compulsory reading for the regulars of Freeyasoul Adventure. Here is what he said in his speech to us in Korea, "We are here to complete, not compete, when you compete you measure yourself again others, but when you complete, you are trying to beat yourself."

Congradulation Greg and look forward to here about your next challenge!

Ironman Korea - Defining the Word "Determination"

2006-08-30T13:21:00.000+08:00

This is part 2 of my Ironman Korea adventure, read part 1 first if you haven't already.

Ahdont guessed it rightly, after the swim, I did not sit still. But this piece is not about me, but about those brave men and women out there facing up the Ironman challenge.
The SCBHK Team

While I was swimming William was overcoming the 180km bike trail with all the other Ironmans out there, the course is tremendously tough, after a relatively flat 80km, they had to go uphill on a volcano for 10km non-stop. The alternating downpour and sunshine conjured up a hot and humid condition. Eventually William got pass the worse volcano section but failed to meet the cut off time for 150km. Though he had been fighting hard for 8.5 hours and what a brave fight it has been! After the bike cut off, Alice took off for her first Marathon, she had been training hard for this big day and no doubt we would see her fly pass throughout the course. She started in daylight and came back in the dark, finishing her first marathon in 4hrs15mins. Another fine performance.
The Winning Characters

While waiting for William to return, we stayed in the stadium plaza and watched the two leading pros Scott Green (Australian) and Hubert Hammerl (Austria) coming back from the bike trail and moved into the bike/run transition, it was at this point I found out what this sport is about. They had raced back to back for 4hrs45mins and moved into the changing tent within 20 secs of each other, 1.5 mins there were out again chasing each other on the marathon (Scott Green eventually completed the marathon in 3:22 and became the champion!). What a tremendous fighting spirit they have displayed. This is what an Ironman is about, keep tapping and tapping into your reserve and you will find an infinite supply.
Defining the Meaning of "Determination"
After Alice had taken off and after William had returned from the bike section, I took William's racing bib and jumped onto the marathon course. I planned to run 28km and experience what was out there and I found the most moving picture I have seen in all the races I have been to. I cannot stress more of my admiration to these people. All the athletes were fighting through the torturing marathon course, almost half of them have reduced to walking, others were jogging in pain and few were lying on the side of the road, recovering from cramps or heat exhaustion. No doubt they were shattered, but they persevered. Everyone of them were defining the word "determination" in front of my very eyes.

I saw Ho Chak, the representative of Hong Kong in the Nations Challenge, he had a bike crash earlier today and has sprung his ankle, yet he did not give in and was walking the marathon in extreme pain. I also met Gregory Burn, a para-atheletes racing with a "hand bike" for 180km and now pushing forward on a "wheelchair". He gave an "inspirational" talk to us the day before but the talk was nothing compare to the inspirational act he was achieving.

Occasionally an athlete will chase up on me and used me as a pace marker, not knowing that my legs were fresh. I would stick my head up and ran in a steady speed, pushing my friend forward for a few extra miles. Solemnly I said to myself, "My friend, I had no right to be out here trotting on your race course, but if I may be your boosters in this few miles, that will make me proud for being here today."

Ironman Korea - The Perfect Storm

2006-08-29T22:20:00.000+08:00

Let's dealt with my part of the race first, just to warn you, it will be painful.
High Wind
On the day of the Ironman Korea, I woke up before dawn, psyching myself up for the big day. I couldn't feel more ready, the wetsuit had been the final piece of jigsaw, it was very restrictive on the first two times I wore it in Hong Kong. But in the practice session the morning before I finally feel the wetsuit had been wore-in, I cruised through one loop of the swim course (I have to do two loops in the race) without feeling out of breath. The wetsuit had really helped me glide through the water.

Walking out of the hotel, the wind was strong and I knew it would be a rough sea out there. In fact the afternoon before, when I headed back to the beach, the wave had already been picking up. Descending the cliffside staircase to Chungmun Beach, I can see the swirling sea was brewing up a perfect surfing conditions. However none of the participants I met on the way were worried, in fact we were all eager for the challenge. This would make a perfect adventure, I thought.
Soon I got into the my wetsuit and headed out for a warm up, I swam about 200m out and could body surf back on to the beach, literally punched a few people on their way out in a Superman position.

Angry Sea
Soon we gathered on the beach to wait for the start, at this point the sea was getting increasingly restless, the lifeguards out there couldn't even maintain their jet-ski and kayak in positions, the organiser delayed the start for 10 mins. 10 mins gone and we had no comfort but downpour, a few distant thunder and few gigantic waves that makes us wonder if we will survive the day. Then came the heartbreaking news, the lifeguard had declared the sea condition to be unsuitable for the race and they will cancel the swim leg of the Ironman, it would be a dualthalon. Brothers, you couldn't understand the pain it felt at the time, after 3 months of training and I am to play no part in the event.
The Vengeance
From that point Ironman has became a training camp for me, there were 12 unfortunately souls like me that day, most of them staff relay athletes, 6 of us gather back onto the beach half an hour later after the bikers have departed and we decided to finish the job that we come to do, even without lifeguards. Lead by a Chris Werner, a former German national swimmer and Ju Wei a current Singapore national swimmer, we charged into raging sea. A UK guy got hit by a wave and did a 360, he turned back after fighting through a few more waves. I struggled forward to keep up with the others, and after a while I completely lost sight of them. Swimming alone in an undulating water surface, I felt like a boat in The Perfect Storm. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but sometimes I was swimming upward and sometime I got thrown off a wave and slam face flat onto a trough. Eventually I felt less and less comfortable on my own and headed back. When I was back on the beach I realised I was out there for a full hour, and probably covered the distance of only half a loop. Michael the organiser of the Relay race was having a heart attack, as the other four is no where in sight. They eventually made it back 15mins later, a full loop completed. The two national swimmers headed out for their second loop.
Well I couldn't come back and say that I did the 3.8km but at least I have been out there and took up a battle.
coming up next: Ironman Korea - The pinnacle of Human Spirit

Off to Korea, see ya!

2006-08-24T14:13:00.000+08:00

This is probably the last post before the Ironman Korea. Tonight I will be jumping onto the plane. I had great fun preparing myself for this event, and now I feel ready. I am looking forward not just to the 3.8km swim itself but being able to absorb the atmosphere of an ironman event, to rub shoulders with some of the most motivated, single minded and determined warriors in the world. See you after the race.

Kin's Adventure in Shangarila

2006-08-23T13:50:00.000+08:00

While I am writing my own 'supermarket adventures', I also like to write about some real adventures from people I know. My mate Kin (see Moganshan Race) has been traveling from Sichuan to Tibet by jeep and then will join a bike trip from Lhasa to Kathmandu. My freeyasoul travel companions, Martina, ahdont, Jacy and Tammy will probably let out a sigh when they read about this. We loved Nepal and Sichan (at least some of us), what a nice trip it would be to fit Tibet in between. Anyway, here are some quotes from Kin:

Due to the attidue

I had nose bleeding of the century. Blood just keep running out nonstop until I plug a roll of tissue in my nostril. I was looking so stupid that the other guests in the hostel was stairing at me.

On their stupid driver

The most stupid thing he did was to reverse the van on a very narrow highway with a cliff on a side. He knows nothing about reversing and the van ended up with two wheels dropped in a ditch. Luckily not on the cliff side.

When trying to blend in with the locals

There was a water fall with water melting from the snow mountain. The locals says those are blessed if they go around the water fall three times. Of course, three out of five of us were stupid enough to do it. We were armed with Gore-Tex jackets and trousers but with the volume of the water fall, we were all soaked with icy cold water.

I am a NAMNORI

2006-08-20T23:26:00.000+08:00

The title is just a teaser on this week's episode of my ironman training. My ironman wetsuit has finally arrived last week, after my first attempt and failed to squeeze myself into the rubber tyre, I consulted June, the iroman lady doing the full course in Korea. She told me here is what I need -

With the aircon in fullblast to stop myself from sweating and a bottle of baby oil to grease up my limbs. Hence this becomes the saturday afternoon challenge for Martina and I. And we set ourselves in motion.

First I got to squeeze into those legging, then

to cover my shoulders, finally to do up the zip. It was bloody painful, the suit is so sticky and glues onto the skin, by then my whole body was sweating, and the sweatwas free flowing all over the floor. Nonetheless, I tried a few stroke of freestyle to test it out. It felt good. But then something doesn't feel right, the logo is upside down. Is this a rejected good or what? I log on the webshop again and found the picture to be somewhat different to my wetsuit. What on earth?

Then we took a look at the photos that we have just taken, notice the first picture on the left again. There it is the blue and orange ironman logo right there on the 'inside' of the suit. What a dumpstick I have wore the wetsuit inside out! (Hence the title NAMNORI)

So finally, to keep the story short, with air-con, baby oil and lastly some common sense, I squeezed into the wetsuit alright, and tried it out today in Deep Water Bay.

More news on the SCBHK Ironman Team

2006-08-15T18:28:00.000+08:00

SingTao News
More media coverage on our challenges, haha, soon I will be caught by reporters for drinking myself out in a pub in Northern England.

Feeling the Nerve

2006-08-13T22:58:00.000+08:00

I had a crap week last week, Thursday worked till 12pm and Friday worked till 10pm. Hence by Saturday, I felt so completely knacked, I hit the pool on early morning and knew instanly that it would be a waste of time. Did about 1.5km in total but could hardly pushing myself at all, taking long breaks between laps. Then on this morning, Alain and Alice met me at Stanley Beach at 6:30am after their 20km run (yeah, they started at 4am) and paddled next to me while I swam openwater. I still feel rusty in the morning, but having companions for a change was motivating, especially being able to fill myself up with powergel and isotonic drinks out in the deep sea was luxury. In the end I swan from the windsurfing store out to the rocky beach underneath American Club and back, around 2.6km and 1hr20mins. That is only 2/3 the distance that I have to do in Korea, but consider the bad state I am in, I can probably still count on this morning as a confidence boaster. None the less, with only 2 weeks to go, I am begining to feel the nerve, most times I turned out overcoming the challenges but failures aren't unprecedented, Moganshan Race, also AXN Challenges 2004, Amazing Adventure 2003 were all incidents that I have screwed up. But then I have put so much effort this time, so let's just take a deep breath and take the dive!

SCB Ironman Team on Apple Daily

2006-08-11T19:11:00.000+08:00

Apple Daily 10-Aug-2006

Haha, the Ironman Relay team is on the news yesterday. And we also got a can of ginseng from the CEO as a well wish.

Terri Schneider's Training and Trail Running Blog: Terri's next adventure....off to Russia and France

2006-08-09T22:50:00.000+08:00

Terri Schneider's Training and Trail Running Blog: Terri's next adventure....off to Russia and France

Isn't it nice to be a professional adventurer, I never even thought of that as possible profession when I was young, blame the education system of Hong Kong. So after the Gobi March, Terri Schneider, our adventure racer heroin decided to see a bit of Russia and France, it her own words, 'I think I'll go climb a moutain in Russia..... I may as well do a race there while I'm in Europe.' By that she mean climbing the highest moutain in Europe Mt. Elbrus (5643m) and then go an run the Tour de Mont Blanc, a 158km circuit around the Alpine mountain. What a harsh life!!

Improvement

2006-08-05T17:26:00.000+08:00

Just had another session in the swimming pool today, while doing the drill, I timed myself for a kick only lap with my best effort, it was 1min30 sec. Then I timed myself for a crawl only lap with the kickboard between my legs, it was 1min. "Surely if I put the two together I must beat 49 secs!" I said to myself. So I threw the kickboard a side and dived into a full throttle lap. I hit the other side of the pool in 47 secs. That is another personal record!

Of course, it is not a sprint but an endurance event ahead of me, so tomorrow, I will do a 3km open water swim, got my friends Alain and Alice kayaking next to me for protection.

Moments When You Are Living

2006-08-03T23:22:00.000+08:00

Organised by the Bank, my Ironman relay team had lunch with the two athletes that the StanChart is sponsoring to do the full length Ironman in Korea to exchange tips. They are June (left) and 何澤 (right). Amazingly June had only been doing triathlon for 3-4 years, before that she couldn't even swim a full lap in the pool. But now she is getting prepared for her second Ironman. It all began when she got dragged into doing a relay for a triathlon for fun and she said she hasn't looked back since. Both athletes have got into these routine of getting up at 6 every morning to train for 2 hours and hitting the bed at 8pm at night (after a bit of trainning!!) whilst working a fulltime job. What awe inspiring people!! Though I question if I can make the same comittment, it might be three sports you are training for but it boils down to only for one single goal. But is this a goal that worth everything in life? I guess it comes down to what moments you define yourself "living", to them it certainly are those moments when they are fighting the pain.

Swimming Training Update

2006-07-29T11:05:00.000+08:00

The improvement on my swimming has been slow but steady, I got a coach to train me once a week and over the last few weeks we have identified what the problems were with my technique. The kicking was lazy but the most critical error was that I overturn my body when I breath, result in breaking up of the kicking rhythm and shorter stretch of my hand after the breathing in the recovery stroke (i.e. I don't stick my hand forward enough). Though the correction is still in progress.
On the positive side, my fitness has improved by a long way. Last Saturday, we went for a boat trip and I swam from boat to shore, it was only a 15 mins journey but I did it entirely on freestyle. I got no idea how far the distance was, the boatman said it was 1km but 15mins of continuous swim in a swimming pool for me will be 600m. Then during the week, I had a breakthough on my speed and did a 49sec lap. It was only a sec down from my previous result but it was still monumental to see the figure "4" on my watch! Not to mention that I achieve this after swimming for 2km in the pool.
This weekend, I am hoping to do a openwater swim of around 2km. But the weather is crap today and hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow.

Here is something to show that swimming can be an adventure, I saw on A1 Channel this week about Mike Horn's adventure in the Amazon, he trekked to the source of the Amazon up on the Andes and followed the entire length of it from there to the Atlantic Ocean. It was a solo journey and for more than 90% of the time, he swam with a Hydrospeed, a body board with the shape of the front of canoe, and propelled by kicking with a pair of fins. That is how he got through some grade 5-6 white water rapids or staying on water for up to ten days.
More from Freeyasoul on :Swimming Triathlon

Flying on the Shoulder of Giants

2006-07-22T10:57:00.000+08:00

I've been saying that I wanted to learn paragliding for years, last time when I did my research, I found out that the two flying school in Asia that is to be recommended by a veterant pilot are "Exo-fly" in Bali, Indonesia and "Nirvana Adventures" in Kamshet, near Bombay India. To learn flying in either places would make a great holidays but something feels missing.
Today I read an article in Action Asia about a flying school, Sunrise Paragliding, in Nepal, based in, not just anywhere in Nepal, but Pokhara at the heart of the Annapurna region. Now, I realised this is the missing element, when I hear about manic paragliding off the peak of Everest, I kind of thought this would be nice to do, but it will take me years to learn to fly that good let alone being fit enough to scale Everest. But with this flying school, you learn paragliding by reading thermals coming off terrace rice fields and picking 8,000m peaks as your point of reference. What a wonderful idea. The basic training last for 9 days with International Certificate.
Then you can move on to do some amazing adventures in the form of Paratrekking. It is a tour of ten days, in which everyday you trek to a launch site and take off, and then fly around the Himalaya, supported by porters in transporting your gears, you moved deeper and deeper into the Abode of Snow each day.
Another adventure is Parahawking, you get to fly with specialist trained falcons who can glide you to the thermals. Another thing to add to the to-do-list for my strife to have an adventurous life.
More from Freeyasoul on :Nepal Paragliding

Tibetan Mastiff

2006-07-21T00:16:00.000+08:00

Just finished this novel called <藏獒> (Tibetan Mastiff) which I felt it deserved much recommendation, the story is set among tribes of Tibetan shepherds on the Qinghai Plateau, at the begining of the Communist era in China. The book recreated a lost era when giant dogs, Tibetan Mastiff, roamed the grassland of Qinghai. They freely take on ferocious beasts such as snow leopard, mountain bears and packs of wolves, yet they co-habited with the Tibetan folks as family members. The dogs served human as guard dogs, shepherd dogs or in the case of the wandering dogs, assumed the role of protectors of human in the countryside, rescuing them from the mouth of wild beasts. The story in a nut shell is about a Han Chinese reporter newly assigned to a shepherd village and a Tibetan Mastiff from another area who ventured into this 'enermy territories' were caught among webs of tribal hatred. Much of the story was about this duo attempting to rescue the dog's masters (7 kids from another tribe with generation of blood score with the people in this area). The hero and the hero dog had to relentlessly fought a series of killed or be killed battles with the strongest local Tibetan Mastiff. Their adventure showed the nobel characters of this breed of dogs, who are much like the medieval knights who took pride in loyalty, bravery and superb fighting skills. What really captured me is the final chapter of the book, when I have come to be so admire the Tibetan Mastiff and was so absorbed into the way of live of the Tibetan shepherds, then in just one chapter the author tored everything apart with the torrent of history. Cultural revolution and market reforms has erased the old customs and the special relationship between men and beasts. Even today, pure breed Tibetan Mastiff has become hard to find and we no longer see the beasts running around the grassland freely as kings. Reading this novel is like going back to an lost era which I felt like I have once lived.

More from Freeyasoul on: Literature

Weekend of Music

2006-07-17T00:55:00.000+08:00

What a weekend it has been, Martina and I attended two very different gigs in just 3 days. Friday night we headed out to Grappas Cellars with Patrick and Joanna for the Summer Jazz Festival. Four local jazz bands were on show that night with two of them led respectively by two of the most well known jazz bands in town, Eugene Pao and Allen Youngblood. I like my jazz with sax and trumpet but Eugene Pao was doing some amazing picking on his guitar that made it sound like a saxophone ready to explode. Eletrifying stuff. Allen Youngblood is your typical New Orlean Afro Blues pianoist, but unfortunatly his band came on at the very last and the previous act by Cherryl Hayes was so overran that I was struggling to stay awake, nonetheless, he played so much good tunes that I can enjoyed then even when half asleep. Jazz gigs are so great when you are so drawn into the music that you don't realise you were even there, when the tempo suddenly changes, for a split second, you don't even know where the hell you are. Well Friday night was one of those nights.

Then Sunday, we turned 180 degrees for the gig by Black Eye Peas. I don't listen to much Hip Hop but for the last 2 months since we got the tickets, we always "pump it on the sterio" and "shake our hums". Well the BEP concerts were a great party, they didn't just sing, they were performing and the audience were not just listen, they were participating. We had a hell of a time there.

More from Freeyasoul on :Jazz Music

Random Update

2006-07-08T13:16:00.000+08:00

Not much big events has happened recently so I am just gonna throw a few things together and make a stir fry out of it.

Alain from my Ironman Korea team has to pulled out from the race as it clash with his son's football match in Japan. So we got rescued by a mountian biker called William. More to come when I put out the team fundraising website next week.
There was a point when I may have to take up the bike leg of the race, but now with William, I can concentrated on my swimming training once again.
I started taking some private swimming lessons, and realise my form was all wrong, poor kicks and poor stroke, and I am even putting powers at the wrong part of the stroke!
Did a 50secs 50m lap and a 2min6sec 100m lap on Wednesday's lesson, that was a personal record for me. I thought that was good, but then two days later, after swimming for 1.4km, I timed myself on the last 100m, and I still managed a 2min6sec.
Gonna do a aquathon race tomorrow in South Bay as part of the training, 7km run and 500m swim, alternating into 4 sections.
On wednesday, I had a offsite at work, each team has to dressed in a specified colour and here is what my team did to win the best dress award.
Finally I have handed in my semster assignment and finished another term for my International Development Master. The work was a research proposal, I got good feedback from my lecturer and he urged me to go and do the research. I am a bit two- minded right now. Doing the research is not easy, I have to go to villages in China and collect data, how am I gonna find time for it?
My research proposal is something to do with looking at Microfinance and Internal Labour Migration in China, it is very relevant to what I wanted to do in that distant future when I don't have to work for money.
Work, running, swimming, climbing, adventure, realising my dream to do something fullfilling in life, so much to do so little time.

More from Freeyasoul on :Swimming Triathlon Microfinance

Heart Breaking World Cup Exit

2006-07-02T17:54:00.000+08:00

I am so heart broken by England's World Cup exit last night. I felt like vomitting as I watched them slowly losing the penalty shoot out and saw history repeated itself. This has been the most exiting England team in the last decade. Many years ago when England failed even to qualified for the USA World Cup, I saw a BBC documentary about the "Three Lion's" future. It said it had been recgonised by football expert around the world that England had a very talented generation of young footballers moving through the ranks, and predicted that they will peak at the 2006 World Cup. I though then it was complete bullocks. But then over the next decade, this legendary generation did emerged as promised. Yet so full of promise and yet we watch Rooney got himself and red card like Beckham did 8 year ago, then England grind through the remaining time and lose out on penalty shoot out again.

I am not sure if the England team in 4 years time will be as strong as this one. Beckham probably won't be there, Owen may become an obsolete figure after a year of injury and sideline. Gerrad and Lampard may have missed their prime. Though Joe Cole and Rooney will still be young then and I hope some new stars will burst onto the scene in the next few years.

Swimming Training

2006-06-21T23:59:00.000+08:00

I started my swimming training in earnest since the AA Macau, I can swim for many years but only really confident in breast stroke, with freestyle I can cover 8 laps of a 50m pool at most and I would need to take a few breath or switch back to breast. I have been trying to improve my freestyle for more than 10 years but has hardly got very far. Then in Bintan I realised there are even more I have to learn, I cannot breath on my right side and I cannot look ahead without interrupting my strokes. Anyhow, throwing myself to the deep end is my favourite pass time and I am doing it literally this time. Bought myself a copy of "Triathlon Training - Swimming" by Steven Tarpinian. It has got many great stuff on improving swimming for runners and bikers. I tried doing the ten drills it suggested and has got me really tired on just the first one. Which was just kicking water while staying vertically in water. Impossible for even 30secs, but I meant to wear paddles to do that, but being unsupportive as it is with the Hong Kong Government. Swimming aides of any kind are not allowed in the public pools. Right now I am exploring other options to get some proper trainning. Anyone got any bright advice?

Action Asia Challenge Macau

2006-06-17T10:09:00.000+08:00

A bit of an late update since I lost my internet connnection at home last week. Finally completed the last leg of my three races in 6 weeks schedule in Macau with the Action Asia Challenge. This time I am partnering Andy in team Tempo Sparks again. We have raced together under this name since 2003 for 3 times already. Kin my partner in Moganshan is also racing with Larry, another mountian biker, under the team name of Windcatcherz. So without saying a personal battle quickly developed between the two teams, to make myself clear, I want to kick their ass real bad.

I cannot have a more enjoyable race than this one, after doing these races regularly enough, I am now getting to know so many of them when we rubbed shoulders on the narrow race track. Ah Keung from my group of climbing friends is another person I know personally. But there is nothing more fun than racing back to back with friends you know.

The first part of the race is mostly on foot, shortly after the starting run, we have to swim across a lake and landed ashore like in the Battle of Normandy. Andy's swimming goggle he bought at the hotel disintegrated at first touch of water and that dragged us down a bit. But we quickly recovered our pace and were taking over people on the coasteering section, that is mix of running and swimming along the rocky boulders along the coast, and occasionally climing up cargo nets from the sea. We got passed Windcatcherz quietly and tried to stretch our lead. We know any advantage is shortlived as the second half of the section was on bikes, interluded with some hill climbing with fixed ropes, kayaking, abseiling and getting wet again and again for no reasons. I realised I have developed this fear on off road biking since the injury, but I tried my best to stay on the mount while charging downhill. We could see Kin and Larry right on our tail at every checkpoints.

Finally Windcatcherz pressed home their advantage and overtook us at a stretch of downhill biking trail, but 5 mins later when we got to the abseiling check point, we executed it in commando freefall style and overtook them again. Though at the penultimate part was 15mins cycling on road toward the Macau Tower and we cannot pushed our bikes any harder to fight them off. Finally we came to the last 2km run across a bridge toward the finishing line. Though Andy's injury is kicking in, his had been closed to breaking his knee at the coasteering and now the swelling has taken its toll. I can see Kin and Larry just at the top of the bridge and at our top running speed, we probably stood a chance of catching up with them. But injuries is just part of the race and it is all these uncertainties that turns a race into an adventure.

Finally we got to the finishing line at Macau Tower and once again I felt enormously proud to have get this far in another adventure race. The finishing line always mean so much for a competitor, however shattered I felt, I can always find another bucket load of energy to sprint through the Arch of Triumph.

Out of 135 teams, Tempo Sparks came 88th overall, finsihing at 6hrs57mins. Windcatchez came 86th beating us by 3 mins. Congradulation to them.

Thus I have time for a mini break, but the calendar is still busy in the rest of the year. I am gonna team up with Alain and Alice from work as a relay team in the Korea Ironman at end of August, the new challenge is to swim 3.8km at open sea.

More from Freeyasoul on: Adventure Race

Terri Schneider's Finished 2nd in Woman Catagory in Gobi March

2006-06-07T08:09:00.000+08:00

Terri Schneider's Training and Trail Running Blog: Gobi Desert: Retribution

Finally recovering from ingestion problem she got back to 2nd place in the Gobi March, losing to the winner by just a few minutes and she said,

'Throw it all down. If we’re honest about what that looks like, to ourselves, we can sleep well at night.....Lay it all down for yourself and you will be a satisfied human and live confidently in your skin.'

Wish all those competing in any race or challenge in life will have the courage to 'throw it all down' and be satisfied with the reward of merely doing so!

Action Asia Macau, here it come this Sunday!!

More from Freeyasoul on: Running Gobi March

Terri Schneider in Gobi Desert - Racing the Planet

2006-06-03T11:11:00.000+08:00

"why would you do something like that" sort of way, I stated, "I like to do cool things, in cool places, with cool people and this event fits the bill." Terri Schneider

I discovered this cool blog of Terri Schneider few days ago and is hooked to her daily update on a great adventure that she is undertaking. Terri is a adventurer by profession, taking part in all sorts of ultra running, adventure race, ironman etc. Right now she is running through the Gobi Desert in Xinjian, China, competing in the Gobi March as part of the Race of the Planet series.

Gobi March is a 250km / 6 days foot race that require athlete to run/hike across the vast desert unsupported, they have to carry their own food, clothing and gear during the day but do get to stay in a tent at night after each stage. In addition to Gobi, the series also races in Sahara (Egypt), Atacama (Chile) and those who has completed all three can take part in the 'Last Desert - Antartica'!

Sahara / Atacama Desert / Antartica

Terri has been racing strong for the first few day and had been well up for the first spot, but she was broken down by diarrhea problem two days ago, after struggling through the 5th day race, she is running fast again on the 6th day. She unlikely to recover the first spot but no matter, she said, 't's been a great adventure – cool place, cool people, cool event.' Stories like that is always inspirational (not that I will try to pick up more injuries in future races to write stories for you guys.)

Now onto the serious business, apparently you don't have to be superman to do the race, lots of participants are working professional who is simply looking for a challenge in their lifes. You need to train a lot to win the race but lots of people only equipped themselves with after work training. So I am putting this up on my 2007 or 2008 to do list!
More from Freeyasoul on: Running Gobi March

First Taste of Triathlon

2006-05-30T23:53:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday I got my first taste of a triathlon. Martina, Andy, Alice and I headed out to Bintan, an Indonesian island an hour away from Singapore. Well to be honest, the only reason I am doing it is because it was free, Alice knows someone who sponsored the race and so got some free competitor spots. We even got our hotels and ferry for free. Bargain. So I headed out to a triathlon but the last time I swam was probably the end of last summer.

This is the most relax and enjoyable event I did, the family beach resort has been turned into a camp of athletes with their expensive bikes and flashy triathlon outfit. The main restaurant is constantly serving buffet and you see all these people doing crazy carbo loading with the unlimited pasta supply.

So we got Friday to chill and to do the preparation. I tried the race course (5km) on Friday morning, it was hot as hell, I ran for just 2 km and was dying for cover from the equatorial sun. Now the swimming was a problem both for the distance (750m) and my ability to keep my wound dry. In case you haven't heard, I picked up a nasty cut at the Moganshan Race 2 weeks ago which I said hello to my bone. Two weeks later, the wound still looked like Freddy Coughan's face and I am on a mission to keep it dry. Experimenting with all sorts plaster in the shower, I found Band Aid Advance Healing to be the choice for a undisciplined patient. I then reinforced the plaster with climbing tape and eventually electric tape. It worked my wound stay dry.

Onto the race, it kicked off at 8:15 in the morning and 180 people sprined toward the sea. For a newbie to triathlon like me, it was a funny experience, we were like lemming on a mass suicide party. And I am license to kick and grab anyone who gets in my way. I tried front crawl for a bit but it was impossible to stay on course or stop bumping into people, so I switched to breast stroke and now no one can get near me, else my kick met their kidney. 22 mins later I am the 117th person to emerged from the sea, Alice was right behind me.

I got on my rented bike from the resort, a 40pound moutain bike which moved like a donkey. Most people who overtook me with their flashy road bike kind of snobed at mine when they overtook. I try to regain my position against these snobs whenever I see one just for a laugh and I can bearly held them off for a minute. The biking session was 40km. I came 146th, even more falling behind.

So finally back to the transition area to get on my feet, the conditioning the day before was useful and I was almost the only person that was running in the heat. I took 29min to cover the 5km and ranked 47th, kind of redempt myself.

My overall position was 104 and I am jolly happy with that. Andy and Alice's relay finished 96th and congradulation to them!

It was a good event, doing multiple sports in a paradise island and cool down with chill watermelon. Thoroughly enjoyable experience.

The next chanllange: Macau Action Asia in two weeks time!!
More from Freeyasoul on: Triathlon

Travel Blogs

2006-05-29T14:14:00.001+08:00

I read about these travel blogs on the flight back from Singapore, and I just took a quick look at them and found them to be worth recommending, so take a look to cure your wanderlust. I have added them all to my google personal page.

VagaBlogging
- By Rolf Potts a travel columnist who write so well that earn him the right to be constantly on the road.

Worldhum
- A collection of travel writers with rich travel stories. They are currently doing a count down on the top 30 travel books

Writtenroad
- 'a virtual café with an international readership' ran by an award winning travel writer

More from Freeyasoul on: Travel

The Year of Race Continue

2006-05-25T09:23:00.000+08:00

Well, it has been almost two weeks since the nasty accident. The wound has semi-recovered, the hole has closed up but not all the flesh has grown back. I've been visiting a GP doctor the first day I got back and it was only a week later I found out he was completely useless in treating me. On Monday about 9 days after putting in the stiching, I went to see him to take out the stiching and he had no idea whether I should take them out, he even let me decide for myself! Luckily I went to see my friend Geroge who is a top surgeon who took them out for me. The stiching was serving no purpose at that point.This weekend comes another race I have signed up for, which is the triathlon in Bintan. I am flying over there today. George said I shouldn't swim, so I have bought all the plaster of the latest technology from Watson's, hopefulling combining with the help of some climbing tape, I can seal the cut water tight. It is only 750m of swimming in any case. Anyway I won't take this race too serious this time.
To finish off, here are some photos of the Moganshan Race posted by the organisers.

Moganshan Misadventure (Part 2)

2006-05-17T23:41:00.000+08:00

.....let me continue with my misadventure, jumping on the ambulance, I began a 15 minutes ride to the town clinic. We had to stopped couple of time for the nurse, who had cleaned my wound 20 times earlier while waiting for the ambulance, to throw up on the side of the road. But maybe she is just doing that to make me feel better. Anyway, the ambulance stopped in this dimly lit village house otherwise known as the town clinic. In the next 2 hours I enjoyed a variety of hospital treatments which adds up to and outrageous 57 RMB!! Here is what I get for that bargain price
1) An X-Ray on my knee
2) An X-Ray analysis that tells me no bones has been broken (yeah but I did cycle for another 30 minutes before getting my rescued)
3) A merciless shower on my knee with Hydrogen Peroxide water which makes all wound go fizzy ( and burnt)
4) More cleaning and rubbing on that hole above my bone (painful)
5) Dirt picking with a tweezer on that hole above my bone (damn painful)
6) Couple of stiching performed without anesthetic (and when he yanked up the hole it was bloody damn painful)
7) Another X-Ray
8) Another X-Ray analysis to ensure me no bones were broken
9) 4 jabs of Tetanus injection each 15 minute apart on my bump
I must say despite the rawness of the treatments, both the doctor and the nurse did a good and hygenic jobs. But paying all that for just 57RMB makes me impossible to settle my mind.
So this very much concluded my Moganshan Adventure. When next morning I heard at the prizing ceremony that one of the female competitor whose team came first in female catogories, had suffered a even worse accident in more or less the same area that I did. The carbon fibre handle bar broke in a clean snap and cut deep into one of her finger that a piece of flesh was just tangling, and also a cut on her forearm that would need a few stiching. Yet she denied immediate medical attention and finsihed the race I guess about 8 hours later. I felt pretty damn useless myself, may be I should have done the wild thing and endured it to the very end.
Though as I am writing up my ordeal, I think if I were to choose again, I will still jump on the ambulance to preserve my leg. There is George Mallory who challenge his wildest dream to the end and there is Joe Simpson who makes it back safely and writes a bestseller. I would rather be the latter.
More from Freeyasoul on: Adventure Race

Moganshan Misadventure (Part 1.5)

2006-05-16T22:02:00.000+08:00

Before I finished off my ordeal, just a lighthearted interlude. When I got back I called Icarus, the man who got me into mountain biking, and told him what happen. His reaction was an invitation to his mountain bike trip to Huangshan in July.

And take a look, we've made it to the local paper! (Me at the front, my partner Kin at the back)

More from Freeyasoul on: Adventure Race

Moganshan Misadventure (Part 1)

2006-05-15T13:25:00.001+08:00

Right here I am to tell you about my (mis)adventure in Moganshan Explorating Race. Flying out on Friday afternoon with lots of familiar faces, they were all regular in KOTH races but finally I can put name to their faces. The Japanese girl who sat next to me on the flight said these races were like a school trip, you jumped on a plane and knows everyone. It turned out that she was the woman team champion of last year's race in Ziyuan.

The race started off with orienteering around the tourist region of Moganshan, we ran around the hill looking for checkpoints that contain puzzles to solve. We finished a little bit outside the allowed time but there were probably about another 7 teams behind us. Jumping on our bikes we glided down the single track bike trail, for the next 4 hours, it were just never ending undulating hills of biking, sometimes we were going through bamboo forest and sometimes we were on dirt road with think muds deposited by the down pours in the pass few days. One of the interval was to carry a 5m long bamboo trunk on our bikes and carried it for about 3km. The biking was not easy for me but I was enjoying the challenge and the landscape.

Finally we made it to CP3 and there was a choice to skip the technical biking session and take a short cut to CP4. As much as I would like to skip that, I felt like facing up to my inner fear. Also my partner Kin is a good biker and I don't want to deny him the fun. So we cycled up to a steep hill and entered the off road trail once again. There were so many sessions that was impossible to cycle and we had to push the bike. It was purely a matter of judgement of which slope to take on. Then on one seemingly innocent gentle downhill staircase made up of lose rocks, I followed Kin to cycle down. The first few steps was okay but I began to lose control with every bounce, the bike pushed me toward the hillside and I couldn't pulled it off. Finally I hit the wall and bounced off the bike, my head did a double hit on the rock chin first and then forehead before landing flat on the ground.

When the dust settled, I picked myself up and checked for injury. My word, there is this cut 3cm beneath my knee about 2.5 cm long and a few mm wide. I took a closer look, I see void inside, then looked even closer, it was a white piece of bone. Man! Nothing like this has happend to me ever and blood began to drip out fast. My only piece of first aid was a bandage and I asked Kin to take it out and wrap the bastard up, he did it so well that the bleeding stopped really quickly. Then we walked/cycled to the next CP the best we can. The pain was intensive at first but gradually goes away, I thought maybe I can just keep going and not to give up.

Couple of marshalls met us a little bit before the CP as another team who passed us has alert them, we knew the ambulance was on its way. In CP4, I unwraped my bandage under the curious glaze of the locals, 'Never thought you would be an operation theatre!' joked the marshall. Amazingly with the nurse at the CP was only better equiped than me in first aid terms by a bunch of cottom stick and a sterilising solution!! So we occupied our time by cleaning up the hole above my bones again and again until the ambulance arrived. My mind is toying with the option of getting some first aid and carried on as far as I can, or give up at only 1/3 into the race and get proper stiching at the hospital. I fought a bit with the doctor who propose the latter option, until he warned that the bones may be infected by tonight. My fighting spirit finally wavered away, I decided to jump on the ambulance...... (to be continued)
More from Freeyasoul on: Adventure Race

Count Down to Moganshan

2006-05-09T18:24:00.000+08:00

The Moganshan race is approaching fast. I have been training so much for it. Over the long weekend I did a 10am-6pm bike ride on Friday, then a 4.5 hours afterdark bike ride on Sunday. The afterdark ride was real harsh training, I have to do off road biking on Hong Kong Island Trail in the dark with just two bicycle light at the handle bar. It was scary and tough. Unfortunately just when I was getting good and pick up my speed, I went over at probably the last corner of the trail. Landed into the brushes beneath the trail and banged my knee real hard on some rocks despite the protection. Damnit, the knee has swollened bad and I am going to the Chinese Medicine physio everyday to get the bump down on time for the race. This is what I will be up to on saturday:

60km bike ride, about 40km offroad, 18km trail running, 4km kayaking, plus abseil of all kinds.

2006 Year of Adventure Race (Part II)

2006-05-02T13:00:00.000+08:00

Earlier of the year, I put up a posting on all the overseas adventure race that I planned to do, I got a bike, I got a pair of hill running legs all I need are some partners. Though that dream seemed pretty much faded away as time ticks. Then last Friday, I saw an e-mail from the seyonasia yahoo group that I have subscribed, someone is looking a partner to do the 12 hours Mogan Shan Race in 14th May. Didn't take me long to spurnt into action, Martina said I have answered a dating ad. So I got a partner, Kin, for this coming race. Kin is a great Mountian Biker and this will be his race. As the Mogan Shan Race have 60km of biking trails. While hopefully my trail running and rope skill can be a compliment. Though I need to seriously worked on my biking skills in the next 2 weeks.

After Mogan Shan, it will be Bintan Trianthlon in end of May and the Action Asia Macau in June. Full of actions!

Yoda's Adventure

2006-04-22T17:13:00.000+08:00

I was in Singapore this week attending a conference internal to the bank. I flew out on tuesday rather reluctantly since our cat, Yoda, was very pregnant and I had this suspicous that the kitten were due this week. We knew most likely that she would require an operation. Then on Friday, the last day of the conference, Martina suddenly texted me and said Yoda will have babies that day!! Then the Vet called me frantically trying to get hold of Martina, who was unreachable at time. Ten minutes later I managed to got hold of my girlfriend and she said she has just taken Yoda to the Vet for an emergency operation as she suddenly realised Yoda was probably in labour for the last 12 hours, the Vet said the babies were likely to have died of suffocation and that is no guranteed that the mother is gonna live. Fortunately news after two hours of operation announced both the mum and the kids were fine. And hence I returned to Hong Kong into a whole new world.

The Savage Beauty of the Sahara - Christian's adventure continues

2006-04-14T10:42:00.000+08:00

Just read a dramatic piece of travelogue by Christian. An airlift rescue of his fellow traveller in the Sahara dessert. Well done Christian, for your part of the rescue efforts.

Development in defiance of the Washington consensus

2006-04-13T13:17:00.000+08:00

For those who had followed the news round the clock during the Tiannmen Square Protest in 1989, it would be hard to shake off the 'evil' image of the mainland government ever since. But the twenty years that follow saw China rose to be the economic giant in Asia Pacific, but in the meantime we never cease to hear about the negative comments about Chinese government and its policies. US always fancy a go on China's human right records, suppression of religious freedom. Hong Kong's once blue sky is constant at sieged by the pollution emitted by Guangdong factories. And it you ever come across the book 'Investigation of Chinese Farmer ', you would know that rural China is very different world to the rising coastal cities.

Despite all that, I actually have good feeling about the current leadership of the Chinese governement. It seems they do put issues of environment, rural livelihood and income inequality on the agenda. Deng Xiaping had famously said once to let just part of the people (in China) get rich first. That had been a worrying neo-liberal capitalistic statement, a policy that is bound to divide the country into two rich coastal region its poor rural brother. Far from making empty promises, Den in the meantime had been preparing Hu and Wen, who were working in the poorest provinces of China, as the future leaders. Now it seems the urban bias growth strategy is very much the policy of the past; in the recent announce 11th five year plan, there were full of social conscious agenda items, such as fuel tax and rural public spending etc.

I have shared this view with a few people but I mostly met scepticism. Then I come across an article written by Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureat economist, who is also very positive about China's new development policy. I particular like the way he compare China's development with other developing countries, the latter bought in a capitalistic package (Washington Consensus) and resulted in economic growth at the expense of enviromental degradation and widening income inequality. China is taking a middle ground, growing at 10% GDP increase a year but not at the expense of the next generation. China's has already achieved an economical miracle in the past decade, if it can also demonstrate it's ability to care for the less fortunate and care for the future, it would be a development story to be proud of.

Explore Beijing

2006-04-02T14:21:00.000+08:00

Martina and I have also taken the week to explore Beijing. It is a huge city, most part are the product of boring communist city planning but in bits and places, you will find some surprises. Like the 798 art district, a collection studio in a remote factory warehouse. Gabrielle's husband Dave also owns a place there which he converted into a surreal penthouse.

The Great Wall was great, even though we only did the commercial Badaling and didn't do the one day hike in unrestored nature part of the wall.

And finally there were some real good food in Beijing, the duck sucks but the regional cuisine are great.

Beijing Inspiration

2006-04-02T13:38:00.000+08:00

I have finally got back from Beijing and had a couple of meetings with Gabrielle Harris, the Executive Director of Planet Finance-China. Before turning up at the capital, I had little ideas of how this shall progress, all I know is I wanted to work on something meaningful for my lives and the I need to keep on exploring opportunites. My expectation was by meeting this organisation, it will lead to a job with them or some other organisations related to Microfinance eventually. Though deep down I always know that the salary an NGO can afford will be a hurdle that I properly cannot overcome.

Our first meeting took place over lunch in a English book club-restaurant called 'Book Worm'. Rightaway, Gabrielle pass me lots of contacts collected from the recent "Asia Microfinance Forum", ranging from commercial banks, investment banks and established large microfinance institutions in asia. It was like she was trying to persuade me to look else where, which was kind of strange. Couple of days later, we visited their office and meet the crew of PF China, who were very interesting people to speak to. The chief manager Mr Gao has set up one of the most successful MF operation in China, others are also working on some interesting projects. Though I can see little of my banking experience that can be applied directly to their operations.

It was at the final chat with Gabrielle that things fall in place for me. Bascially, she reckoned the tour de force of MF in future are the commercial banks. I can join an NGO like Planet Finance but with limited funding at the moment, the impact will be modest. The days will come when medium size banks in China will downsize their operation to enter the MF market and work with establish NGOs with track record of poverty alleviation, that is where she see MF will become a great poverty alleviation tools. Hence working in an international bank right now, I am at good poisition to shape the future of MF in China.

This has been quite a revelation for me. So instead of giving up my job and be exiled to the NGO world, the next stage of this 'project dream life' will be to work within Standard Chartered to promote microfinance and get the training I need. Failing that, there are plenty other banks who have shown more sincereity in supporting the development of MF.
More from Freeyasoul on: Micronfinance Travel

Dreams Come True

2006-03-23T08:08:00.000+08:00

Finally I say goodbye to my twenties and enter another era. Martina celebrated the first minute of my birthday with a lovely birthday cake, with a slogan that says 'Dreams Come True'. This is so meaningful as we are off to Beijing at weekend to meet someone in Planet Finance to keep the search of my dream forward.

Martina has also organsied a fantastic birthday party last weekend at a art gallery, friends from primary school, Uni, Nottingham and people I met in recent years were all there! It has been a lovely week so far, thank you!

Revolution

2006-03-18T10:14:00.000+08:00

My mind is on a revolution right now. Yesterday I went to watched an excellent movie, "V for Vendetta", screenplay by the Wachowski Brothers, who produced the Matrix Trilogy. In it the masked hero V is a revolutionary terrorist set to topple the Fascist British Governement in an imaginary near future world. The character is very artistic with a love for drama and everything said by this supposingly psychotic person turned captivatingly poetic. "The blowing up of the parliament is just a symbol, but symbol give people hopes". (Incidentally in real life the leader of the Zapatista revolutionary movement in Southern Mexico, Subcommader Marcos, is also a man perpertually behind a mask and speak in poetic terms.)
The French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, sometime I wonder what would be like to be in the middle of these historical moments when the mass rise to create a new order to the world. What would it be like to feel the same sense of hope that those people feel, which compell them to challenge the establish authority? Incidentally, I started reading some Karl Marx in my Development course. (Marxism branched out into an important view on International Development) I found what Marx said to be also very captivating. In Matrix the Wachoski Brothers weaved a basic fundamental philosophic question of 'What is Real?' in the plot, in V for Vendetta I found the dual did the same thing with some Marxist ideology. Some people may laugh off the Fascist world in the movie to be too remote and imaginary but Marx said the states are a product of 'constraint of violence exercise by a few against the rest'. So if we cut and slice the world we live in, we can also piece out the Fascist world enacted in the movie. The core of Marxism is the historical force which will eventually drive a social revolution, in which the suppress social class will rise against the ruling class. The battle begins at an ideological level, when the emerging ideology will dominate over the ideology of the oppressors. In the movie, all V did was spreading his revolutionary ideology and BANG! the whole country echoed and put on his mask. A symbol of sharing his hope and optimism. So what is my recommendation: watch the movie and read some Marxism.

To finish off I read that a new video game, A Force More Powerful, has just been release, in which you have to mass the crowd's support to bring about a 'Non Violence Revolution" in a dictator ruled country, by controling element such as Protest, Hunger Strike, Fund Raising etc.

Introductory Video to Microfinance

2006-03-09T00:23:00.000+08:00

Unitus is an international organisation that promote Microfinance by funding promosing Microfinance Institues (MFIs) around the world. They have a video which give an introduction to what Microfinance is and how it impacts the lives of thousands of people in poverty.

Another organisation Grameen Foundation has just formed a company in India called IndCo. Its aim is to form a bridge between the poverty alleviating MFIs with the internation capital market. IndCo. will package Microfinance loan portfolio and sell it off to the capital market. Microfinance loan is becoming an asset class which people can invest like any other investment tools such as funds and equity. this is good in a sense that more money will become available to the MFIs but sceptics do fear that commercial influence will affect the poverty alleviation goals of MFIs.
More from Freeyasoul on: Micronfinance

Star War vs Super Heros vs Kung Fu

2006-03-05T12:51:00.000+08:00

I owe a few post about the Nottingham friends, most of these people lived in Nottingham once upon a time. Ramon and Karen got married last weekend, and so we had a fancy dress party after they return from honeyweek yesterday. I have finally become a Jedi, I could feel the force in me!

Fantastic effort from everyone in the party, my favourite is Lisa and Keung's effort to transform themselves into Landlady and Ugly Woman in Kung Fu Hustle. Having the Jedi council descended in Causeway Bay is also fantasitc for the crowd eating on the street in Dung Lung Street.

Himalaya

2006-03-04T16:29:00.000+08:00

What a crappy life, had to worked all the time this week. Half an hour of lunch time in GoNature is all I have managed. Also the semester finally started and once again I am engaged in some cyber discussion on development issues. Hardly... this group of class mate has been pretty quiet, some didn't even log on the the forum all week. More on that when the course gets more meaty.

During this busy week, I have been keeping myself entertain with Michael Palin's 'Himalaya' on the ipod while traveling to and from work. It is the book that goes with the BBC documentry on Michael's journey across the Himalaya range. "This is Himalaya not from top to bottom, but from one end to another." He found "Himalaya is a battle ground of immense geological force but a centre of human tetonic as well." So this is a travelogue about the people and landscape of the Himalaya unlike the mountaineering account that I normally read. The book is not satisfying in a way as he hop from one place to another in the space of only couple mintue of listening. But these are places I have read so much about and just the name of these places (Hunza, Khyber Pass, Chitral, K2, Simla) is enough to swing my imagination at a tangent. Currently Michael is in Dharamasala, receiving an audience to Dala Lama.

On the front of Microfinance, I have finally fixed a date to visit the Beijing office of Planet Finance at the end of March. They have no funding to create a paid job for me right now, but it is good to be able to keep searching and keep hoping.
More from Freeyasoul on: Literature Travel

Ah Min's Blog

2006-02-23T00:10:00.000+08:00

小馬哥的公日記點止撞到林慧詩咁簡單
Ah Min (Ronny) wrote a post that was quite touching for me. The great thing about him is his ability to pour out the deepest thoughts from his heart with such honesty. Last saturday, we met up with Ah Kwai who just returned from America. Ah Kwai (Timothy) wanted to be a good doctor, knowing that opportunities are few in Hong Kong, he went all the way to US last year to strive for his dream. On saturday night, we sat down in Dickens and had one of those long chat over beers. We always talk about plans and dreams. Ah Kwai said that it has been a fruitful decision for him to move to the US, being able to see the world's diversity was great for himself just as a person. We both shared our feeling of suffocation of Hong Kong, such a small place with such homogenous attitude to life. I don't want to get started here. But my dream to be in the development partitioner will one day come true.

Gun, Germs and Steel

2006-02-21T23:24:00.000+08:00

Okay in an effort to lay the marathon ghost to rest, I am contributing another piece to the blog world, just so to push the marathon post further down. Just finished another great audio book called 'Gun, Germs and Steel' by Jared Diamond. It is good if you are interested in anthropology, the study of human. The author offer an interesting theory on what it was the Eurasian civilisation, defined as every culture that live on the Europe Asia continental plane, that has rise above the other (American, African, Oceanic and Australian) civilisation in terms of economic and technological development. Why was it the Eurasian who set sail and conquered and colonised the world but not other culture.
According to the author, the Eurasian's advantage is entirely environmental, there are two key factors, the larger size of the Eurasian plane and the East-West orientation of the continent. The larger land mass means more variety of species of plants and animal, which lead to domestication of crops and large mammals and the development of arigculture society. It is interesting to know that only 14 large mammal species were ever domesticated in mankind's history, and with exception llama by the Inca, all others were developed in Eurasia. So many African mammal just weren't the right candidate for domestication.
The second factor is perhaps more important, Eurasian continent lies at East-West orientation, which means a vast land mass share the same latitude and climate. Hence a plant species once domesticated can be reproduce across the continent within similar climate zone. This lead to the migration of society, development of trade and diffusion of technology. The North-South orientation of America has hinder such development. Another interesting fact, the Aztec in Mexico had invented wheel independently in 3000BC, the llama was domesticated by the Inca at around the same time, but the two inventions have never met each other before the arrival of the European.
My course on International Development is gonna start again next week. I can't wait for it to start as I have enjoyed the last semester so much. Although all the time sitting at the study had reduced me to a fat boy. I don't know how I can cope with the study with also plans to do adventure race, triathlon and climbing in Krabi (yeah, climbing in Krabi, just to check if any readers have read this far!)