At the turn of the year, I would have laughed off the idea of completing 3 half marathons for 2010. It has nothing to do with being physically fit or not, but more on whether I would be in the country when the run is held. My job requires me to be out of the country most of the time, so completing 3 half marathons is actually quite a lot.

But on on 5th June, 2010, I have completed my third half marathon (21km) of the year. It all started with Putrajaya Night Marathon (6th Feb), then Energizer Night Race (27th Mar) followed by Setia Ecopark Half Marathon (5th June).

Setia Ecopark Half Marathon was the first morning run this year for me unlike the other two which were held in the evening.

First 5km

We flagged off at 6:30am at the Setia Alam Welcome Center. I’m starting to like morning runs as my heart rate at the starting line was around 10 bpm lower than the evening runs. Not forgetting also the freshness of the morning air.

The first 1km was an easy slow run as there were too many runners around me. Once we hit the 1km mark, we started to split up as everyone ran at different pace. I think I was in the middle of the pack. I tried to pace myself with runners who were of the same pace. I think my pace was good enough but I won’t have a indication of how I was doing until the 5km water station.

The sky was still quite dark and I could see some dark clouds forming in front in the direction which I will be running into.

5km to 10km

At 5km, it was around 35 minutes. So I picked up the pace a little once. The sky was really dark now and I can feel light showers falling on me. The longer I ran, the heavier it rained and by 7km, it was really raining. I was running next to an oil palm plantation which is yet to be cleared for development. The route was a little uphill and then followed by downhill. The 5km – 10km section seemed never ending until I saw runners appearing on the opposite side of the road. The U-turn must not be far away.

At the U-turn, at exactly 10km, my time was 58 minutes. Not that bad for the first half of the race. If I continue to run at the same pace, I would have ran around 2:15 for 21km.

10km to 15km

The rain got heavier. Roads were wet. My shoes and socks were wet. I could feel small blisters starting to appear under my feet because of the wet conditions. So I tried to maintain a slower pace of around 7 minutes/km.

I didn’t look too far ahead but just a couple of metres ahead. I guess it’s about psychology.  But nevertheless, I started to feel the soreness in my calfs from 14km onwards. Wanted to stop running but told myself to shut up and just run, which I did.

At around 14km, suddenly the iPod went out of battery. I must have turned off my laptop while it was charging the iPod the night before. And now, all I could hear was the pssh psst sound from my wet shoes. Lost some motivation and most importantly the pace.

Stopped running and brisk walked to 15km for the next water station.

15km to 20 km

I think I was doing 1:45 at 15km. That’s a pace of 9 minutes/km for the last 5km. With the iPod dead, I found it really hard to focus. The soreness of the calf and quads, wet shoes and blisters made it even worse. So I switched to the walk-run-walk-run mode.

By now, the rain has stopped and the morning sun was slowly coming out.

At 19km, I think I was running for around 2 hours, 15 minutes already. I could see the finishing line. But it was on the opposite side of the road. I’ll need to run 1km down the road, go up the flyover and followed by another 1km to the finish.

Last km

Up I went to the flyover, made a U-turn and it was now the last km. Tried to run albeit at a slower pace. The finishing line is 1km in front and I don’t want approach the finishing line walking. That won’t look good.

At the end, I completed the 21km in 2:35.

What’s Next?

Next up would be another 21km at Standard Chartered’s KL Marathon on 27th June 2010, followed by Siemens Run (10km) and Shape Night Run (10km) in July, adidas KOTR in October (21km), Penang Bridge International Marathon (21km) in November.

My times are improving as each run went by and I’m aiming at 2:15 for Standard Chartered’s KL Marathon. It’s achievable now.

Most of us have a wish list of places that we want to visit in our lifetime. I have one too and it’s really long. But to be honest, I’m not too sure whether I would have visited all of them in my lifetime. I hope I will!

As for diving, I have my wish list for dive destinations too. They’re all within the South East Asia region because here we have one of the best dive sites in the whole world. I feel really lucky for this. Cheaper flights, cheaper accommodation, cheaper food and all the additional budget can be channeled to diving expenses.

As of writing (April 2010), I’ve only been to Lembeh Straits. I’ll be diving in Anilao in a few weeks time, so that makes it two. I’ve dove many other places, but if I have an unlimited budget for diving, these would be my only places to dive. I’m planning to dive at these places at least once in the next 2-3 years.

1. Lembeh Straits (North Sulawesi, Indonesia)

Bernard & Wife at Lembeh Straits - © Bernard Loke

Top of the list would be Lembeh Straits, better known as the macro heaven or the heaven for underwater photographers. There are just so many wonderful, unique, rare, tiny, ugly, you-name-it creatures in the waters of Lembeh Straits.

Some of my friends even came up with a list of creatures they want to see (and it runs to hundreds) during their trips. And they won’t give up going to Lembeh Straits again and again just to see everything on the list.

I was there back in December 2009 but I only managed to dive there for 2 days. My other 5 days was spread between diving in Manado and Bunaken National Park.  That’s obviously too little and not enough. The next time (very soon) I’m going back there, I’ll be diving exclusively in Lembeh Straits. There are a whole bunch of creatures on my list which I’ve not seen yet!

2. Anilao (Batangas, Philippines)

Corals at Anilao, Philippines - courtneyplatt@flickr

Anilao is another macro heaven for underwater photographers. It’s one of the favorite dive destinations for many of my diver friends especially those who are into underwater photography like me. One of them even dove there more than 10 times and he is still not bored of it yet. So how can I not dive there for at least once?

I’ll be there in a few weeks time, so I’m really looking forward for it.

3. Raja Ampat (West Papua, Indonesia)

Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia

I’ve heard of Raja Ampat even before I started diving back in 2008! Some of my friends were saying, You’ve to go to Raja Ampat when you have the chance!, and I was like, where the hell is this place?

For most divers in the South East Asia region, Raja Ampat is among the top 3 destinations for them besides Lembeh Straits. Some would call it the excotic dive destination. The good (and bad) thing about Raja Ampat is that it’s mostly accessible via Live-on-Boards (LOB) which are usually 6-8 days. And that would mean I’ll be disconnected from the hectic world and it’s just diving all the way!

4. Komodo Island (Indonesia)

Komodo Island - thejerk@flickr

Komodo Island made it to the headlines in 2008 when 5 divers got lost from their group during their dive. It became even scarier when they came face to face with the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizards.

Diving in Komodo Island is usually via Live-on-Boards (LOB) which would bring divers to some of the most secluded and exotic dive sites.

5. Pulau Sipadan (Sabah, Malaysia)

A School of Barracudas at Sipadan

Ask any Malaysian diver whether they’ve been to Pulau Sipadan and you’ll probably get yes for an answer. Rightly so. Pulau Sipadan has always been the forefront of scuba diving in Malaysia since it was mentioned as one of the top 10 dive destinations in the world quite some time ago. And since then, divers have been flooding the island until a point that they need to close down the resorts in Pulau Sipadan and moved them over to the nearby Pulau Mabul to preserve it’s ecosystem.

Wait. Why have I not been there? I’ve actually planned to go there. I’ve my air tickets booked and almost booked my accommodations. But I decided to give it a miss so that I can go to Lembeh Straits.

The reason?

There are only two things that you won’t see in your Lembeh Straits trip (including Manado and Bunaken) compared to Pulau Sipadan – school of barracudas doing the famous tornado and jacks. Other than that, Lembeh Straits has a lot more – Rhinopias, Mimic Octopus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Electric Clam just to name a few.

There are other destinations on my list as well, like Maldives, Tubbataha Reef in southern Philippines, Malapascua for sharks, Bali for manta rays and moola moola, Palau in Micronesia..and the list goes on and on.

When I was working in Germany back in 2008, my colleague suggested that we visit Prague during one of the long weekends. And she further suggested that since we were already in Prague, why not make a half day dash to Kutna Hora using our Eurail tickets.

I was like, What? Kutna Hora? What is there to see?

Skeletons. Lots and lots of them.

Now that sounds really creepy to me.

Seeing a skeleton is already not a good idea, what more being surrounded by thousands of them?

But anyway, we made the trip to Kutna Hora, a small town east of Prague on the same day we were supposed to go back to Germany. We planned to stop by at Kutna Hora for a short while to see the skeletons, then take the train back to Germany via Prague.

It was a 2 hour train from Prague to Kutna Hora and it costs 97Kc (about RM17). The train we took didn’t go directly to Kutna Hora, but instead we need to switch trains at a small town called Kolin.

Kutna Hora isn’t a big town. It’s more like a residential area. All the attractions (mostly churches) are within walking distance from the train station, but none of them interests me except one.

Kostnice Ossuary.

Bernard at Kostnice Ossuary - © Bernard Loke

In 1278, Henry, the abbot of Sedlec was sent to the Holy Land. On returning, he brought soil from Golgotha and sprinkled it on the ground here. As a consequence, the burial ground was considered holy and became extremely popular. In 1511 a chapel was constructed to house the bones from abolished graves. The chapel is open to the public, and contains the bones of about 40000 people, arranged by František Rint in 1870. Rint’s work includes an enormous chandelier including every bone in the body, and a crucifix style arrangement near the main altar.

It looked like other churches from the outside, but once I stepped inside, all I see was skeletons.

Bones..and bones..and bones, everywhere from the ceiling to the floor!

At first it was quiet scary actually. The more I see them, I felt it’s quite artistic and not scary. The way the different types of bones are arrange so precisely together was really unique.

It was my first time surrounded by so many dead people’s bones. But after a while it’s not so scary afterall.

Kostnice Ossuary - © Bernard Loke

Kostnice Ossuary - © Bernard Loke

Kostnice Ossuary - © Bernard Loke

Kostnice Ossuary - © Bernard Loke

Creepy isn’t it?

Hiroshima After the Atomic Bombing on 6th August 1945 - © Bernard Loke

I was working in a country wide project in Japan back in 2008. I was lucky enough that Hiroshima was one of the 4 stops I made. Tokyo, Sendai and Sapporo completes the list.

Hiroshima is synonymous with the 1945 atomic bomb .One of the main tourist attractions there is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

So I decided to give it visit one cloudy morning. It was not that far from downtown Hiroshima. Probably about 15 minutes tram ride.

The atomic bomb exploded right above this park. It was initially aimed at the Aioi-bashi bridge which is located at the northern tip of the park. Instead it exploded slightly towards the bridge’s east.

How did I know about it?

Visit the Peace Memorial Museum.

The Atomic Bomb Dome at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park - © Bernard Loke

A Cenotaph At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - © Bernard Loke

There were a few significant sights at the park, but I headed straight to the museum so that I’ll know more about everything in the park when I get out later.

I learned so much about WW2 and the atomic bomb that morning.

All I knew before the visit was that the atomic bomb ended WW2 and it was dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans back in 1945.

That’s as far as my history goes.

I learned the chronological order of the events lead to the bombing.

I saw pictures of the a flattened Hiroshima. Pictures of victims with their body badly burnt.

I saw stuffs like clothing, watches, hair and other personal items belonging to the victims being put on display.

There was also a scale model of Hiroshima before and after the bombing.

There were videos of the American B-29 bomber, Enola Gay heading towards Hiroshima from Guam on that fateful morning of August 6, 1945.

Enola Gay's Path Towards Hiroshima - © Bernard Loke

In fact, there were so many things on display that made my 50 yen worth every penny of it. It was such a good educational visit.

I have friends who asked me what I usually bring when I travel for business and holidays.

Do I bring a lot? Or the bare minimum?

Most of the time I usually hand carry 2 bags accompanied with 1 checked in luggage.

I would check in my Samsonite suitcase bought 3 years ago. After lots and lots of abuse by the airport luggage handlers, it’s still going very strong. And it comes with 10 years warranty.

So no worries.

I’ll have one laptop bag with two 12.1″ laptops inside. One for work and one personal use. No mix between work and personal stuffs.

And then I’ll bring another camera backpack. This is the most awesome bag I ever had. Great quality and good design. It still looks like a new one after 1.5 years of heavy abuse and having been to more than 10 countries.

It’s a Thinktank Glass Taxi.

I’ll have my SLR in it, a G10, 2 lenses and a flash gun. Sometimes I’ll have my tripod inside a Thinktank Bazooka if the destination is worth bringing my 2kg tripod.

But, there are certain trips which I carry only one carry on bag, especially on Air Asia flights. Usually this is where I go for vacation or scuba diving trips overseas.

Since it’s a vacation, there’s not going to be laptop for work.

The backpack I use is a Thinktank Streetwalker Harddrive. It’s a camera and laptop backpack combo.

I’ll put my 12.1″ personal laptop inside together with my camera, underwater Fisheye FIX housing, strobes, lenses, UCLS tray system, a whole loads of batteries, camera maintenance kits and some other stuffs..

All in all, it would weigh anywhere between 8-10kg.

The Thinktank Streetwalker Harddrive is another awesome bag. In fact, I love both my Thinktanks. However, the Streetwalker Harddriver is used less frequently because of it’s bulkyness.

I know Thinktanks are above the average bag prices. But trust me, once you get hold of any Thinktank bag, you’ll never want to change it for another brand. It’s that good.

I have specific bags for specific purposes. A bag for each purpose and what’s going to be in it.

Women buy lots of handbags but they are all the same.

Guys buy lots of bags too, but for SPECIFIC purpose.

Delayed MH704 on Airbus A330 - © Bernard Loke

MH704 : KUL – MNL on 10th April 2010.

It was supposed to be departing at 1015. But once I went past the immigration, I heard the announcement that it was going to be delayed to 1130. 1.5 hours of delay. Not too bad I thought.

I could just sit down, have a Starbucks, read some newspapers, play with my iPhone and time will pass quickly.

So come 1130, everyone was on the plane. Seat belts buckled and we were all waiting for the plane to be taxi-ed out to the runway.

Then comes the captain’s announcement.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome on-board MH704. We’re currently facing some technical issues. Don’t worry. It will be fixed in the next 5 minutes.

5 minutes…YEAH RITE! More like 1.5 hours!

Salted Nuts with Juice - © Bernard Loke

I sat in the plane from 1115 to 1245 being served with kacang masin and guava juice. Then after 1.5 hours, the captain came again.

We have to disembark to plane while the technicians fix the problem. It would probably take AT LEAST 3 hours. We’re sorry for all the inconveniences caused.

Suddenly everything seems so familiar again. This is indeed MH  in which through my own experience is a flight delay airline.

Previously, I sat in the plane (KUL – FRA) for 5 freaking hours before being asked to disembarked. My flight eventually took off some 26.5 hours later from the intended departure time.

That’s the worst experience I had with MH. Not forgetting too some other 3-6 hours flight delays experiences.

Thinking back, I really wonder why I chose to take MH to Manila this time. Why not SQ?

Back to the flight delay. Obviously everyone very pissed off. I am.

The captain said they needed 3 hours to fix the problem in which then the new departure time would be at least 1600. However, the ground crew said new departure time is 1500. In fact, the departure time of 1500 was shown on the screen. And it was only until 1445 that they announced the new departure time which was going to be 1630.

Lunch Voucher from MH - © Bernard Loke

It was now lunch time. Surely MH has to at least compensate our lunch. Everyone got a meal voucher. But here’s the caveat – it’s only worth RM20 and can be used at either Noodles, Delifrance and Burger King.

I chose Noodles. I didn’t want to have another round of fast food at Burger King after my McD breakfast meal.

The next thing I found out at Noodles is that there’s only 1 option of food to choose from. Wantan noodle + Chinese tea. That’s RM20 gone. Good food nevertheless.

So come 1630, again everyone was on the plane. And the captain came in,

Sorry to keep you waiting ladies and gentlemen. Our plane is currently refuelling. It will take 15 minutes.

And then it was followed by a loud BOoOOo from the front to the back of the plane.

Eventually, the flight took off and I arrived in Manila at 2030, more than 6 hours from the original time.

I was browsing my travel photo collections the other night and I realized I have not written anything about my trip to Sapporo, which was back in winter of 2007. It was only a 5 days working trip. So I didn’t have much time to wander around. The cold weather there (-16C) definitely did not help.

To make things even worse, I had to work at odd hours; 10pm to 6am. So one night, after finishing my work at the customer’s place and reaching the hotel at 6.30am, I decided that I was too awake to sleep.

But, where to go or what to do so early on a winter morning when the sun rises at 9.15am?

Headed to Nijo Market which opens at 7am.

In fact, one of the only two places I visited in Sapporo was the Nijo Market (the other being the Sapporo TV tower). It’s actually a fish market located right in the middle of Sapporo town. There were about 50-60 shops in the market and they were arranged into crowded market allies with quite small walkways.

They sell anything from fresh fish and crabs to sea urchins to salmon roe. But one thing for sure, they are definitely NOT cheap.

One of my favorite are the crabs. I’ve never in my life seen such a big crab called the Red King Crab, or Tarabakani. The shell’s diameter of the smallest one would be around 4-5″ and the biggest ones can go up to 9-10″!

Red King Crab - © Bernard Loke

King Crabs for Sale - © Bernard Loke

Salmons for Sale - © Bernard Loke

Hairy Crabs - © Bernard Loke

Sea Clams - © Bernard Loke

I finally took the plunge yesterday and bought the final piece of my own scuba diving gear, the regulator set. Got it from my usual local dive shop, Scuba Dynamics in Desa Sri Hartamas.

I’ve actually been looking for a regulator set for sometime now and finally they arrived to our Malaysian shores last week. Previously, most of the dive shops that I went to survey the price ran out of stock for this brand and everyone was telling me, “Come back mid January…”.

So I got myself a Mares Prestige 12S regulator, Mares Rover octopus and Mares Mission 1 gauge (I’ve got a D4 dive computer, so the pressure gauge is sufficient).

Why Mares and not others like Atomic, Sherwood, Apex, etc..?

The main reason is because of it’s Vortex Assisted Design or VAD. I’m not going to dwell into how VAD works as it’s going to take some explanation to do. Simply put, it makes breathing easier. Less work is needed to breathe in the same amount of air on other regulators. As the tagline says, As Regular & Natural As You Breathe.

I actually made up my mind on the Mares Prestige 12S regulator one month ago when I haven’t even seen it. But when I was at the dive shop, there was also the Mares Abyss 22 and Mares Proton Metal 42 on display. And this didn’t help in my decision making.

Which one should I take? I thought I’ve made up my mind, but now what happened?

The Proton Metal 42 certainly looks good. Too good in fact. The weight and size of the MR42T first stage is half  of the MR12T for Prestige. That itself is very tempting. And to make things even worse, the Proton Metal 42 second stage looks real good with it’s metal finishing and smaller size.

And it costs around 80%  more than the Prestige. That’s a big No-No.

Took my time and toyed around with all 3. Went home. Thought about it for the whole night and finally went for the Prestige 12S as decided earlier. It’s good enough for my style of diving and most importantly within my budget. The price difference between the Prestige 12S and Proton Metal 42 could buy me another dive computer for my wife in the future, which in my opinion is a wiser idea.

Now, I can’t wait to try out these regulators and see how natural they breathe underwater!

It’s been a few weeks now since I came back from diving in Manado. I did wrote something about the trip but most of them are only photos I took with a few lines.

So I thought I’d write more about the trip.

It was actually planned mid of 2009. We planned to be there from Christmas right up to New Year’s day. At that time, I didn’t know whether I could make it or not looking at the nature of my job. Since I’m writing about it now, that means I made it to Manado.

There were 10 of us in the group. A group big enough for us to have a boat and 3 dive guides to ourselves. We stayed and dove with Laras Casse Resort in Manado. But why Laras Casse and not others?

One of the reasons is that the diving prices in Manado are almost 50% cheaper than those in Lembeh Straits. We did made it to Lembeh though on 2 days. It would take about 1.5 hours drive from Manado to the port in Bitung town. Another 1.5 hours drive back to Manado, with everyone in the van sticky and stinking like a fish.

But that’s not the main reason they chose Laras Casse Resort. It was because everyone wanted to dive with the best dive guide in that area, Noldy Rumengan. His ability to spot the tiniest critter in second to none. In 2007, he discovered a new species of seahorse while doing his safety stop in Lembeh Straits. Today, the seahorse is named after him, Kyonemichthys Rumengani.

We weren’t so lucky though. Out of 6 diving days, we only got to dive with Noldy on one day in Lembeh Straits. It was because the famous underwater photographer, William Tan was around at that time too. Noldy is his personal dive guide, so everyone has to give way.

Personally, that didn’t matter so much to me because my dive guide, Melky was good enough to spot all the critters for my camera too.

Bernard & Melky - © Bernard Loke

Laras Casse Resort's Restaurant Overlooking Bunaken Island - © Bernard Loke

Laras Casse Boats' Parking Bay - © Bernard Loke

Dive Sites in Manado & Bunaken - © Bernard Loke

Ever wondered why this pretty and unique crab is called a boxer crab, or sometimes pom-pom crab instead of other names?

Let me give you a hint – look at it’s pincers. Does it look like a boxer’s gloves or it’s holding a pom-pom? That’s where it’s name come from.

It’s not a gloves nor it’s a pom-pom. The crab is actually holding a stinging anemone corals on it’s pincers to protect itself from it’s preys.

The crab in the first photo is very small; about 1cm from it’s left to right leg. The crab in the second and third photo is slightly bigger, about 2.5cm from it’s left to right leg.

View On Top of A Boxer Crab - © Bernard Loke

Boxer Crab - © Bernard Loke

Boxer Crab - © Bernard Loke