An Offer You Can’t Refuse
When my friend, Joan came by to see at Church on the 17th of April, she made me, as my friend Alan Foo would love to say "An offer you can’t refuse". Of course this punch line, you would normally relate it to the Godfather, but Alan does it much better.
Anyway, she had just registered for this hiking trip to Gunung Tahan. Its the tallest mountain in Pennisula Malaysia. For safety reasons, she pulled me into the loop as well. The offer was so tempting. It had always been my dream to climb mountains. Something about, being what you can be and rising to the challenge. I know that if I take this offer, there were risks involved, I might not be able to come back safe and sound. But if I take this offer, it would be one of the high lights of my life. Something that I would recall back in my old age, and saying "Yeah, those were the times"
So, I got back home, found out that Joan had already found a hiking partner for me. An old Pal of mine, from college years. Name’s Roland. Okay, no probs, Roland seem to be a tough guy, had great sense of humour. So we sent some emails to each other. Got each other prepared for the hike. Coordinated equitment, food supplies and training hikes and techniques.
The first of this training hikes was the hike to Western Hill on the 21st of April. It was the longest hiking trail in Penang. Strecthing from Teluk Bahang in the North of the Island to Western Hill (part of Penang Hill) in the midsection. It took us from 8am to 4pm to reach the train station in Penang Hill around 10 km uphill. We had some load on which slowed us down significantly, mine was around 9 kg, most of it was contributed by the 4 big water bottle I bought along. In case, the weight was too tough for me, then I could release some of the water, to lighten my load. Of course, the technique I used to train up my leg musscle paid off, no cramps at all. The training technique: everyday I wore sand bags to my feet. Each weighed 2 kg.
The next training session would be to Gunung Irau, in the Camerons but that would be another story.
