Run Paradise! Laguna Phuket International Marathon 2007 (Part 3)

Hey guys. Its been a while since I last blogged about the phuket trip. Which also means I cant remember all the small details about the trip. I’m currently at the NUS matriculation fair waiting for potential freshmen to join the cross country team. So far response is very average. Im currently watching the muai thai boxers beating each other up at the public display area.

Back to the main story. Im actually quite bored about writing full length accounts about the Phuket trip, so I will just make this entry short and sweet.

 Day before our actual race. We woke up before dawn to do a little light jog and acclimatise to our surroundings. The team was really happy with the fresh air and cool morning air. Shihan suggest that we hold training camp at Phuket. We did a 40 min jog and managed to travel out of our tourist area and into the local neighbourhood. We got to see locals shopping for vegetables and giant bananas at their wet market. Somehow the entire area had a lingering smell of fried chicken. Not that Im complaining. Anyways we also get to see small little children with identical hairstyles riding motorcycles to school. AFter the refreshing run, we went back to our hotel to have breakfast. Breakfast was instant mash potatoes, bread, pasta and whatever else we could find stashed in our hotel room. Cooking pasta was a little tricky. We had to make use of the water boiler to cook it. Lets just say its a little messy and not too pleasant to look at. Lufeng and Shihan politely rejected the pasta. Angela did have a little of it, but her face told another story of the taste. As for cutleries, Angela and I went to borrow them from the cookhouse. We ended up borrowing some bowls, spoons… and fried eggs. Yeah we conveniently took some eggs from the cookhouse to our rooms to eat. Shihan laughed. Lufeng preached about integrity. Whatever. We practically spent most of the day preserving our bodies by staying indoor. We walked around the beach a little and then head back indoors to bum around. Shihan did her lifestyle thing again by staying at the beach to read, swim and enjoy the balmy breeze of another phuket morning. Angela was plastered to the Gameboy DS that I brought along. She was obviously addicted to the CookingMaMa and the surgery game. Lufeng was doing something really unmemorable because I don’t remember what he was doing. Oh yes, he was showing off this 1000 page research book that he was supposed to read. But I doubt he even did 10 pages really. I was bumming around, trying NOT to get injured. Then I went to bathe.

 Yeah right. Trying NOT to get injured. It is kind of ironic that I ended up almost injuring my kidneys in the bath tub. But I will tell you guys about it later. The bloody speakers in the matriculation hall is blasting away in front of me and its very difficult to write coherently when there’s some new age rnb- mtv-inspired- music killing my chain of thoughts.

Btw someone please tell me why everyone is interested in bi/tri/aquathalon and no one is coming to our running booth…

Run Paradise! Laguna Phuket International Marathon 2007 (Part 2)

Mr T was quite nice but he kept trying to get us to go for the transvestite show and pursuading us to tell him what time we will be done shopping so that he can fetch us back. By the time we reached Patong, it started to rain a little so we quickly reached for shelter at the mega mall. We shopped a little, and went to eat at the food court. I thought it was kinda interesting that all the bowls were square shaped, which, IMO weren’t really the best design for bowls. The food was cheap so we had the luxury to eat alot more. Lulu, Angela and I started off with some beef noodle. It wasn’t too bad, but they did go overboard with the amount of salt used. Shihan, who was determined to save her stomach for road- side stalls, ordered a papaya salad which had some thai spices in it.

 The papaya salad!

For our second round of ordering, I officially started my pasta ritual by ordering an extra large portion of spagetti. Lulu the copycat ordered some pasta also. Angela who has been thinking about tom yam all day finally settled with that. We also ordered banana and orange shakes but they tasted really weird. I had to force it down my throat.

After eating we continued to shop and find the new balance shop to redeem our vouchers. We walked and walked and walked AND WALKED and we still couldn’t see any sign of new balance. We tried to ask for directions but everyone didn’t really seem to know where it was. Angela and I became super distracted by the Dairy Queen booth(S) in the midst of our crazy walking that we succumbed to the temptation and ordered an amazing green tea with almond ice cream. Heavenly. We were kind enough to offer to some lulu but he dismissed us and said something about us regretting on race day when he performs better. Well, knowing how insecure lulu always has been, he finally ate some ice cream after realising it will be even more embarrassing for him if he didn’t eat the ice cream and still come in behind us. =)

Well we finally gave up looking for the store when we realised that it might not be opened in the first place since a more careful study of the brochure they gave us said that the store was “coming soon”. Felt kind of cheated. Next, we went to carrefour to do some grocery shopping for our breakfast and pre-race meal. I immediately head for the pasta section and bought some pasta sauce and pasta (broken angel to be specific since the instructions say that it would cook in 3 minutes). The others went for bread instead. We made our purchases, dropped by starbucks for some caffiene boost, and left the mall to hang out along the roads lined with small little make-shift stalls. It was still drizzling when we got onto the road, so we were kept busy trying to dodge for as much cover from the rain as possible. Many of the food stalls were selling sticks of meat and seafood, which they will barbeque for you on the spot. Shihan finally got to settle her craving for the road-side food which got me a little jealous because my stomach was already occupied with salty-beef-noodles-microwaved-spagetti-weird-tasting-banana-milkshake. Besides the food stalls, there was also loads of small night market vendors selling clothes, fake prada and gucci and small little souvenirs. I initially had some things in mind that I wanted to buy, but due to the overwhelming number of stalls selling the exact same goods, I must have forgotten all about them as I left the place empty handed. We stocked up on water and more snacks at the convenience store before heading back in a taxi.

Run Paradise! Luguna Phuket International Marathon 2007 (Part 1)

The Luguna Phuket International Marathon was held on 17th July 2007, right in the heart of one of Thailand’s natural treasure, the beautiful island of Phuket. Phuket is home to some of the world’s most famous beaches and is a popular tourist destination for tourists from all over the world. As we all can remember, Phuket was one of the many areas to be badly hit by the terrible tsunami in 2004. The people have come a long way ever since to rebuild their lives, and hence the Phuket Marathon was started in 2006 with the main intention of celebrating how the island and its inhabitants are quickly springing back to life and looking ahead to a fresh new beginning!

Lu Feng, Shihan, Angela and I were the four super privileged NUS cross country runners to be part of this meaningful experience. Being very poor students as we are, the school has very kindly sponsored us 50% of the trip. Hooray!

** 15th July **

As we were supposed to be at the airport at some super early timing, Angela and I stayed over at Shihan’s place. We played with Shihan’s obese cat for a while and tried to catch a little nap before the setting off. We called for a cab and met Lu Feng at the airport. As we were taking the budget airline, we had to wait for our flight at the new budget terminal. The new terminal is really small and simple, but I think thats what we get for dirt cheap air tickets! While in the plane, Lu Feng commented that the clouds looked like cotton wool or something really strange of that sort. (He insisted that I put it here so dont ask me why he thinks this is worthy of mention). Anyways, the flight was only one and a half hours and before we knew it, we had already arrived at Phuket!

The 1st thing that greeted us once we exited the airport was a horde of taxi touts who advertised their services for 500 Baht. We decided that it was a rip off and went to the metered taxi stand to get a cab. And it so happened that the name of our driver was Mr Suryia, lolz.

We took a metered cab to our accomodation, the Amora Beach Resort, which was located 3km from the race site. The total fare was only 390 Baht, a far cry from the price of the touts. When we reached Amora Beach Resort, we had some issues to settle with the hotel stuff due to some poor correspondence between Lu Feng and the hotel booking agent prior to the trip. Thankfully, we still managed to get our room, minus the extra bed that we intended to have. And kudoes to the front desk stuff who were very patient and understanding, despite the difficulties we had in communication.

As I wasn’t planning to be in the same bed as Lu Feng, we settled the problem by bringing down the top mattress of the bed. We then went through the ceremony of splitting pillows and blankets until we were both satisfied. We went to check out our surroundings. There was a good view of the swimming pool from our balcony. Overall, the resort was pretty empty as it was the off-peak season. Our hotel was also just next to Bang Tao Beach, the largest and one of the quietest beaches of Phuket .

We took a short nap and headed off to find Laguna Beach Resort to collect our race pack. Lufeng, who holds the self belief that he is an excellent navigator, took the lead to bring us to Laguna. We walked along Bang Tao beach which looked really amazing. The sand was powdery white and stretched for almost 9km. As it was the monsoon season, the tides were big and a sight to behold. The beach was practically undisturbed. There were only a handfull of tourists lazing around, soaking in the morning sun and sea breeze. Lu Feng’s keen sense of direction led us through some uneven, rocky terrain. After 20mins and many small obstacles, we finally reached Laguna Beach Resort.

Laguna was much larger and grander than our small, humble Amora. There was also alot more tourists there and also way more facilities than at our resort. At the race pack collection hall, we started to check out our competition on the board of participants. Didn’t recognise anyone. The staff, like everyone else in Thailand, were really friendly and accommodating. Our race pack consisted of the haversackish bag, a sleeveless running shirt, time chip, race tag, some rub-on cream and a 500 baht new balance voucher.

We met Steph Cox, who introduced us to her new magazine, Asiarunner. Angela bought a copy of it and I thought it was pretty interesting. The magazine is all about the running scene in Asia, with highlights of the major running events taking place in major cities including Singapore, Hong Kong and China. There are also healthy asian recipes you can whip up and the usual daily digest of running tips. As the magazine is still in its initial stages, there are only 4 issues a year and I think you can find out more about the magazine at www.asiarunner.com. Anyways Steph welcome us to send in articles and photos of running events that we take part in. So whether you are a media whore or just a really nice person, start sending in those pictures and essays! I think it will be pretty cool if anyone of us appear in an international magazine.

After collecting our race pack, we had our lunch in this small restaurant right next to the sea. Its built above the sand with wooden stilts so it brings us really close to the waters. We had our authentic Thai meal beside the panoramic view of the Andaman Sea and its crashing waves. There were 7-8 waiters standing around, gyrating to the groove of the Thai music from the local radio channel. We thought it was silly but went ahead to stuff our hungry faces with pineapple rice.

After the meal, we went back to our hotel to rest and freshen up before beginning our leisurely exploration of Phuket. We decided to head to Patong Beach. WE got a private taxi to send us to Patong for 500 Baht. Our driver was this Indian Gentlemen called Mr T. His English was not too bad and he did tell us the various interesting things we can do at Patong. We dropped at Jungceylon, Phuket’s newest shopping mall, to shop, have dinner and to redeem our new balance voucher. (To be continued)