Malaysia Open SS 2011 SIDELINES

Lin Dan had almost robbed away all our highly-fired expectations by giving a walkover to compatriot Chen Long in the semis thus avoiding LCW. So it might just as well be that CL suffered on LD's behalf when he was completely whitewashed 21-9, 21-9 by LCW, who almost did the same thrashing to WR2 Taufik Hidayat in the next day's finals had not LCW relaxed his second game after taking a commanding lead. TH received even one point worse that CL's 9 points in the first game.

So when all was over abedeng, spchu, hcyong and I sat in the stadium cafeteria hopefully to bump into other BCers such as limsy and fastdrop whom I met earlier. But the familiar faces did not show up. I understand later from this forum that limsy and his 'gang' had a party elsewhere.

But we met a fresh, handsome face from Bangalore, India. It transpired that Dev is an inactive BC member and is an acquaintance of abedeng, our very own"BC India ambassador". He is the "Principal Correspondent (Sports) of Diligent Media Corp, so says his name card. Among some of their publications is a periodical on badminton entitled "GUTS".

Dev is here to cover the MO and elsewhere and I think he is a guest of Michael Lee of MBA Puchong fame. So we chatted about what else but badminton although he was more interested in the seemingly 'laissez-faire' manner in which BC members contributed to the forum compared to say BadZine.

 

Then came MBA

It was around 8 pm and we had lost our patience waiting for others to turn up.

Then a highly-spirited figure in dashing attire of dark blue shorts and Ts and wearing an official badge over his neck appeared suddenly with another in gentleman clothes to speak to Dev. We were introduced to Michael Lee and his good friend from Hawaii, Alan Teoh. When told that we were from BC, Michael warmed towards us and we exchanged pleasantries and we talked about a common friend, Victor Sim, another badminton fanatic from Singapore who organized local Masters tournaments and participated in overseas Masters tournaments as well. It seemed that Michael and Victor had partnered in some of these overseas competitions before.

Michael is the proud owner of Michael's Badminton Academy's 32-court facility in Puchong, purportedly the largest in Malaysia. I'm sure many of our Malaysian BCers are aware of his outfit and have played there since it was opened in 2004. He invited all of us to play at his courts later at 10 pm, barely 2 hours away. Well we had intended to have a game the next day on Sunday (which turned out to be an inappropriate day as we barely had time enough to watch the finals let alone play!) and had brought our gears along, so we accepted Michael's invitation gladly. But before that we had to fill our stomachs so abedeng, spchu, hcyong and I adjourned to Steven's Corner to satisfy our hunger.

We were a little late for our appointment at MBA, but Michael came even later past 10.30 pm. Meanwhile we played doubles with Chu's friend Ady from Ipoh acting as a reserve player. I partnered 'BIG' bro Deng to challenge Chu and Yong in the first game and bro Deng showed the way for a narrow victory. Then I took a rest whilst Ady joined in for more fun.

But when Michael appeared later in his usual pomp, the fun intensified. He took on Chu and Yong single-handedly and still won. As though this was not enough, he challenged young Dev to a fight, giving away some 20 years in age and he handicapped himself further by holding a plastic chair on his left hand during the match. Despite this he gave Dev no chance and won convincingly. Senior gentleman Alan Teoh tried to give Dev some tips at the sidelines, but Michael was relentless. Michael had joking introduced Alan, who is now 75, as an ex-Malaysian Thomas cupper.

But Alan Teoh himself had scored successes at the Sydney Masters some years ago, winning three titles in his age group when he was around 70 years' old. Alan hailed from Malacca and had been living in Hawaii for the past 35 years. He told us that he may be the oldest among us, but he was considered relatively young in Sydney compared to the seniors some of whom were in their 90's and still playing competitive badminton and in singles too!

So guys, please don't complain about being too old to play badminton!

In any case we ended our fun games around 1 am!

 

World's Longest Crystal Quartz-Rich Ridge - Bukit Tabur

Yes The Dragon's Backbone of Bukit Tabur is 16km long, although the hill is less than 1,000 meters above sea level!

We enjoyed our friendly night games at MBA and slept late way past 2 am.

Hcyong had arranged an outing for us early next morning and by 7.30 am spchu and I hopped into his car to make our journey, stopping momentarily to buy bread and drinks for our breakfast in the car.

Bukit Tabur is about 20 km away from KL city and is located between Taman Melawati and UIA Gombak and this prominent hill could be seen clearly from the Middle Ring Road 2 between Seri Gombak and Ampang.

We met up with hcyong's two friends at the foothill before we make the climb. I started panting and sweating and took a rest after about 20 min or so as the way up was jagged, undulating and quite steep at some points. We were told we had covered about only one seventh of the journey. I was quite taken aback and then sensed it was no ordinary hike like that on Bukit Timah hill in Singapore!

My legs were aching from last night's court battles, my knees were weak and I only had about 4 hours' sleep, so my progress left much to be desired. The rest of the climb was even more demanding as I alternated between rock climbing, grabbing on tree trunks and branches and trying to remain as stable as possible on sandy inclines and avoiding slipping down the treacherous cliffs to the bottom! I've never done rock climbing before, more so on real crystal rocks some of which just stare at you vertically, challenging you to look up to overcome them! So not long after, cramps began to set in together with the call of nature and these slowed down my progress further.

After conquering the peaks and the sharp rocks, it took the simple flat slope to fell me. Towards the tail end of the 'hike' were relatively easy footpaths, though most were undulating and slippery. In one of these my jogging shoes missed the mark and I lost my balance and fell on my side where I was cushioned by the soft vegetation on the slope. I climbed up and was no worse than a few scratches on my left leg.

But whatever precious time we had to rest at various peaks and contemplate the scenery, it gave me the motivation and energy to carry on. And it was about 4 hours later that found us descending on the other side of the ridge, then resting and tucking in 'nasi goreng' and 'teh tarik' at a nearby mamak stall with cans of Coke and the extra salt to replenish whatever fluid and minerals we had lost.

If I ever do it again, I will be more prepared the next time.

 

I found out later that Dev publishes GUTS with a friend at their own expense and distributes it to the public FOC. Such is Dev a badminton fanatic!

Indeed the morning trip to Bt Tabur was a challenge to a first timer like me who has never done rock climbing before. Another problem was that we were not well prepared in that we did not have time to take a good breakfast and bring enough water. It would be preferable to wear longs, a dependable pair of shoes and gloves since we had to grab anything to keep balance, to protect from sudden falls and to grip on sharp rocks. Mosquitoes were also a nuisance.

It was in a way lucky for me not to have read up literature on Bt Tabur before our hike as I found out later that people have died from falls to the bottom. Otherwise I would not be able to complete the hike.