Saturday, September 12, 2009

K2H4 RUN1746 11Sept09


K2H4 Run1746 11Sept09 Kg. Dambai Off Kionsom Rd., Inanam
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Tucked inside Kg. Dambai about 1km off Kionsom Rd, the run-site was a secret enclave known only to K2H4 as the property belongs to On-Sex Ricky Lee’ uncle. Parking space was very limited but somehow every car seemed to had been parked neatly. Exactly 5pm GM Simon Tsen flagged us off towards the hill that acted as natural fence for the property. I was trailing behind Teddy Bear then later broke off from the group and jogged towards the dirt-road up to a small hill.

Haze was still not contained as it seemed to envelope the heavens and hopefully heavy rain would help to clear the sky. There were already FRB’s & ESB’s down the valley when I hit the open field on top of that hill. The whole stretch of the valley had been cleared either just to collect the earth for filling or to build a big hotel in that property. Anyway, the distance to reach the other side of the hill was about 1km and I just wonder how the hare manage to cross to the other side under the heat of the sun. Passing more ESB’s, I was now running side by side with William & Marboro while AhKaw decided to take it slowly.

Going inside the bushes and crawling under the ornate twisted vines & thorns, I was able to catch up with nt-Bernadette & Robert as they used all parts of their body to reach the top of the ridge. I also used both feet to balance on the huge vine while clinging to the firm tree on top of me at the same time grabbed any protruding roots to anchor my weight. One needed dexterous hands & limber body to squeeze into the crevice, otherwise thorns from wayward rattan vine & spiky palm trees could easily nip you. Once that hurdle was cleared, it was a continuous climb for the next 100mtrs.

While the intermittent terraces along the skirt of the hill gave us short reprieve, it was nevertheless steep. I thought when we hit the open space, it would be a long run going down, instead the paper continued to bring us farther up. I lost tract of the vegetation but it seemed, we were running inside the rubber plantation then out again to fern-infested hillock. Another 20mtrs up and we were out of the open, this time it was really the summit of the hill where the ridge was flat and had a good terrain for running.

Taking advantage of the flat ground on top of the ridge, I was able to overtake Steven & Dreamy Eyes. And just before the slope started to descend I passed by Ben-G walking alone. It was a good run down as well eventho’ the slope wasn’t even. We just passed that killer hill, but it wasn’t really challenging. After negotiating short curves plus a bit of skipping here & there, I could hear already murmuring from the house below. Soon enough, I was out but was surprise to see those people I overtook earlier on was already sipping coffee, while others were already into a couple of deals with playing cards.

Later on I found out there was a shorter way to go down from the first part of the hill before going into the fern area. No wonder nt-Bernadette & Robert were already sitting down munching some tidbits. It took me less than 30mins to finish the run. Hopefully next run would be tougher than this run. ON-ON!!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

K2H2 BUNNIES RUN2049 09-09-09


Run2049 09 September 2009
Hare : Anti-Vietnam Rose Co-Hare: Julieh Scribe: HaShiT
Run-site/On-On: Gaya Seafood Rest, Inanam
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Though we could here thunder every now & then plus the presence of haze from the perennial forest fire in Kalimantan, Borneo, the heavens didn’t open its gate to douse us with rain. Instead the weather still remained humid and hot.
When I got myself a nice Bunny towel from the Hare Anti-Vietnam Rose after registering with $Bunny, the horn was blown and everyone marched in group towards the opposite side of the road. Did I say group? Well, there was Kuai-Lo group, Chinese-speaking group, money-talking group and the doctor-patients group, the not forgetting the Early-Starting-Bitches group. And every Bunny seemed to just fit to any of these groups.

I saw Terry “AhFook” & Michael “German Sausage” broke away from their group to lead the pack running towards the kampong. When I reached the junction going up the hill, AhFook & G-Sausage made a u-turn as they couldn’t find the Bunnies’ holey papers. Unfortunately, another group—the children group from the house we passed by earlier picked up the papers. So Boss Bunny, now you know why S-TriPp3R had to run twice every time—it’s to ensure that the run wouldn’t be spoiled rain or shine.

After directing all of them to the correct trail, I made my way up ahead of the Laughing (who volunteered to be the bobtail for Lam-Soo). I still managed to catch up with a few Bunnies as they were passing by the edge of the stream lined with gravity water-hose snaking along the trail. Tho’ the urge to run fast was over-powering, the temptation just to be surrounded by beautiful Bunnies just made one step unbearable. What more if you have Boss Bunny “Pretty Woman” around together with an entourage of other equally beautiful specimen. I thought when G-Sausage made his 2nd round and caught up with us just before we made our descent, he would stick around the Boss and her cohorts. However he just continued bulldozing his way down & really defeated the purpose of joining the Bunnies run.

Anyway, I chose to stay behind which proved to be a right choice, ‘coz Flipper felt weak & had to reverse. So Datuk AhDuh volunteered to bring her back, and $Bunny also followed (either she didn’t trust AhDuh with fainting Flipper walking down the hill, or she could also pretend to faint so that AhDuh could serve them both) Whatever the reason, from his devilish grin, I found out later AhDuh was very happy to be of ‘service’ to the Bunnies!

This was the same trail that I laid for Puan Babi 2 Wednesdays ago, where a lot of Bunnies didn’t finish the run. This time to make sure no more blunder in the jungle, co-Hare Julieh put a lot of papers to mark the trail. Just before we could continue going farther up, the trail verged to the left then brought us walking along the skirt of the same hill then climb to the adjacent hill. It didn’t rain that day, so the slope going up was manageable even for Boss Bunny with her ceaseless moaning.

Avoiding more hanging vines and thorns as well slippery rock, we finally reached the cross line to the exit towards our right. It was a familiar trail and a favourite trail of our late Tai Kor for it could lead to three exits—all especially designed for the Bunnies. The open field which was supposedly another housing estate is now sea of green with tall bushes and the pathway seemed to be covered with fallen trees. The last part of the ridge was just a continuous slope down to the main road again. For FRB’s the run was just under 30mins, that’s why AhFook & G-Sausage could run another round.

Monday, September 7, 2009

PTH2 Run 06Sept09


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Run-Site End Of Tanaki

I guess the only way to get myself fit for the 12th Borneo Nash Hash trial run next Sunday is to do another intensive hashing this week starting with PTH2. Three days of hashing with K2H2 Bunnies on Wednesday, K2H4 on Friday & MH2 on Saturday was enough drilling to be fit that Sunday run with PTH2.
When we reached the run-site towards the end of Tanaki, there were cars after cars lining up both sides of the road and Wanderer just managed to squeeze in her ‘Kembara’ behind a big pick-up. While still waiting for the flag-off time, AhFook came in on convoy with Rumpf-push. Wanderer & I were quite worried when he showed up with puncture right hand whose blood though dried up was still crimson red. Ahfook with his chauvinistic defiant refused to put something to cover it, nevertheless we managed to persuade him to put band-aid where he then wrapped towel around it. Mr. Wanderer was hoping that Rumpf-push would look after Wanderer (or was it vice-versa?) since he was doing the long run.
By 3.45pm Wanderer & Rumpf-push made their way towards the hanging bridge then followed the other ESB’s to cross a ravine towards the hill. We went in around 4.10pm and managed to catch up with few energetic young men making their way towards the foot of the hill. There we also managed to catch up with Wanderer and Rumpf-push as they struggled to clear the first hurdle on that small hill. When we reached the top, there were these two ladies who short-cut from the dirt-road taking their time to follow the pack from behind.
Then the trail took an abrupt dive into the ravine which was about the same height we climbed earlier plus another 20mtrs down as we ended up running along the coastal line of the river. The rippling sound of the river was so inviting under the early evening sun, but then Mr. Wanderer was on my heels as if signaling me not to slow down.
The next part was an assault to the biggest hill and I was able to overtake a few ESB’s even with a slope ranging between 40 & 60deg. However instead of taking us straight up, the papers brought us crawling along the skirt of the hill then dived again into an abyss. From there the paper took us up only to be diverted to our right where we ended up on the hill that marked the short & the long run. At that junction, I lost Mr. Wanderer and waited for him to emerge from the side of the hill. Those slower ones I overtook earlier were beginning to march in one by one, but still no sight of Mr. Wanderer, which made me wonder, what had happened to him. One logical explanation was that Wander might be hollering at him or wandered somewhere the short cut trail. Anyway while soaked with my own sweat now, I waited for him on a promontory edge of the hill so that I could easily spot him. Finally he sprung from the other side of the hill with AhFook in hot pursuit behind him and announced between breathing that he was doing the short run.
By that time most of the FRB’s had already gone down to the ravine and so I doubled my time hoping I’d be able to catch up with any living soul. When I started to run up again, I could still hear hashers singing “On-On” on the other side of the hill, which meant that if I didn’t go down, I would still cross the same continuing trail from that ridge. As I verged farther more to the right, the sound was getting fainter until it was drowned by the cascading water at the ravine below. Following the papers down, I must have crossed four tributaries with equally raging water cascading down.
For the next few hills I was running alone but it was still very bright until I reached the last ledge of the fourth hill where I saw one soul struggling even to lift up his foot. It was on that hill I caught up with Angkut who was already exhausted and took time to rest once in a while. With the last few meters up, I was able to reach the zenith of the hill and the temptation of running down was so great that I overtook three more FRB’s.
There was no more uphill trail so it was easy to catch up with few FRB’s even before I reached the cross-point again. In just few minutes I was back at the foot of the hill and caught up with the Wanderers & Rumpf-push taking their time as to finish the run. Passing the same river as it snaked its way around the hillock and culminated on the bigger stream which now swelled into beautiful waterfall, the papers took us up again to cut the trail nearer to the base.
I was quite satisfied with my time and was ready for this Sunday Ball-Breaker trial run. On-On!!!

MFH3 RUN 112 05 SEPT 09


MFH3 Run112 on 5th September 2009
Hares: Darine & Abang Hin at Kg. Inobong Off Tambunan Road, Sabah

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Arriving at the run-site with “The Wanderers”, our car was the 2nd one to park in a dark & dung-infested lot. The Hares Darine & Abang Hin were just readying the place from lightings to table setting. Soon Oscar ‘Osakai” Chai came in loaded with all sort of paraphernalia in his ever-ready 4WD and later enliven the whole Community Centre with his modified lightings. More and more ‘Moonies’ arrived all equipped with torchlight/headlight just to make sure safe rampage into the night safari.

By 7.30pm, GM Uncle Lee flagged-off the run and made our way to the left of kampong road crossing a long hanging bridge. When we reached the other side of the river, a lone dog welcomed us with his excited howling adding to the quaintness of Full Moon run. It was hot & humid despite jungle surroundings and the moon was still blocked by evening clouds, so all torch lights were flickering like fireflies fluttering from tree to tree.

Leading the pack was Lo Bak, CiA Joe & Mr. Wanderer while most of us were patiently trailing from behind waiting for occasional song of “On-On!” or whatever moaning sound they could come up. The first part of the trail was just a slow walk along the side of the hill passing a private orchard. Then we continued to go up further under the canopy of rubber trees. On top of the ridge, the trail was combination of steep ledges and open fields but well-marked with Abang Hin’s signature shredded papers.

Still going up, the paper brought to a recently cleared trail as if a virgin trail was been, had it not for the rubber trees that showed a recent cut for milking the sap. Definitely it wasn’t our hare Abang Hin who had cleared the vegetation along the trail. The trail was still going up and later Uncle Lee caught up with us then led us to a steeper track. Thinking it was still on a vertical trail, GM Uncle Lee led the pack up some more together with Ho Bak & CIA Joe only to find out there was no paper and everyone came to a standstill while some went to different directions to search for the papers. It was at that junction when CIA accidentally tripped one of the rocks and slammed onto Ho Bak’s legs, which later turned purplish-blue. Of course that earned CIA Joe a boo plus a Down-Down at least he could have just shoiut on top of his lungs “Rock!”.

Since I was behind together with Wanderer & Margaret, I back tract a few steps and found the trail verging towards the left but still on a vertical slope. However I could hear, GM singing “On-On!” somewhere up the trees, or up the hill. Finally when I cleared the last hurdle, I can see a cleared path up the trail.

Onto a recently bulldozed off-track road on top of the hill, GM Uncle Lee, “Mr. Wanderer & I waited for most of the “Moonies” to emerge from the jungle with few of them still letting out those moaning, whining sound of fatigue, exhilaration or relief. Though we were out in the open, we still left our torchlight on as the moon seemed to be blurred this time due to the recent forest fire in the Kalimantan region of South-Eastern Borneo.

It seemed that junction grouped us again then I continued to run up hill following the dirt road that led down to the foot of the hill. After a few ups and down the papers led us to the left up to highest point of the hill, where a lone Sabah flag was left flying.

From there it was another 15mins running down the side of the hill with wide terrain as if designed for running especially when you have the track on your own. Stopping once in a while on wooden bars which was meant to keep straying buffaloes at bay, the run was just another minutes away from the base.

For FRB’s it was only 45mins run and the last person to come out made it in just under an hour. On-On
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NEXT RUN113 ON 3RD October 09 – MEET AT TANJONG ARU BEACH FOR M.I.A. DOUGLAS SQUARE & GERMAN SAUSAGE.

Friday, September 4, 2009

K2H4 RUN1247 04Sept09


K2H4 Run1745 04Sept0 End Of Kionsom, Inanam
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It’s easy to spot the run-sites of every hash chapter in Kota Kinabalu as there are always big signboards planted along the road, especially on Wednesdays, Fridays & Sundays when there are few hash chapters running at the same time. On few occasions the trails crisscrossed but every hasher knew which trail belongs to whom with the type of papers being laid. Driving along Kionsom road, we spotted Api-Api Hash House (A2H2) signage planted conspicuously on both sides of the road just next to newly completed housing estate.

After registering with On-Cash Lilian Chin, I waited for few minutes for Fansoo to fix his hashing gear then we joined the pack as they were already running towards the hill across the road. Once we cleared the kampong houses, the trail immediately turned almost vertical toward the biggest hill in the area. Actually once you reach the top of that hill it was easy to get yourself lost as there are few exit points to divert your way; and one trail could end you on top of Kionsom waterfall.

Anyway, with that slope, it caused a massive ‘traffic’ jam as hashers after hashers either didn’t bother to move due to fatigue or just hang on to the trees along the way. However, Fansoo & I continued the assault at a rather faster pace where we overtook a lot of ESB’s. Altho’ still going up, the trail verged toward the left which would lead us to another tough trail.

By that time, even those senior hashers who usually start 15mins earlier were also grasping for breath and just a ledge above a few of the ladies also slowed down. Soon it was only Fansoo & I leading the pack up the hill. Without anymore slower ones blocking our way, it took us just another 15mins to clear the ‘killer’ hill and we were on the way running down.

The early evening rain kept the weather cooler especially inside the rubber plantation where most of the trails are done. I think it was Ricky Lee who was the consultant that evening, since I saw him earlier just relaxing with beer on one hand and a cigar dangling on the other. Anyway, I took advantage of the slope down and kept running. Fansoo decided to take it nice & easy as he reckoned our running time was way ahead of schedule.

Following the paper down it wasn’t really a smooth trail as there were tree roots anchoring the steps and you could easily trip and tumble down especially those roots protruding among mossy rocks or those covered by dried leaves. So taking no chance, I tried to run alongside the trail on the path where the there were still grass or bushes standing. In just about 25mins or so, I was already on the covered walk-way of the kampong then continued running down the road from the last ledge of the hill.

From that vantage view, I could see our cars and few Short Cutting Bastards (SCB’s) already having their drinks. Farther to my right, few kampong children were playing ‘sepak takraw’ and since it was Ramadhan month, there were stalls selling just anything for ‘buka-puasa’. For fast runners, it took us only 45mins to finish that type of trail. Another wonderful day is gone running in the jungle. On-On

Thursday, September 3, 2009

K22H2 BUNNIES RUN2048 02Sept09


Run2048 02 September 2009
Hare : Swinging Hips Co-Hare: Julieh Scribe:
Run-site: Kionsom Rd, Inanam On-On: Gaya Seafood Rest
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The weather wasn’t on Jane’s side as it was raining cats & dogs even when we reached the run-site which was at the junction to the old Kionsom Road. Normally there would be a lot of old Bunnies following the co-hare in setting the run, but this time the only Bunny who finished the run was Ah May. She herself trailed us from behind as she was also dragging along a bull named David Chee-something and her grandson. Not only did the weather discouraged a lot of Bunnies to run that evening, that week was also the start of Chinese ghost month and with gloomy weather like that even intrepid bunnies like Dreamy Eyes, Wanderer, $Bunny, sT. BerNarD & Lauhing shied away from bashing inside the wet & slippery jungle.

For German Sausage’s analogy, it the best moment to go in when wet & slippery so that can come out fast! Mr. Wanderer also decided to give the run a pass saying at that moment he felt “too old to play” in the rain. We could only count the number of diehards (rain or shine) to be at the run-site and amazingly Irene “Sergeant” George was also present thru’ the Samaritan’s spirit of The Wanderers.

Reckoning that it would be a very short run to set, co-Hare Julieh & I went in around 4pm under dark sky with rain water cascading on every fissures, cracks & canals washing away rubbish & debris along the path including buffalo dung. Following the paper to the bushes, we crossed a small stream to start the climb up. For the next 10mins it was the same slope up until we reached a flattened ridge, where we could run a little just to beat the time. Circling an abandoned pineapple orchard, we went inside the rubber tree plantation that you can still see fresh cutting around the trunk to milk the sap.

As it started to get steeper, more rubber trees could be seen being cleared then we had to cross another stream then up to a more slippery slopes. Another stream to cross we were already near the vicinity of the hi-way. After clearing the last hill, we came upon another stream that led out to the main Kionsom hi-way.

In my 2nd round when I ran with German Sausage, the streams I passed earlier morphed into a swelling river with the last one turning into a magnificent waterfall. With German Sausage now running with me, I really pushed myself to the limit even going up-hill. On few bends, we took advantage of the flattened ridge where we ran double-time to make up for the time we lost going up. Had it not rained that heavy, I would have brought my camera to take great shots of the water running down from slopes to slopes (Tracy, you missed this nature’s wonder).

In one area, as if the rain was very heavy up-hill , ‘coz water was just pouring down from every direction, everywhere you look up, there was always water coming down at you. That was another reason why German Sausage & I ran very fast to avoid untoward incident inside the jungle. Worst scenario was when you’d be caught in massive landslide in between the hills or while negotiating a ravine. Even the last ravine we passed, the rocks which were usually planted firmly, were getting looser due to heavy rain.

I had a good cleansing in the last ‘river’ while German Sausage continued running toward the base. For him, it was only 25mins run despite the slippery terrain and precarious slopes. Julieh being the bobtail on behalf of Anti-Vietman Rose managed to finish the run again in 45mins. The last one to come out was Fansoo also clocking almost like us with all sort of ghost running with him. He ran fast not because of the imminent danger from flash-flood or landslide but from the ghost who followed him all the way from the start despite having been offered with sweets. So Fansoo, you learned your lesson; always run in group. At the last count only 6Batang & 1see-ham plus 1ah-chai finished the run.

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Next Wednesday 09Sept09
RUN 2048 HARE: ANTI-VIETNAM ROSE CO-HARE: JULIEH
RUNSITE/ON-ON: GAYA SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
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RUN THE WEEK AFTER 16Sept09
RUN 2049 HARE: LAMSU CO-HARE: JULIEH
RUNSITE/ON-ON: END OF TANAKI, PENAMPANG
RUN STARTS AT: 3 PM