Two Receipts vs Blank Receipt

"Malaysia is on the right track in terms of fighting corruption, malpractices and abuse of power following various initiatives undertaken by the government"

—Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

I was about 18 years old when I was driving my step-mother's car one night, many years ago. My sister, Bridget, and her then husband, Amran, were in the car with me. We were chatting happily when suddenly one of the headlights went dead. And of course as Murphy's Law would have it, minutes later, as we were approaching the Sembulan roundabout, there was a traffic policeman, waving his hands, instructing me to stop the car.

He approached my window and told me that my headlight was out, and I replied in the affirmative, trying to explain that it happened just moments ago, and there was nothing I could do at that hour. I looked at him pleadingly, hoping that he'd have some pity on this schoolboy driver. He flipped out his book and was about to write me a ticket when he suddenly stopped and looked at me.

"I'm sorry," he said in Malay, "but I'm afraid I'll have to write you a ticket", adding that it was a serious offence.

We were silent, and he appeared to resume the task of writing out the ticket, when he stopped again.

"Unless if you want, we can help each other?" he said with a smile.

I did not have any money on me then. But even if I did, I doubt that I would attempt to bribe the policeman to escape the fine. He explained that it would be very troublesome to deal with the fine, as I would be required to appear in court.

I turned to Amran and saw the expression on his face. It was one of shock and disgust—it reminded me of the expression on my cousin-sister's face when she saw the amount of hair in my late grandma's armpits—but that's a different story.

"Carry out your duty!" Amran said to the policeman. I was quite surprised by Amran's reaction. I could see that the policeman was surprised too. I fancy that he must have taken for granted that we would attempt to bribe him with a little cash, but we didn't!

Corruption is almost a way of life for us Malaysians. From politicians at the top to the ordinary people in the street, the general mentality is that you can always bribe others to get things done. In fact, it is almost expected that you must bribe others to get things done!

I was in KL yesterday morning with my colleague, Ben. We took a cab from Brickfields to Bangi to attend a seminar. When we reached our destination, I paid the cabbie and asked for a receipt.

"Oh! you're gonna claim from your company?, he asked.

I said yes. And then he asked me—almost automatically—if I'd like to have a blank receipt. I said that's not necessary; that he could write the actual amount on just one receipt.

Then he looked at us, and asked if we would like to have a receipt each. I suppose both Ben and I could then use our respective receipts to claim from the company. After all, it's entirely possible that Ben and I took different cabs that morning. I told the cabbie to write out a single receipt showing the actual amount of the cab fare; that's quite good enough. He gave me a strange look. Apart from the fact that it's kinda silly for me to cheat my own company for a miserable amount of money, I wouldn't do it even if it's not my own company.

Almost every day I see these creatures all around me. The corrupt mentality is so deeply instilled in the minds of our people. It's almost like those who're not corrupt would be treated as abnormal—even dumb!

I think the Deputy Prime Minister was very brave to make the above statement which I'm sure even he himself knew was idiotic.

The Art of Proposals & The Dying Fire

It must have been a little over 19 years ago when I proposed to my then girlfriend, Euphemia. It was one of the most awkward moments in my life, really, as I was proposing over the phone from a different country. We've been going steady for about 3 years, but I had actually decided much earlier than that, that this was the woman for me.

It took me quite a while, however, to come up with the courage to propose, and when I finally did, I was at a loss on how to do it! It was of course a special occasion, and it seemed only natural to do it in a way that's nothing short of extraordinary. But for the life of me, in spite of my brilliant creative mind, I had to crack my head, and still ended up at a dead end! It was rather pathetic that all I could think of was to propose over the phone.

Looking back now, surely there were many, many choices? I mean I could've spent all my savings to hire a small plane to fly with a banner that says "WILL YOU MARRY ME, EUPHEMIA" over the Tg Aru Beach or something like that. Perhaps challenge her to a bungee jump, and just when about to jump, I could've popped the question there and then? Or maybe I could've tried something fancy like bringing her up to the Yayasan Sabah rooftop, get down on my knee and propose that way, just before the security guards arrive to chase us off the area? Hell, I can think of so many ways to do it now!

Instead, I did it over the phone! And just for a few seconds, my heart sank when Mia merely laughed and laughed at my proposal! I mean—was it really that funny? But thankfully in the end she said yes! So that's the sad story of how unsophisticated the way I proposed to my girlfriend all those years ago.

Over the years, people are becoming increasingly creative with the art of marriage proposals. It's no longer enough to utter those few simple words, "Will you marry me?". One has to do it more dramatically; in a special venue, and even to the extent of faking injury as in this story, extracted from our local papers during the recent Valentine's Day celebration (click on picture to get clearer view).

We have come a long way to master the art of marriage proposals. Whoever attempts to propose without extraordinary or theatrical approach would be at risk of accusations of being unromantic and unimaginative! Such is the extent of the mastery of marriage proposals.

Unfortunately, we have not mastered the art of keeping the fire going. Two days ago, after almost 18 years of marriage, my brother, Dennis, and his wife, Shidah, are now officially divorced. Last week, Typhoon Diana, the born life organiser, instructed me to make a last bold bid to stop the divorce by trying to talk to Shidah. I did nothing of the such, of course. For better or worse, I'm sure they have both considered their decision.

Apparently, Dennis said that both of them have changed. I was somewhat surprised that Dennis did not see it coming. Changes are almost inevitable in everybody; it's strange that he only realised that recently. After all, women are not usually easy to understand. You marry them and set up a nice little routine of kissing them every night at bedtime, for example, but sometime in their forties, they suddenly develop the habit of applying lotion, and their faces become off limits to kisses. The only way to deal with changes is to adapt. And adaptation is in itself a skill. But it's not something that everyone can learn.

No, it doesn't seem like we're gonna master the art of keeping the fire going anytime soon. If anything, it seems certain that the divorce rate will be increasing as reported here. If it were me, I'd rather we learn to master the art of keeping the fire going, and not so much the art of marriage proposals, but I guess that's just wishful thinking.

Novice Hunt 3

It seemed like it's been ages ago since I last clerked a treasure hunt, and I have almost forgotten how much fun it could be—until yesterday, when I clerked the Novice Hunt 3. When it was confirmed that the KK City Tourism Treasure Hunt was postponed to June, some friends requested me to organise a hunt as a replacement. Despite my initial reluctance, I eventually decided to do it anyway.

I'm known to be cryptic in my hunt clues, but for the Novice Hunt, I decided to be friendlier in my approach. I said friendlier—not necessarily easier! Of course there would be cryptic clues, but I made sure that there're many trivia type questions which required mainly googling exercise. That, hopefully, would give the new hunters fighting chances, though perhaps still not winning chances. The first thing I did was to come up with a plan on how best to set a hunt that's not impossibly tough for the new hunters, but at the same time not gonna be a stroll in the park for the regular teams. The answer came to me like lightning. The only way was to employ the power of psychology into the hunt.

The hunt should start with elementary hunt questions, i.e. those which the regular teams would most likely solve in a heartbeat. And when it's tougher, it shouldn't be very tough. Even in the Lintas Sq sector, I posed this question:

Q9) A 100, when done to a chair?

Which made some of the regular teams pause just for a while, but soon figured out the solution.

So most of the regular teams had a fairly pleasant ride during the earlier part of the hunt. But the dangerous thing about achieving a perfect score in the course of the hunt is that it will lead to greed. And greed is a terrible thing as we all know. I decided to throw in some tough questions in the Damai Ph 4 sector, which was about the midway point of the hunt. Many of the strong teams would want to try very hard to find the answers for the tough questions, even if at the cost of losing precious time. Having been able to score well up to that point had the effect on the stronger teams—they would want to keep the "clean" record going, and I thought they'd risk everything!

Of the 5 questions in Damai, I'd say 2 were tough; and 1 was tricky:

Q18) When I'm gone, Agent Harry remains.

Perhaps many of the teams spent a lot of time searching through the internet, trying to find out who Agent Harry might be, and then hope to solve the question from there.

Q20) Gotta make a move to its beginning.

And of course one of the tricky little questions which was somewhat mind-boggling until when suddenly some hunters saw the trick for what it's worth.

Q21) The main answer. What and where?

I'm not sure if it's because of lack of word power, or because of the fact that this answer was found in an unexpected location, though clearly visible from the car, but in the end, this turned out to be the question of the day!

As I said, I had deliberately set the trap, but I did not expect that it'd work to such an extent. I myself was there in Damai Ph 4, watching the hunters in action. And in the heat of the moment, driven by greed, pride, and perhaps stubbornness, most of them spent well over an hour for these 3 questions! The hunting strategy that defied logic and common sense! It was then that I knew they'd get into time trouble in the Donggongon sector, as I had set what I considered 1 more tough question there.

It is almost expected that after a succession of several tough questions, usually sooner or later, the easier ones would come. Immediately after the teams left Damai Ph4—and most of them still trying to recover from the unpleasant time-wasting experience—they moved to the nearby sector in Damai Ph1 where they had expected an easier question. And in fact, it was indeed an easy question:

Q23) Lancelot or Hang Tuah, for example, beats the king.

And the answer, or rather the decoy, was glaringly seen on a huge signboard.

Except that many of them failed to realise the significance of those words "beats the king", and therefore missed this intended answer, which was located almost next to the decoy!

The rest of the questions between Damai and Donggongon ranged from easy to average mind teasers and the strong teams covered the sectors fairly comfortably, with perhaps some stops here and there, but generally did quite well throughout.

But by the time they reached Donggongon, most of them were already in time trouble. Coupled with the fact that the Donggongon sector contained many, many signboards and the tricky nature of the questions, most of the teams crumbled like nobody's business:

Q31) Expelled from occupation, when done to EV.

It was also around then that I noticed teams were also rushing into the supermarket to secure their treasures. I was also there in the supermarket and was fairly amused to see many, many disappointed faces.

Beyond that Donggongon sector, most of the teams were not really hunting; they were merely passing through the remaining sectors, thus dropping most of the questions along the route—a sad but common outcome of an overzealous attitude of wanting too hard to find all the answers during the earlier part of the hunt, thus resulting in leaving no more time for the tail end of the hunt! It is quite funny that many of the questions dropped by the strong teams within the last few sectors were easy ones, which the new teams managed to solve!

As I had expected, some teams incurred the time penalty; one of them almost got disqualified. It's quite an instructive hunt to say the least, but I doubt that these teams will ever learn. I myself, when hunting, quite often still commit the crime of refusing to move on when the situation calls for it!

Some surprises of the day—Team Mung Cha Cha, which is almost always stuck at the fourth position, won the hunt convincingly, beating the favourite team, Cuba Tembak, with a 10-point margin. An even bigger surprise was that a new team, Winged Beaver, sneaked up the leader board to finish third, thus denying several regular teams which became victims of their dubious gameplan.

Champion of Novice Hunt 3: Team Mung Cha Cha

The top 5 teams of the day:

1) Ellen Yee, Shirley Lim, Mary Lokupi, Dr Liaw Yun Haw (84/100)

2) Alvin Wong, Audrey Chin, Susanna Sim, Julia Chan (74/100)

3) Gregory George, Dominic Lansing, Claire Fabian, Dinah Molijoh (73/100)

4) Jude R Ripin, Roland R Ripin, Maria D Micabalo, Loise A Prudente (66/100)
5) Johan Amilin, Siti Nurhanaa Abdullah, Johari Jan 65/100)

Vibram Hong Kong 100 Ultra Trail Race

Shortly after torturing myself in the 100km ultra trail marathon, The Most Beautiful Thing (TMBT), last November, as reported here and here, someone named Michelle Zheng Min provided a link to the Vibram Hong Kong 100 Ultra Trail Race in facebook.

The Vibram HK 100 is essentially a similar race with the TMBT, and someone actually convinced me that it would be fun to run the 100km in Hong Kong. It must have been a case of temporary insanity, but I soon found that I've signed up for the event. It was a surprisingly popular event as it was closed due to overwhelming response even before the end of the early bird registration period.

The time control for the Vibram HK 100 was 32 hours. However, the organiser added some sweeteners, i.e. those finishing within 16 hours were entitled to the gold award; within 20 hours, the silver award; and within 24 hours, the bronze award. Beyond those times, finishers were entitled to a finisher's sweater and a certificate each.

I finished the TMBT well over 33 hours, but in that event, I was basically reduced to the role of a baby-sitter. For the Vibram HK 100, I had intended to race. What's more, I had intended to bring home at least the bronze award!

My friend, Robert, was also able to secure a slot and as we got closer to the race day, he somehow convinced me that perhaps a silver award might be doable! At first I was rather doubtful. But later I allowed myself to consider that possibility for a bit. Maybe it's because of my faith in Bob; or maybe because I wanted so much to bring home the silver to protect myself from the many warewolf politicians here in Sabah, but in the end, I thought, "Why not?"

Little did I know that the race was somewhat different from the TMBT. In the case of the TMBT, we had many, many hills—rolling hills—but the route was such that the tail end of the race mainly comprised an overall descent. Whereas in Hong Kong, it's the other way round—as the race progressed, the hills got substantially higher and steeper. In fact, the highest and steepest slope was the very last one!

The other factor which almost put an end to my race was the cold temperature. It was announced that the temperature was between 12C to 15C, but with strong wind high on the mountain ridge, it felt like freezing point.

We were flagged off at about 8am on 18th February, Saturday. There were 755 participants on the organiser's list, but I suspect there must have been some who did not show up that morning. All of us had a timing chip each attached to the bib.

The first 15km or so of the race was quite pleasant. The terrain comprised mainly gentle undulating footpaths which eventually connected to an asphalt road. We arrived at a huge reservoir with stunning views, and both Bob and I went to a nearby bush to spray some fertilizers on the trees. The temperature then was quite pleasant, and I turned to Bob, jokingly saying that it would be nice to run the whole race on a flat surface like that.

Bob is basically a cyclist, not a long-distance runner. In fact, the longest official running event he had ever participated in was a half marathon. However, he did join me for a 25km long run on a recent Sunday. Because of his inexperience in long-distance, he decided to play safe by running the entire race with me. I was fairly amused to see all the hi-tech electronic gadgets he had on him. He had a Garmin on his wrist which was not even a watch. To be honest, I don't even know what that toy was for! But every now and then, Bob would consult his Garmin to keep track on our pace and distance covered.

It was basically a mild workout, and about three hours later, we arrived at CP1, where we found glorious food and drinks waiting for us. I soon realised that Bob becomes hungry extremely fast, and is a big eater for his size. One of these days, I must try to research where all those food go to after he swallows them.

Well, I indulged in a bit of fried rice and as I reached for a banana, Bob approached me, saying that there's also some egg sandwiches on a nearby table. So I took one too.

Bob seemed fully engrossed in all the food, grabbing this and that...

And at one point seemed to be having a hard time deciding what else to eat.

But soon after that we had to shake ourselves out of it to continue with the race. I went ahead, and Bob followed close behind. For races of this nature, it's always a good idea to run in pairs, just in case of emergency. Besides, it could have been useful to have someone looking like Captain Jack Sparrow as my bodyguard, if there are robbers trying to make their moves. But actually, all the volunteers at all the CPs that day were awesome—they were polite and so eager to help the participants in whatever way they can.

We continued our journey like that throughout the day—plenty of smiles—still not knowing the kind of temperature waiting for us during the night.

Up ahead, our friend, Jonas, had already gone so far ahead that we did not have any chance to meet him throughout the race. First thing that morning, he merely said to us "not to suck on his nipples", and then he was gone in the crowd with his friend, Paul.

Bob and I stuck to our racing strategy by combining intervals of running and brisk-walking. But Bob, perhaps because of his years of experience as a cyclist, had stronger quads—a valuable asset when climbing hills. Besides, he backed that up with a pair of trekking poles.

I couldn't help but smile to myself looking at him with the trekking poles from behind, as it sort of reminded me of the movie, E.T. And in my mind, I saw E.T saying "ET phone hooooome..."

But flat surfaces and going downhill were not his strong points. So he'd struggle to keep up with my brisk-walking. He had to jog to keep up with my walk.

We reached CP5 (52km) just shortly after getting dark. I went to the toilet and had to squat down. When I was done with my business about 5 minutes later, I had to muster all my courage and energy to hold on to the railing on the wall to pull myself up again. A quick cup noodle and some cakes, and we were ready to embark on the second half on the race. From that point on, it began to dawn on me that it was a big mistake not to bring along gloves for this race. As we walked into the night up a neat asphalt road in the park, I began to feel the cold. And the cold became increasingly something I couldn't cope with.

CP6 proved to be quite a challenge, as it was located perhaps 15km or 16km away. The hills in the second half of the race were also getting more, and higher, and steeper. But we found ourselves at CP6 after more than 2 hours later. We stopped to replenish our bottles, and grabbed some peanutbutter sandwiches. I had another cup noodle. Seeing me eat, Bob had one too.

Shortly after we left CP6, Bob complained feeling a bit dizzy and wanting to vomit. Good thing he did not keep that to himself. I told him that that's an early symptom of dehydration and told him to have a few sips every few minutes. That helped to solve the problem.

Well, we continued all the way to CP7 through more hills—ridiculous hills—and was pleasantly surprised to find a fire going. We sat around the fire with some other participants and soon found it hard to drag ourselves to start running again. But in the end, we headed out from CP7 downhill for the most part. I decided to gain a bit of time with my brisk-walking routine. Bob was struggling to keep up in the dark of the night. We were passing an area with lots of monkeys, and I think Bob heard a sound in the nearby bush. He turned to look, but when he turned back, it was too late to avoid walking into a tree, resulting in a small cut on his knee.

As the night wore away, we found ourselves approaching CP8, feeling exhausted, sleepy and shivering uncontrollably from the cold. There were paramedics there, and we took the opportunity to sneak into a tent in our attempt to warm our bodies. A volunteer came with a warm cup of coffee, and my hands were pathetically shaking that I had trouble trying to hold the cup steady.

It was then that I seriously considered surrendering from the race. Then a lady volunteer walked into the tent, and perhaps because she saw my handsome bodyguard, Bob a.ka. Jack Sparrow, gave me her gloves! That inspired me to push on. By then, it was clear that the dream of the silver award was already gone. But we had about 3.5 hours to cover 17km for the bronze. I turned to Bob, saying that if we're gonna make it, it would be very close.

In the wee hours of the morning, in what appeared to be freezing temperature, we embarked on our epic final leg of the race through the most punishing hills. The journey to CP9 was just 7km but it took about 2 hours to get there. The remaining 10km had the tallest and steepest slope up to the highest point in the whole of Hong Kong. It was clear then that even the bronze was out of the question.

I had to reluctantly accept that I have failed to achieve even the bronze. And then suddenly I felt a big relief. With about 22.5 hours on my watch, I left CP9, taking my sweet time walking up the hill. Bob caught up with me several minutes later.

We walked and walked, and as the day became brighter again, the temperature started building up, and we no longer felt like dying in the cold. When we crossed the finish line 25 hours 41 minutes since the start horn, we were ecstatic.

I think the Vibram HK 100 is very much better organised than the TMBT. The volunteers knew exactly how far between CPs, unlike the TMBT staff who deliberately made fun of participants by telling them false information about distances. All the CPs had plenty of food and isotonic drinks, and participants can be assured that they won't go hungry.

TMBT is more technical in nature when compared to the Vibram HK 100. It had river crossing, hanging bridges almost virgin forest to go through. These were not in the Hong Kong race. Instead, the hills were much more punishing in Hong Kong. So I guess it's a matter of personal tastes. But for me, I find the Hong Kong race more challenging, because I simply can't stand the cold.

Would I do it again? You bet! I will be back to bring home at least the bronze award next year!

Sexobang —Tour De Interior

A little over half a year ago, I started cycling on almost every Saturday with some friends. And our group gradually grew to include more members. Later, we welcomed some women cyclists into the group too. After a while, we decided to name our group Team Sexobang.

A few months ago, one of the Sexobangers, Darren, mooted the idea of a cycling tour from Tenom to Ranau on the 13th of January 2012—he referred to the tour in the style of Tour De Interior. The total distance was well over 160km. But I think that distance was not really a challenge to most of us. The main challenge was the rolling hills on the Crocker Range which was quite punishing on the quads.

I did not originally plan to join the tour, however, as it was intended to start on a Friday, and I was quite reluctant to spend my leave on a cycling tour. It was initially planned that the team would start their journey from Kota Kinabalu (KK) by train in Kepayan, all the way to Beaufort, before proceeding to Tenom, the starting point of the tour. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, the train ride became impossible at the last minute, thus resulting in a special convoy of support vehicles from KK to Tenom first thing on Friday morning.

A couple of days before that, I realised that some other cyclists from another group were also joining the tour; and they would only join the Keningau-Ranau leg on Saturday morning. A few exchanges of text messages later, I managed to secure a seat in Auther's truck on Saturday morning.

At around 5am on that Saturday, I rode a short distance from my house to Burger King in Damai where I met Auther (later, I realised that his name was pronounced as Arthur, and not Author) for the first time. Denny arrived a few minutes later. We then set off to pick up some of their other friends. I was fairly amused to note that all the cyclists in Auther's group had the tendency of uttering the word "bro", in almost every sentence that came out of their mouths. We stopped for a bit in Papar town for breakfast, and then went up the steep Kimanis hills, arriving in Keningau to find the rest of the pack just about ready for the long torture.

Before we started the journey, however, we had a final briefing by Darren. Then Paul announced the dedication of the tour to our friend, the late Andrew Voon. A quick photo session followed...

Claire and Hana were also there. Of the two ladies, I was more interested in Hana, as I knew that she had only started cycling a couple of weeks before the tour. I wondered if she could handle the rolling hills, and I have to admit that I seriously doubted that she could finish even the Keningau-Tambunan leg of a little over 50km.

It was not a major concern though, as Darren, apart from being the organiser of the tour, had also taken up the role of the escort for the ladies. He was happy to assume that role, of course, as you can see from his wide smile in the photo below.

It was a beautiful sunny morning with the cool air of the highland of Keningau. We decided to take the gentle undulating village road. There was a sharp turn on the hill, and I had the unpleasant experience to be the first one to fall off my bike. It was just a minor mishap which did not trouble my cycling at all. The road was somewhat narrow and we had to be careful on the occasional huge lorries on the road.

But for the most part, it was a peaceful trip along the countryside, with beautiful views of hillslopes...

Of cows resting on the road, even though they did not pay any road tax...

Of acres upon acres of paddy fields in the yonder...

With intricate irrigation system...

Hana was steady on her bike, and once she's into it, it was hard to believe that she had only started cycling a few weeks before that. I was secretly impressed—not only with her sexy figure—but also in her determination in negotiating the hills.

Amelia was also there that morning, but because of a nasty fall the previous day during the Tenom-Keningau leg, she had a bit of problem with her wheel, causing punctures twice within just a few kilometres. That put an end to her cycling tour. But she played the role of motivator, sitting in one of the support vehicles and shouting words of encouragement with a megaphone. She also spent about an hour running on the highway under the hot sun. Insanity is a strange disease, you see.

It took us perhaps four hours or so to reach Tambunan, just in time for lunch. I was among the first few to reach. And while waiting at the roadside for the rest, the guys were telling each other how they went downhill up to 78km/h. I was always conscious of the danger of going downhill too fast. I limited myself to a maximum speed of 50km/h only, thus seeing a few of them zooming past me.

We were all still talking when someone announces the arrival of the mighty Teo Chen Lung, the Kipas King. As if because I feared his arrival, I lost my footing and fell off my bike for the second time that day. I got up quickly though because there were cars coming. But later I thought it would be nice to take a photo of that fall; and while I was at it, I might as well make it look more dramatic!

We went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. And it must have been at least an hour later before the last pack, including Hana, the escort and Auther and his friends arrived. We lingered on up till 2pm in Tambunan before starting for the Tambunan-Ranau leg.

The ride out of Tambunan was quite pleasant. But by then Hana and Claire decided not to continue cycling. Andy took the opportunity to borrow Claire's bike to ride the final leg to Ranau. At first, it was very gentle. But it soon became clear that there were more hills ahead—many, many more! And they were very long climbs too; some went on and on for several kilometres at a time.

For the most part, we struggled uphill, while the ladies had some fun teasing us.

After several punishing climbs, we stop for a bit at one of the villages along the way. A local man in a security uniform approached us, and we struck a conversation with him. Having had a bit of experience talking with villagers during the TMBT, I don't know why I asked this fellow about the hills ahead. And of course according to him, there were no more hills ahead; all very gentle undulating terrains. Villagers, if you don't already know it, don't really know the meaning of the word "HILL", you see.

As we continued our journey, we almost immediately started climbing again. By then we were already wet from the drizzle, but it eventually became a heavy downpour. At some portions, visibility became quite poor because of the fog; and the road was fairly slippery.

I became more worried on the downhill part, so I was careful to use my brakes. Andy, perhaps due to the excitement of the adrenaline rush during the downhill part, got a bit carried away. Unfortunately, he went too fast and was unable to stop in time to avoid these potholes at the bottom of the hill, thus losing control of his bike, skidding a few metres further, and finally landed on the grass on the roadside with a fractured collar bone.

He remained on the ground for a while before the support vehicle arrived. It was then not very far from Ranau, perhaps 30km to go. The ladies put him into the truck and rushed him to Ranau Hospital. The rest of us continued cycling and braved more hills ahead.

The rain became heavier again, and upon reaching the top of the hill, even Gilbert Wong who was the first in the leading pack had to admit that it was too dangerous to ride in that condition. From that point onwards, it was almost downhill all the way. With the rain and poor visibility, we had to reluctantly end the tour with about 20km to go.

It was quite a bitter decision to make for some of us. Certainly, it's not my habit to surrender in any challenge, but in the end I suppose safety had to come first.

We loaded our bikes onto the support vehicles and went all the way to Ranau, eventually learning that Andy was given a strong shot of painkiller. He made his way back to KK that same evening with the rest of us. We went to a restaurant for dinner before heading back to KK. It was such an exhausting trip. Apparently this will be an annual event, so hopefully many more cyclists will join us next year!

The Power of Sworn Denials

I had a narrow escape from a nasty accident while out cycling last Saturday morning. In fact, I dare say I might have even cheated death that morning. I supposed it's one of those perils of cycling on the highway. It was quite an experience, really; one which resulted in a sudden surge of adrenaline and chilling sensation down my spine.

Then later that morning, we found ourselves in a coffee shop for a drink. The fellowship was a lot of fun; and at the end of it, I paid for everybody. A couple of my friends teased me, jokingly asking me if it's my birthday. The truth was that it's my small way of paying forward. If there's God, He has been kind by protecting me on the highway. And I reckoned that it's my small way of saying "thank you" to Him by showing a little act of kindness to others in return.

Just about 2 weeks prior to that, I was running with some friends, and we got to talk about religions. I told them about the time when I went to church for a few months many years ago, and tried to blend in with the congregation. It was a strange experience—I was there to listen to the sermons, and I was hoping to find God. But I ended up feeling like a total idiot. When people started singing, I sang a little, but for the most part, I did not. When people stood up, I did not stand with them. Neither did I kneel down when it was time to do that. Nobody actually said anything unkind to me, but you should have seen their piercing stares—it's a kind of stare of disgust, one that made me feel so small!

Not many people can understand my position as far as God is concerned. You see, I believe in God; but not the one mentioned in religions. To me, God of the religions is a very conceited being. He yearns to be loved and worshiped by us all; He claims to give us free will, but actually not really. He knows absolutely everything. Yet He put the two idiots to the test in the Garden of Eden, knowing all the time that they'd fail miserably. He had to know what the outcome of that test would be, because He knew everything, you see. He claims to love us all, yet He is liable to lose his temper and go on a killing rampage on a grand scale!

My friend gave me quite a good lecture during that run. One of the things he said to me which remains stuck in my mind up to now, was that I should have a relationship with God. Well, as a matter of fact, I do have a relationship with God. But my God is not the God of the religions.

Most people would claim that they, too, have a relationship with their respective Gods. They dress according to the requirements of their religions; they pray in a specific way, or in a specific venue, and perhaps even in a specific direction too. On the surface they try very hard to behave every bit like what's required of their religions.

But the truth is that nobody is able to see the decays underneath the surface. Bigshots of the church have been known to have sexually abused young children. Women who are covered from head to toe getting pregnant out of wedlock; and they are quite capable of killing their own children to prevent others from knowing their dirty little secret. And when there is a need, they would readily swear on their holy book to deny their wrongdoing, knowing fully well that they're guilty as hell of the crime they're accused of.

This reminds me of a man I knew many years ago, who cheated on his wife. He said he'd admit to me that he fooled around with women. But nothing would make him admit such a thing to his wife; and he'd willingly swear on the holy book if he must!

No—I must beg to differ from Dr Mahathir's suggestion that "it is better for Muslim politicians to "swear properly" to fend off allegations instead of clogging up the courts with frivolous lawsuits." I don't care how proper is proper; it can never be good enough! I pray to God that nobody would heed such an idiotic solution to "unclog" the courts in Malaysia!

Problem, Solution & Not-So-Good Remedy

A recent seminar in Kota Kinabalu on Women's Health emphasised the pressing need to promote the use of contraception. The seminar was jointly organised by the Sabah Women's Advisory Council Health Committee and the State Health Department. It is reported that the National Population and Family Development Board would review the National Family Planning Policy, especially the suitability of providing contraceptives to sexually active young persons who are unmarried.

One of the speakers of the seminar, a friend of mine, Dr Helen Lasimbang, stressed on the importance of contraception for prevention of unwanted pregnancies which have caused a lot of social ills such as baby dumping. She went on to elaborate available options of contraceptives.

Yesterday (Sunday), in the opinions column of The Daily Express, a reader opined that "Doc should not encourage contraceptive use among young". Instead, she—I'm assuming a she—suggested that "What the doctor should have stressed, instead of contraceptives, was perhaps instilling into the girls the importance of self respect and loving themselves. They should be taught cultural and religious values that sex is forbidden before marriage."

There are many people in this world who simply refuse to believe that we, humans, are imperfect creatures in many ways. I hate to break it to them, but sometimes teaching cultural and religious values just won't cut it. We fall victims to temptations—the mind is willing, but the flesh is weak, you see.

Some of us can't resist alcohol. Others can't resist food and cigarettes. Others still can't resist facebook and greed for money; and yes, some of us can't resist sex. It's just the way we are; we have many, many weaknesses. That has always been the problem with mankind.

I think it is a romantic idea to expect young people who are quite often victims of raging hormones to refrain from indulging in sex, simply by teaching them cultural and religious values that sex is forbidden before marriage.

When people are addicted to food, no amount of education or warning of illnesses or even dreadful diseases such as diabetes and heart attacks would make them stop eating. Far from it. And even if one succeeds in scaring them off with all these bad consequences due to overeating, it would still be an uphill task to make them stop. Most of them would continue to overeat, until perhaps when they are diagnosed with clogged arteries and their lives are hanging merely by a thread. Then maybe—just maybe—they might stop, though I seriously doubt it. At least not for very long.

Sometimes, when the ideal solution can't help to solve the problem, we have no choice but to fall back on the not-so-good remedy. If, for example, no amount of advice can make me reduce the consumption of high-cholesterol food, thus resulting in elevated cholesterol level in my body, then perhaps the doctor owes the duty to at least fall back on whatever available drugs that can help in controlling or reducing the amount of cholesterol in my body. But by informing me of the availability of cholesterol-lowering drugs, that doesn't mean that the doctor is encouraging me to overeat.

Dr Helen Lasimbang is a gynaecologist, speaking in her capacity as a gynaecologist, and sharing her knowledge on methods of contraception. If we can't stop people from having sex (and I think for the most part we can't) in spite of the teaching of cultural and religious values, then we should at least protect them from unwanted pregnancies in the hope of solving the problem of baby dumping. It is not about encouraging them to have sex; rather, it's about falling back on the not-so-good remedy.