Singapore – Day 0

I arrived in Singapore in rush hour and decided to take a cab to the hostel rather than the MRT (train) as I had read mention of a long walk from the station up a hill to the hotel and I did not want to be humping my pack around lost in the heat on my first day. I can hear people calling chicken already !

I am staying in the Hangout on Mt Emily and the climb was no worse than the walk to the end of my street at home ! The hostel is OK, I have my own room as I want to ease into this travel thing, as warned in a number of blogs the room A) smells a bit damp and B) has freezing aircon – I am writing this wearing my polyprop ! The room is small, has no TV, no fridge or chairs or the other things I was used to from staying in three and four star hotels on my work trips.  It does have a reasonably comfortable, though small, single bed, a shower, a proper loo and a desk. Most importantly it has a wicked view from my window and the roof, has free wi-fi and is five minutes walk to Little India, which ere the reasons I chose it.

Singapore is five hours behind NZ so by the time I had checked in, showered and changed and walked down to Little India it was well after midnight by my body clock. I walked around for thirty minutes and then had a vege curry, which was very nice but I could not finish due to exhaustion and staggered back to my room, for some sleep.

Naturally I was awake about one AM, I dozed for a bit, caught up with some emails and bookfacing and waited for the sun to rise around 6.4 Things start late in Singapore, seems people are starting to surface now (8.30)  so I am off for breakie, though my stomach says LUNCH!

Impressions so far ?  crowded, warm, humid, but a friendly vibe, little india felt good, even the back alleys. Didnt see too many tourists last night, but it was probably too early.

Let Day One commence.

Crazy ? yes, Dumb ? no !

Over the past month I have started this post about a hundred times, deleted most of them, left and restarted some, deleted those and ended up with a list.

The foundation of this plan of mine started close to ten years ago, back when I was mountain biking frequently and the internet was exposing us to multi-day scenic riding events in some very cool places. My friend and riding buddy, Miles was very attracted to the idea of the Trans-Africa ride, north to south over a few weeks, but for myself I liked the idea of the multi-day Trans-Alps race in Europe. After months of reading and pondering I decided that this would be my 50th birthday present to myself,  and the idea of having my 50th in Europe was conceived.  Over the past few years my riding has languished and the training involved was too hard (I need some concrete pills), but as the idea of having my 50th in Europe never really left I elected to leave my job in June/July 2012, take a couple of months break and see the bits I missed when I was there in the eighties.

As happens all too frequently circumstances changed at work, I was extremely stressed, over worked and in the end so unhappy I gave three months notice and resigned in October. This left me with the prospect of going to Europe over winter or finding an alternative – so the visit to SE Asia was planned.

Numerous people who know me well, have asked why SE Asia ?,  and why so long ?  The why is easy, I have always wanted to visit Angor Wat and I want to see orang-utans !  That is it!  I could easily do those in a couple of weeks, so why so long ? Buggered if I know !

SE Asia is so severely outside my comfort zone, everything about going there and being there is a challenge.  From getting off the first flight in to the heat and humidity of Singapore to the complete lack of a plan of how, where and when it should end is just not how I roll or have rolled for the past 49 years.  I believe that if I can survive a few weeks, months even better, travelling in SE Asia, then I can survive anything !

I see this as a challenge to myself, an opportunity for me to change the way I see Phil Platt, and hopefully make him a better person at the end of it. If I don’t do the time  and leave for Europe or back to New Zealand in a couple of weeks I will not see this as a failure, but I will be glad that I at least  tried !

Below is the list of why I think this idea is a bit ridiculous.

Like many people I have irrational fears of many things;  Spiders, snakes, sharks, heights, unexplained noises at night, other peoples driving on tight, windy roads with cliff edges, being mugged (experienced it, not nice !), being scammed/pick pocketed etc.

I also have a completely rational fear of zombies and sometimes they DO keep me awake at night, this is completely true and I will get up in the night and close a window if I am feeling it !

I dislike; heat and humidity, crowds, drunks, loud people (especially loud drunk people !), smokers and worst of all  – other peoples bad taste in music.

I am uncomfortable with; standing out – hence I don’t do street photography, confrontation – even with people i know, being alone – I can easily go into hibernate mode if I don’t watch out, approaching strangers for companionship or to travel, seeing the poverty, beggars, the crippled and the other sites and smells of the third world.

I suffer from insomnia and really like dark, quite, cool places to sleep, or I will go days without sleeping.

In a way I am quite naive, I have no idea if my plan, or lack of plan is a good thing, if cruising SE Asia on my own at 49 and 25 years away from any other travel experience is a smart thing to do

So all in all is this trip “Crazy ? yes, Dumb ? no !  I guess I will find out.

Fare thee well New Zealand

After starting to think about this trip five months ago, D-Day has finally arrived and my plan is no further ahead than it was then, in fact the options have gotten far more complicated as time has gone and i really have no idea what the future holds  beyond my flight to Kuching (Sarawak, Borneo) in 3 days time !

I was planning on a final New Zealand post from the airport before I left, however with no free wi-fi at Auckland airport I had a glass of wine and browsed Facebook on my phone instead. So I am writing this as we bump our way over Indonesia at 40,000 feet.  Jetstar business class is comfortable, the food and drink is OK but the movie selection is dire. I have watched Contagion and Cowboys and Aliens, both were average movies and filled four hours of the ten hour flight, leaving two more hours to go now.

I have had a good last week in Auckland, stayed with a number of people and have really appreciated those nights. Last night I stayed at mums, which was very nice and she took me to the airport this morning where my sister met us for coffee and final farewells. I am not good at the whole farewell thing so just having mum and Sarah was perfect. I said good bye to Aiden yesterday and to Meliesha on Christmas day when I took her to the airport for her return to England, so there was no tearfull leaving 2 of my babies behind.

Thanks to all of you who let me do the goodbyes my way, it made it all so much easier. Thanks also to those who have fed and watered me and let me stay in your house over my three homeless weeks, you all mean a lot to me.

So, it is farewell to New Zealand, to Aiden and mum, the Hunters and  to all my buddies – I will miss you and wish you well until I see you again, whether it is back home or in some foreign location.

I also meant to get mum to take a photo of me at the airport, all loaded up with my backpack, but totally forgot so no photo this post.

At least I have free wi-fi in my hotel ! Singapore post tomorrow !

A Christmas Eve jog – final Waitakeres run

On  the morning of Christmas Eve I went for my last trail run in the Waitakeres for who knows how long. Vicki’s favourite trail is Omanawainui , which I am going to say is not one of mine. Last time I ran Omana, we ran up it in a howling wind and horizontal rain, as the trail is largely exposed it was not a huge bundle of laughs ! However, Christmas Eve was virtually cloudless and still, so I suggested we run down Omana and back up Kura, giving us a run under two hours, which was all I was capable of after an average ride yesterday.

With a wee bit of trepidation we took off , jogged up the start of Omana. After the mudfest  that was Home track last week I was a bit concerned about the conditions on the trail, Omana is steep in parts and I really wanted to avoid twisting an ankle with only three days to go before I leave ! Concerns were completely unwarranted, it was like we were running in a different season to last week, the track was very dry and verging on dusty in parts.  My one complaint !! the amount of gorse and cutty grass was appalling, almost made the track unusable in parts.

Omana has some stunning views over the Manukau harbour and Whatipu Beach. I have never seen  (I say this regularly)  the harbour so still, stunning !

Looking back up the harbour towards Cornwallis

I am looking vaguely atheletic 🙂Looking over Whatipu BeachWhatipu ! I have never seen it so still, it looked like you could have snorkelled there !

After Omana we ran up Kura track back to the car. While Omana is either steeply up or steeply down, Kura completely lulls you into a false sense of security by being flat for the first couple of KM’s, running through some nice second generation native forest with  four little stream crossings. It then ends with a brutal climb to the Puriri Ridge track and a wee flat jog back to the start.

It was a great last run (stagger up the hills), great weather, stunning views and good company !

Come on Auckland Council, this gorse and cutty grass is ridiculous !

Last mountain bike ride at Woodhill (for a while)

I have been riding mountain bikes for thirteen years now and for most of that time I have ridden at Woodhill forest, just north of Auckland. When we first started riding there the tracks were managed by the Auckland MTB Club and there was a limited number of trails. Many  years ago the park changed to a commercial enterprise and has expanded immensely with many many kilometres of managed single track riding.

As the park is now commercial you have to pay a fee to ride,  this was/is still a source of contention amongst the longer term mountain bikers, but hey the tracks are good and they do sell coffee at the park !

A few years back I spent a couple of weeks building tracks (and got to ride for free for a few years) I worked with a group on a number of tracks but built the “No Brakes” track myself over a couple of work holidays. I have a soft spot for Woodhill !

Miles and I went up there on Friday afternoon, the hottest day of the summer so far, for a last ride for a while. For some reason I was dead flat and had limited power, so we didn’t have the longest or fastest ride, however it was, as always, a good ride, and we did ride out the back and do No Brakes…

Miles heard a rumour that the Spaghetti trail block of forest is going to cut down soon 😦 Spag must have opened in 2000 and was one of my favourite trails, I have ridden it hundreds of times as it is a good link out to the back trails. I hope it doesnt get the chop, but if it does at least I rode it before I left.

Hopefully I will get some riding in in SE Asia, but will definitely do some in Europe and if I settle there for a while I will buy myself a new bike, one with gears and lots of suspension !

Gallery – Pohutakawa Tree

I love pohutakawa trees – otherwise known as the NZ Christmas tree, due to them blossoming this time of year.

I have tried to photograph them for a while but the wind has just been strong enough to not allow close ups, so this is as good as it gets . I will still be hunting for the definitive pohutakawa shot before I go in 6 more sleeps time.

This one was taken at Mission Bay.

Gallery – Barbers Shop

Derelict Barber Shop on Great North Rd, just outside of Avondale.

I have driven past this place thousands of times and have always said that one day I would stop and photograph it. I have been waiting for the right light, but with “summer” what it is I am not sure I am going to get it.

When we first came back from Europe in 1988 we lived in Avondale and the shop was a going concern and I had a couple of cuts here.

HRBR Piha Valley trail run

The Huia Rd Bush Runners (HRBR) are a group of passionate and dedicated Waitakere Ranges trail runners. The group has existed for a number of years and hold semi-organised trail runs three times a week. I had my first ever trail run with them a few years ago and managed three runs before badly spraining an ankle.  I run with them rarely these days as timing doesn’t always suit and a lot of the runners are just too fast for me !

I managed to get out for a run with them on Saturday, in a slow and short group fortunately. We all started off together and I was mostly keeping up with the fast guys for the first couple of KM’s of mostly downhill, but at the short/long run junction I split off as I knew I could not keep up for much longer.  It proved to be a wise decision as I was stuffed at the end, even after the short and slow run !

We ran down towards Piha, which is probably my favourite section of the Waitakeres.  There are some lovely trails ,with an occasionally runnable ascent and some nice streams and the wonderful Kitekite falls.

The tracks we ran were Home, Connect, Piha Valley Track, Kitekite Falls, Winstone and back along Home to the start. It was an hour and a half run over just under ten km. The conditions under foot were just incredible considering it is a week until Christmas !  Deep sucking mud, shallow mud, mud puddles and a slippery surface between the mud.

It was a great wee run.  Due to the weather I didn’t hang around waiting for the long run guys to come in and have a  post run beer.  I didn’t have a change of clothes and needed to get clean and dry.

I used the default camera app on my Galaxy phone for these images and wow, massive improvement in quality over the Small Camera app I downloaded. Small Camera now deleted and I will stick to the default.

One week to go !