How Small We Are

This ia an amazing view of the sun that captures a huge fireball on its surface that is so big that it can wrap up 100 Earths in it. The fact is the size of the sun is so mind-boggling, it is so huge that it is equivalent to 1,300,000 Earth.

In an article in Daily Mails recently here's what it quotes.

"Forget Iceland's volcano. If you want to see a really big eruption, you need to head to the Sun. This astonishing image - captured by a new Nasa space telescope - shows a ferocious solar flare looping out the Sun with the power of 100 hydrogen bombs. The ring of fire, heated to tens of millions of degrees, stretches out tens of thousands of miles - and is so big it could contain more than 100 Earths."

So next time when you have a problem, just look at the bigger picture. We are very small and so insignificant.

Cloud of Ash

The effect of the volcanic eruption in Iceland is unprecedented and has caused a huge impact on human mobility and economy. This is not only a European problem but a global one as for example banana and fruit growers from Central America to Africa are losing millions of dollars in income everyday as they cannot supply fresh products to their European customers.

It also impacted yours truly as a planned travel yesterday had to be cancelled. Indeed when looking at the statistic on how much the volcanic ash has interrupted flights, the numbers are mind-boggling. Literally thousands of flights have been cancelled, over a million people are still stranded and the end of the chaos is difficult to predict.

But this is mother nature trying to release the strains due to the movement of the earth. Iceland is right at the mid-continental rift known to possess many volcanoes. It is an amazing country to visit but in that calmness and amazing countryside scenery lies a real ticking bomb where the many volcanoes could come alive at anytime.

With the recent mega earthquake in Chile, it is a sign that the earth is trying to release the build-up strains and tensions that have been building massively over the years or decades.

It is not surprising to see that this year we already saw many large earthquakes such as in Haiti, Sumatra and just last week in China. Along with that some volcanoes also became alive. It will not be surprising if some other volcanoes will become active again. Time will tell.

Dying Heart Beat

It's a nice view of the Capital. It went through a fast development in the 80's before coming to a sudden halt. Now, everybody seems to be in a planning mood, a Master Plan is in the making.

Obviously with recent experiences with most new things some superior beings called 'consultants' had to be engaged. It would be interesting what would come out but my hunch says that there will not going to be many surprises but the obvious stuff.

It would be nice if the focus of the country's commercial and business activities are back to where it used to be - in the capital. But with the continuous explosion of other commercial centres that are dotted everywhere, BSB has became a ghost town and is losing its heart beat.

I Dream a Dream

The sports world is hotting up right now. We are in the middle of the Golf Master and the much awaited reappearance of Tiger has not been a disappointment so far. Tiger is prowling with a vengeance. Then the F1 is well underway and a good mix of unexpected results so far are definitely going to make the season more interesting than the recent past. Football is also heading towards end of its season where clubs are scrambling to stay in contention for cups and titles. The most amazing match was the 4-1 trashing of Arsenal by Barcelona, must be an amazing feeling for the Catalans supporters to be at their stadium to witness Messi's brilliance in that game.

Bumi Bertuah seems to be in a doldrum when it comes to sports recently. I remember how it was like when thousands thronged the national stadium when the national football team was doing well in the Malaysia cup. Everyone really wanted to be there at the stadium for every home match. The culmination was winning the Malaysia Cup in KL, yours truly together with more than 10,000 people made the journey there.

No doubt glory in sport or even the staging of a major sport event does have a strong positive impact on population's mood and the nation. It acts as a springboard to aspire and cultivate the 'can do' mentality. A lot of countries invest quite a lot on this. Two of our neighbours are hosting F1 race every year. Not that I am hoping that we host an F1 race here but at least get our football team back into the international fold.

Limping on Sore Legs

Two days after the big climb our legs are still hurting. Going up and down the staircase or simply walking are no longer trivial things. We wondered what if we have not done our fitness programme before the climb, it could have even been worse.

We met quite a lot of people when climbing the mountain. One guy told us he just came back from spending a week in Pokhara in Nepal. That interested me a lot and we ended up having a long conversation on the subject. It is one of the ambition I want to fulfill to trek among the highest mountains in the world and experience the unique culture of Nepal. My kids always teased me that I must be going through a mid-life crisis. I told them all these new things are to stop life from becoming too predictable. Back to this guy, he said it was actually quiet affordable and some treks are relatively easy compare to climbing Mount Kinabalu. Accommodations along the treks are a plenty ranging from US$5 to US$100 a night. Pokhara is always described as one of the most beautiful place in the world! I am not sure if Everest could be seen from there although it is only about a hundred kilometres away. Kathmandu is actually closer to Everest and a short flight is required from Kathmandu to reach Pokhara.

Ok ... back down to Earth now, there was a lot of news on car recalls nowadays. One company in particular is in the spotlight - Toyota. It has announced a major recall programme on a number of its models. One of the big issues is the sudden acceleration of one or two of their new models. It culminated with the news in the US that a police patrol car has to assist in stopping a runaway Pruis. But the whole incident now turned out be doubtful but was enough to put a serious dent on Toyota's reputation. It seemed that in a society where suing and legal proceeding is a norm, people in the US are more likely to come up with all sort of means and excuses to sue. Ironically I had similar experience with a Toyota brand 10 years ago. The car had just came out from its first servicing when after a kilometre away from the dealer's garage, the car suddenly accelerated. Luckily it has a manual gear, I managed to put it into neutral and parked on the side road. The car continued to revved up until the engine gave way. In the end I managed to get a new car replacement (was told that was the first time that was ever done to a customer here!) and thought until recently that was an isolated incident. Things have moved on. We don't have a Toyota in our garage anymore.

4 km above Sea Level

It was something that we have been thinking about since last year and we just made the final go on it last week by booking the package. But physically we have been training for it every weekend for the last 4 months.

The last time I climbed the mountain was 20 years ago. I could not remember how hard it was. Now that I did it again, I found it was grueling, tiring and very cold up there.

There are porter services available to ease one's climb but then I thought of doing the hard way by carrying a 10 kg backpack. But this was nothing compare to what the porters were carrying. A group of lady porters were carrying 20 kg of restaurant supplies each and they were paid RM100 for that. They could be earning RM3000 per month if they do it everyday - not bad. The male porters are normally for tourists. They charge from RM8 to RM10 per kilo. I saw one was carrying 38 Kg. That's a good RM300 worth of work.

We followed a guide but left him and the group behind as we were eager to climb on our own pace. We managed to overtake lots of porters and climbers and yet it still took us 5 hours and 15 minutes to reach the staging camp which is called Laban Rata before the final climb.

At times we climbed an endless trail of wooden and rocky steps for an hour before taking a rest at the resting huts dotted along the trail. The air was getting thinner as the elevation increases and most people do get slight headache because of that. So a good rest and sleep is required to acclimatised before the final climb.

The Laban Rata could accommodate up to 140 climbers and is normally full. One has to book months in advance if not to be disappointed. The whole place is now run by Sutera Habour and has became very expensive. Facilities are still pretty basic though.

We woke up at 1.30 a.m. in the morning and started the final ascend, some one km vertically up the summit. The final climb has to be done in darkness, albeit aided only with a touch light, as the climb is more daunting. There are no longer any vegetation and everything are just barren rocks. From the top, one could see countless small lights from the villages below, a sight one normally see when flying at night.

Faris was the only kid amongst the 140 climbers. Children are more vulnerable to the thin air. And it was hard for him. Most people climbed the final leg at their own pace and talking enough rest. Some people like us just did it slowly, taking regular rest and so on. The weather was very cold and windy.

Finally after 3 hours and 40 minutes we reached the 4000 m mark at the foot of the final pile of rocks. It was just another 80 m. Faris could not do it and he was just too tired. But he has done enough. I could not imagine I would have done similar feat at that age. For most kids nowadays, pampered by their parents and most of the time staying indoor and in front of their computer, we tried our best to give our kids a taste of the real outdoor. Altogether it took us 9 hours from the base to reach the summit. The feeling up there was amazing. The scenery looks unreal. We could see the other mountain ranges and the green lowlands below.

Going down was actually the more difficult part because of the slippery condition and the constant hard impact on the foot and knee. It took us 5.5 hours from the summit to the entrance gate. All in all it was a very tiring trip but more importantly our 13 year old made it. Faris really enjoyed the experience.