.:LZH:.: June 2007

It was 6.20 am on friday when i reached changi airport to check- in for my flight to Penang. I was very excited and not sleepy eyed. Look at the time in the departure lounge. 6.35 am!

My flight was at 8.05 in the morning. Of course I was flying by SIA. MAS also offloads passengers on to SIA and they share flights. It was actually SQ 192

A close-up view of the SIA plane seen thru' the glass panels at the transit lounge about 6.45 in the morning....

Arrival at Penang International Airport. It was about 9.30 am.

Wnet to Queen's Bay Mall to pick up my number tag and t-shirt. i was in category J running the quarter marathon. Below is a partial list of names of boys running in the quarter marathon on 24 June.

This is Queen's Bay Mall, the largest shopping centre on Penang Island, just opened in Dec 2006. It is huge.

And inide there was Border's. (Though much smaller than the one here in Singapore)

The place to collect the number tags- just outside Queen's Bay Mall... All the participants' names are pasted up. In my category there were more than 1750 runners. I was shocked to see so many particpants. The star newspaper reported that there were more than 20,000 runners in this year's marathon.

A view of the town...

The finishing point of the marathon was the field at USM - University Sains Malaysia. My father was supposed to go there to study but he changed his mind and came to Singapore instead. He actually stayed in USM for two nights before he changed his mind.Hmm, i wonder. Would i still be here if he did not come to Singapore to study? We went in for a tour of USM and my father said that it has changed a lot since he last came to Penang to study . But he never regretted not studying there. Below are some sponsors' logos...

This is RECSAM- the teacher's training college. It is the starting point of the quarter marathon. It is about 2 km down the road from USM.

Later we drove on the Penang Bridge. It is 13.5 km long and the longest in SEA. It is the third longest in the world. Wow!! Truly an architectrual marvel!

It takes more than 10 min to cross the bridge as the speed limit is 80km/hr but as always there was heavy traffic on the bridge. The towers (looking like minarets in the distance) are at the midspan on the bridge.

After crossing the bridge we reached Prai (formerly province wellesley) on the mainland. We went on to Butterworth, the capital of Prai.

Notice the logo on the right? Yes, There is a Petronas refinery at Prai, the industrial zone of Penang.

On our return from the mainland, we had to pass through the toll gate to enter the Penang Bridge. (Toll is RM7) to reach Penang island.

This is the clock tower on Penang island in Georgetown. Nearby, is Fort Cornwallis.

This is the entrance to the Fort. We had to pay admission to get in. No guesses here the flags represent what. The flag on the right is the Malaysia flag. The flag on the left is the Penang State Flag. British flag? No, not here. Also, there usedto be a moat around the fort too but since the 1920's it has been filled in.

Notice the dustbin?? Litter here??!! It is found in Fort Cornwallis, the only intact fort in Malaysia. It was built by the British. Penang was founded in 1786 by Captain Francis Light.

This is a cannon at Fort Cornwallis pointing out to the sea.

A beautiful view of the mainland from Penang's Fort Cornwallis.

later we saw these building which were the Courthouses. Looks liks Singapore's doesn't it?

We then went to Penang Hill (Bukit Bendera). However it is not the highest hill in Penang...

This is the Hill Tram ... One going up and one going down and they meet at the mid- point...

We went to Kek Lok Si Temple where we saw the giant statue of Kuan Yin.

and other Chinese Gods. It was on a hill and the view from the temple of Georgetown below was superb. I could see

Komtar (the round building on the right) in the distance. Komtar is where all the government departments in Penang are located.

This was the goodie bag collection coupon. The collection point is Komplex Belia Sukan (Youth Sports Complex was just across the road from the finishing point in USM).

My number tag...

At 3 am on sunday we boarded the shuutle bus which brought us to the traffic light intersection outside USM... The road outside USM (half km away )was closed to traffic.

We had to walk 2 km to the starting point at RECSAM. All runners had to walk... Luckily there was no rain and the weather was fine...

At RECSAM there were so many runners. We had to collect the wristband to certify that we were running.

The scene outside RESCAM at 5 am ... There was much jostling and pushing behind the gate. The policemen kept trying to control the crowd, by whistling very loudly and kept shouting ''balek jalan! ' It was hot and not cool even though it was night. As the minutes ticked by, I was anxiously waiting for the race to start...

At the Start point. The race started early at 5.24 am. I heard that the Malaysian Works Minister might flag off the race but i never saw him. .. This is the the crowd at the starting point...

I liked running up Penang Bridge in the dark. Only runners were allowed on on the bridge. No cars. All the roads leading to the Bridge were closed. I u-turned somewhere near the midspan where I collected my second band and placed it far up my arm. When i reached the ending point i found that i had run the 10km in 46min 16s. i was 33 out of 1757 registered boys. I felt very happy... This is the scene at the USM finishing point. It was about 7.30 am then.

I found out that the winner in my category was not a State runner representing Penang. So i was actually running against state runners from Kedah, Perak and Selangor. Wow!!

This is the finishing point for (J) which was my category. K is for girls 10 km. Many particpants were still running in...