Pacemaker, As One and Champ (Korean Sports Movies)

I watched a Korean movie late at night yesterday, it was scheduled to be shown on TV at 12 o'clock midnight and initially I was going to give up because I was very sleepy, then before I switched off the TV, I became energized after watching the last few minutes of funny ghost show "Sini ada hantu". Since the sleepiness faded, I watched the "Pacemaker", a Korean movie about a marathon runner. 

Like any other sports movies, "Pacemaker" is a very inspirational movie. The protagonist Man Ho was a professional marathon runner that suffered a leg injury and became a delivery guy for a fried chicken shop. Then, Man Ho former coach came back to ask him to go back to the national team to be a pacemaker for a promising marathon runner. Since Man Ho couldn't let go his love for running, he agreed to that. However, initially his coach didn't tell him that his leg injuries were so bad that after the competition, there was high possibility that he couldn't run anymore. When Man Ho knew about that, he left to pursue his dream of actually complete a marathon race to end his career, not as a pacemaker. However, due to some circumstances, he went back to the national team to join the Olympic game as a pacemaker for his teammate. During the game, his estranged brother came to see him and this motivated him, he actually finished the full marathon.

A Short Trip to Daikanbo in Aso Kumamoto

20th March 2012

Google search the keyword 'Daikanbo' will show many beautiful lush green images of field and mountain. So imagine my surprise when I reached Daikanbo on a still chilly day in March 2012, what I saw was nothing but patches of black burned ground. It was so different from what I have imagined. At first, I thought a big wild wire had burnt out the whole area, then thanks to the information board, I learnt that the area was burnt on purpose to avoid reforestation to maintain the grass field. Well, at least I never suffered from any hazy conditions for my one year stay in Kumamoto City. So, no complaint here. 

In Aso, there is even a Fire Festival 火祭り every year where two big huge "火" characters were arranged in two peaks and burnt at night. It's something tourists can go to. However, in the Aso tourist website, it mentioned that although the Fire Festival is open for tourist, the open burning is not and they hoped that non related persons will not go and disrupt the operation.

A Short Trip To Taman Negara

12th to 14th October 2013

15th October 2013 was a public holiday. Initially, me and my friends were thinking on a 4-day trip in Taman Negara. However, after much considerations, we decided to just have a 3-day trip. Well, since we were not interested in camping out in the middle of jungle, 3 days in Taman Negara were more than enough. To simplify the trip planning, we just booked everything from NKS. We chose the cheapest package, around RM150.00 per person. It includes 2 nights hostel stay, meals, tour guide and the transportation in Taman Negara. 

First Day

On the 12th October morning (a fine Saturday), I met up with my friends for breakfast before departing. It will be a long ride to Taman Negara from Selangor. Then, we tried to pump fuel when we passed by Telok Panglima Garang. However, before we entered the first gas station, the worker there was waving to us, signalling us to leave, so we thought that the gas station was running out of RON95, so we left and drove to another gas station. The next gas station was quite empty too and a staff walked out to tell us that the area was experiencing power outage, so they couldn't sell us anything. Then, my friend got a call from the factory. The power outage affected the factory we worked too, so not only the production line was affected, even the system was all down, so even though there were many finished goods, none of the stuffs could be shipped out. Then, another friend got a call from his boss, asking him to access the situation. Both my friends answered that we were going for a holiday and out of town, not able to support. Coincidentally, my trip-mates this time were all company colleagues, luckily, all 12 came from different groups. Hahaha! Our bosses could find other members to help.