No stopping me this year
LAST Sunday, I did my first run for the year. Like last year, I proudly shared my finisher medal on my Facebook account and hoped for many more medals throughout the year.
However, that posting stopped there as it was my first and last run for the year.
So this year, I am coming back with a vengeance and vow to do more runs. I want to go back to Kota Kinabalu, Penang, Bali, Indonesia and Singapore, and I want to run in Kuala Kangsar, Dhanang in Vietnam and Melbourne in Australia.
And these runs will peak with a full marathon — my sixth and probably my last full one.
Actually, I have a lot of plans this year. I want to do more hikes too — short day-trip hikes and long over-the-weekend climbs. And I want to go back to Nepal too.
No, not back to Annapurna Base Camp but to take on the beautiful Manaslu trekking circuit in December. But before Nepal, I will challenge myself to do Fuji-san. Solo.
I have always been fascinated by Fuji, the snow-capped Japanese iconic mountain, ever since I laid eyes on her when I was on a bullet train from Nagoya to Tokyo back in 2001.
When my liking for hiking started to grow, stories about people conquering it intrigued me no end.
Some say it’s as easy as our own Mount Kinabalu as it only needs a minimum of two days and one night to reach the peak.
But there are others who say otherwise. Either way, I’m hooked and all raring to take on the challenge.
Then there’s the plan my girlfriends and I have been talking about — to repeat our road trip around the peninsula which we did two years ago.
That five-day trip was more like a touch-and-go journey as we only drove along the coast and only stopped when it was time to sleep.
This time, we won’t take the same 2,500km loop. Instead we want to head straight to the East Coast. Just to enjoy its delicious, and unbelievable cheap food and its charming countryside.
Ambitious, yes. But not impossible for this year, we are blessed with a few long weekends — thanks to public holidays which we can maximise by tagging on our annual leave entitlements.
Soon, we will have the first long weekend with the Chinese New Year celebrations on Jan 28-29.
As the second day of the festivities is a Sunday, we get a replacement day on Monday.
It gets better for folks in the Federal Territory.
They just need to apply a day’s leave on Tuesday to get a long five-day weekend from Jan 28 to Feb 1 when FT celebrates its 43rd birthday.
With these long weekends, we can practically save our precious annual leave for more regular short trips or for longer holidays in further destinations.
And these do not include the state-level holidays! There are also state-level public holidays that contribute to longer weekends such as Good Friday (April 14) for Sabah and Sarawak, Israk and Mikraj for Kedah, Negri Sembilan and Terengganu (April 24, Monday), Harvest Festival for Sarawak (June 1-2, Thursday and Friday) and Nuzul Al-Quran for Kelantan, Federal Territory, Pahang, Penang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor and Terengganu (June 12, Monday).
By the look of it, with these long weekends, all my travel plans may go as planned. Unless the vagaries of life interfere and tear them asunder.
Zalina Mohd Som is an easy-to-please traveller, as long as there’s coffee and chilli. Reach her at czar-lina@nst.com.my.