Crimp harder, Step harder!

Woohoo, back from Thailand!!! Sorry for the looong silence, I have been trying to catch up on my work.


Never realized how much I missed this place until I saw it again. This is the beach I ran on for two consecutive mornings. For the rest of them I was either a) too tired or b) to groggy (from not sleeping) to run. Yup. Sandra didn't sleep for the first few nights, I woke up every day at either 7 or 6.


One good thing about staying in Railay beach is that instead of going to Railay walls to climb, we decide to trek over to Tonsai to climb. Smart. First day: Fire Wall: 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6b+. Guys struggled on some 6c+ that another girl with huge shoulders from Canada nearly on-sighted. Girl power!!



Next day: the Keep. My own choice, mind you. I was given the choice since I was only there for one week. So I chose the Keep after they told me that you have to trek to get there. First go through the water.


Then through Duncan's Boot. 6a, 6c (much easier than graded), 6b+ (hanged on it and when I tried to do it again, I couldn't start. Shame). The worst thing about that is that I overheard Pengyang rant that One-two-three wall was hogged by ang mohs and i just didn't want to try again.


And climb down a chimney.



But the views from The Keep are amazing. 6c, 6c+. Sandra finished a 6c!!!(Woohooo!!!) Doris and I struggled on another slabby technical 6c. Guys (John, Jiasheng, Yixiang) 6c+ (nutcracker - i love the name) and 7a, woohoo!



Next day: REST Day!!! Futile attempt to see the sunrise at 0630 - it was cloudy and the sun was already up. We wanted to eat dim sum in Krabi town, BUTT because the guys were late getting up (as usual) we got there too late and just ate some leftover dim sum.


Krabi town is interesting. But nothing much. Went to the internet, 4 times to the wet market hoping that maybe the stalls would open. Funny traffic lights,


Unknown fruit,

Unknown idols,


Driving cat



We spent a lot of time searching for Padi, Chili. Padi, Chili is the key-chain elephant that I have attached to my chalk bag. Chili Padi is cut chilies in soya sauce. THE thing Caleb cannot do without.



On the way back on the long tail boat we nearly got stranded on a sand bank because of the low tide. Jiasheng, Yixiang and I got off the boat to push it on a deeper channel. Jiasheng lost his slipper (notice the sad face).


The sun got to us so by that night, Gerry, Doris and I were sick. 3/4 of our room was sick and Sandra was still insomniac.

Next few days it was Dum's Kitchen and Tyrolean walls. By this time we had already lost John and Pengyang who went searching for more exciting (grade-wise, and climb-wise I hope) routes. The route most dear to my heart is Missing Snow. Get it, missing, snow?! It has some tufa on it that looks like icicles (this is not my picture because I did not bring Bobby along).


Last climbing day was at Dum's Kitchen. 6b and a pathetic failed attempt on a very strong 6c through which Doris just breezed. Had I had any ego left I would have felt very bad. The only good thing about climbing harder routes is that Your. Ego. Just. Goes.


I love and hate climbing on the beach (notice Gerry, NOT posing).


I love it for sights like these, but I hate it because ropes get wet and sand just gets everywhere.



Notice me, my big ass and Padi, Chili climbing the 6b. Right hand to a crimp then to a big jug. Big move. I have just realized that for me, putting up the draws on a route is very hard. No shit.


I saw Lion King (notice the bigger flake and how it just looks like a lion's mouth) and decided that this is next year for me. Yixiang finished it, yay!!


Jiasheng moved into the 26-year old league. Welcome, friend!


Saturday I left for Phuket. The boat - bus thing repeated itself, only this time I was alone. I had asked the driver to drop me in Phuket town but when I got there and saw that there were no hotel signs and everything was written in Thai (!!!) I decided to go to Patong Beach instead. Got there, got off the bus and went in the first guesthouse I could find. Realized that my tv has only one channel (in thai) and went to find a bookstore. After walking 3km to the Robinson mall (the dear driver had dropped me at the beginning of Nanai street - the street with all the guesthouses) I found a bookstore. Bought a book. Then went to carrefour for some cheese. Yes, I know. Trekked back, realized what was wrong with the tv but by that time I was too tired to read or watch tv. Got met by Marian and Maria & Mihai at the airport and that was that.


Crimp harder, step harder! :

Yell from above: I don't know how to do!!!! Answer (by Jiasheng): Crimp harder, step harder!!!

We missed Cherlyn. Never summoed on the beach. The girls (Gerry and Doris) should not be allowed to climb in the sun. The rest of the photos are here.

The joys of reviewing papers

Reviewing papers that were submitted for journals is always a tedious thing. First of all, because the deadline for the review is so far away from the moment you receive the paper, you usually end up reviewing it in the last 20 minutes or so before the review is due. Secondly, it is so unbelievably BORING to read 30 pages or so about other people's work. We did this, bla bla bla and then we did this bla bla bla, not like that guy did it but like this bla bla bla. But not when you review papers that were written by authors (like myself) for whom English is a second language. Even more so if you read papers that were translated (using a translator) from Chinese to English, or papers whose authors are definitely Chinese (or german for that matter, or thai). You can tell by the way the phrases are constructed and so on :) A few examples, even though these are not by far the best :))

However, the separation also leads to much bewilderment in the process of assembling systems. (bewilderment? wtf?)

First, the composition of quality properties is even impossible or it is possible but not at the same phase as that of functionalities, which makes it difficult to reason ...

Second, it is a paradox that dealing with the functional and quality of requirements of components separately.

The approach allowed designing and developing a software tool for devs modeling and simulation.

... besides the underlying network connectivity, the causally entering or quit of autonomous software entities may dramatically impact on the availability of software systems as well since the availabilities of autonomous entities may change over time and they are even unpredictable to some extent.

An AC had better be reused and assembled like a traditional component and it implements a collection of interfaces as a traditional component so that users could invoke its services.

A man in a line

I went today to the Thai embassy to get my visa since I am leaving for Railay on Sunday, woo hooo!!! Queued up because I was early as usual. Behind me, there was this caucasian man in about his sixties, short but fit. Started a conversation with me even though I was evidently listening to music :) He was from New Zealand but had been living in Thailand for a LONG time. Boat builder and English Teacher. He told me how he was the first white guy the townspeople of Lopang or Lampang had seen in ages. He was with some poverty organization that paid him to teach English to people in Thailand free of charge. People would still try to pay him money and would shove 100 Baht in his pockets to which he would give back 80 baht. Then when he would get home he would find food on his porch.

He said that the bar girls found it unbelievable that he would not drink or sleep with them, but instead he would take them outside, sit on the sidewalk and teach them english. It would be a great deal for somebody from that town to travel to Bangkok, but when he left 30 people showed him off to the airport. Talk about life with a meaning, huh?

He said that when he came to Singapore 35 years ago, he had long hair down to his hips (rocker, playing in a band) and that one of his friends told him to wear a t-shirt instead of a shirt. Why? Because in order to exit the airport and enter Singapore he had to have his hair cut. Now that he had a t-shirt on, they only cut it to t-shirt level. Had it been a shirt with a collar, they would have cut it much shorter.

GIRLPOWER!!!!

Woohoo!!!! Last night just got a text message from NitA!!!!!!! Kumaran and Terence reached Uhuru peak and the rest of them reached Stellar point, 140m below the peak! I don't know more yet, but will update with stories and pics just as soon as i get them! I can't wait to hear the whole story!!

Shrub, just go fuck yourself

And this does the "shrub" disservice: even shrubs have better sense than what I am reading:

President George W Bush has called on Congress to end a 27-year ban on drilling for oil in US coastal waters, to reduce dependence on imports. [...] In a news conference at the White House, Mr Bush told Congress there was "no excuse for delay" in lifting the ban.

"Families across the country are looking to Washington for a response," he said.

Environmentalists have reacted with alarm to Mr Bush's call, arguing that off-shore drilling would take at least a decade to have any effect on oil supply and would exacerbate climate change.
"We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil," said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican.

He advocated "new technologies and new fuel choices for consumers" instead.

Mr Bush, who has repeatedly pushed for an end to the ban, has accused Democrats of using their control of Congress to undermine attempts to boost domestic oil production.

The president also renewed his call on Wednesday for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to be opened up to drilling.

Presents!!

Happie happie! Not only has Marian returned from san francisco, a reason to be happy in itself, BUTT! I have a lot of wonderful presents which I am here to boast about.

Fiirst, a sports watch: Tada!! Useful functions like timer, stopwatch and alarm. Nothing more, which makes it delightfully useful. Plus, it's blue!!


Theen, a Patagonia singlet to show my muscles in. Will only wear it when i will be able to climb 6b. Effortlessly. Or if I run out of outfits in Krabi, whichever comes first.


Next, my favorite (even though a bit hypocritical), a Save the planet Hard Rock cafe t-shirt. It's green, it's soft, it's wonderful! But it's made in China, hopefully not in some sweatshop (even though i suspect the opposite).


Then, a Nike+ sensor - must buy the iPod though.


Finishing off with a pink blouse from Levi's. Not the blonde pink, but still pink. I like it though (picture not available). Nothing beats the fact that Marian is home though. IR iz happie!!

Kilimanjaro team

Yes I am aware that there might not be any Internet cafes in the bloody safari but I so much want to know how Nita and Fen did! Why oh why can't they just reply to my email OR blog on their blogs? They are coming back on the 22nd, which is coming up soon, but still! I want to know!! If only I knew their home phone numbers ...

The skies have won

From Explorer's Web tribute to Inaki Ochoa:

A realist, Inaki had little hope for the future of Mount Everest. "80 years from now Everest will be climbed by helicopters and cable cars," he said. "In the lift, you will hear somebody say, 'Hey, remember years ago all those dumb-asses getting themselves killed in avalanches and storms?' And people will agree, smiling and shaking their heads in disbelief. Fortunately I’ll be gone."

[...]

Yes Inaki was careful, but he was no coward. "Comfort, security and money are the three modern Gods of our western civilized society," he said. "Everything is ergonomic, insured, and aimed to take least possible physical effort. The value of whether a thing is good or bad is determined by how much money you can make out of it."

"Himalayan climbing is regarded useless and stupid, because you have to sweat to make your dreams come true and because you might die - as if you would live forever were you not a climber."

The hill ...

It has been conquered. And down it went my friends ... Sunday morning when Mihai and Mariuca finally woke up (around 1pm), we went again to Bukit Timah nature reserve. Yup. I did the hill three times, running to the top and walking back. I only stopped the first time after the steeper slope because I had made a tactical error and ran too fast!! Which of course left me dead by the time I reached the nicer part :) When I was coming back from my second run a man in his fifties that was running the mellow part told me that he saw me running the steep part and "Congratulations, you're doing great!". I met him and his wife again when I was running the third time and he said "congratulations" again :) By that time that was the only thing that kept me going (that and the fact that I had told M&m that I will be running three times).

Saturday was a bad day for climbing. Do remind me never to climb when I'm tired. I could only trust myself to hold the really really big hand holds (think the size of my head) and to step on really big things. Truly horrible performance. For the easy peasy routes that I could do without a sweat last time, this time I was drenched and shaking like a leaf. Bugger. Sandra's climbing has improved a lot, she's inspiring me :)

Finally ...

After one year, I have managed to get to the Bukit Timah nature reserve and run! Yay!! Even though it was raining and we only ran uphill on the very first slope that we could see from the parking lot, it was great!! The slope is about 45-50 degrees steep, for the first 500 meteres and then maybe it reduces to 20 degrees for the next maybe 800 meters. To my shame, I did not run the 500 m steep one in the first go. This is because I didn't expect it to be soo long, so I nearly died when after the first corner I was greeted with the same steepness ... On the second try and after careful consideration and application of my strategy, I succeeded in running the whole 500 m. For Sunday, I plan to run the whole thing (till the hill top) three times. Can't wait!

The back of my thigh feels a bit stiff. This is because on Wednesday Mihai, Maria and I decided to go for a run. Only 1 km mind you (they are pretty out of shape), but then Mihai said we should do some sprints. And sprints we did. Imagine me trying to run fast ... It's like watching a beer barrel trying to roll itself on a flat surface ... Mihai and Maria have been so kind as to take care of me now that Marian is in San Francisco. This only means that I'm making the poor souls do much more sports than they would normally do. This together will late night watching of football matches has turned my brain to M.U.S.H. So today I am slacking in school, woo hoo!! Will catch up on Sunday, I swear.

Sleep deprivation, woo hoo!

Pathetic uneventful football last night. What I really am upset about is that because I watched the damn match until 02(fucking):30 am, I didn't get enough sleep. This has left me feeling drowsy and literally speechless - I cannot express myself in articulate phrases and I manage just by giving examples (like now). Just the perfect time for my supervisor to come take me to lunch woo hoo!! Yup. Managed not to make a total ass of myself but had we stayed longer, I would definitely have succeeded. Still sleepy now and with a tendency to procrastinate (e.g. blog and surf).

Long hair's a hassle

Yesterday morning was supposed to meet Shumei at Dover MRT station at 0620 to go for Singapore Passion Run (15km). Because by 0610 i was still in the bathroom trying to fix my hair with colorful clips such that when I run I don't look like this deranged ang moh hovering over her poor singaporean friend, I had to make a run for the mrt station which is one km away. So in the end ran 16 km yesterday. Yay! With a very good time also, 1hr:37 minutes, woohoo, we're good! The only bad point of the race was that the water (WATER) points didn't have water and 100Plus together, they only had one of them, with the last waterpoints stacking up only on 100Plus. Yuck. I hate 100Plus when I run because it leaves a taste in my mouth and is gassy.

Which left me hick-uping. Which lasted all the way back home and on the tennis courts where I played tennis for another hour and a half. Bad, uneventful tennis. Much like the Roland Garros final which I said last year that I will not watch again. Federer lost again. This time though, I did not hate Nadal as much. He played the best tennis on clay I have ever seen, and for once he was really a gentleman. Perhaps he is picking up something from Federer as well :)

Today was supposed to be leading! yay! Just that after one hour and a half of traveling to the wall, all I wanted to do was sit down and talk. To say nothing of the fact that when I saw the plastic tiles I wanted to cry for thailand again. After an hour or so, headed back (yet another hour). In an hour or so Romania will face France in the euro 2008 championship. We will lose, which will gain me 2 beers.

Been trying to get a hold of Tracy or lindsey to go for climbing and yoga and climbing respectively, but none of them answer. something must be up. Maybe it's just monday.

All is well. I can now tie a small pony tail. Mondays suck.

Climbing in Thailand (Photoblog)

We finally got there after a taxi from the airport to the bus terminal, 3 hrs bus to krabi, taxi to Ao Nammo pier, then boat to Railay east beach.

Then I made Marian go climbing immediately after we got our accommodations figured out and bought another guide book because we forgot my dear book in the bus. See the enthusiasm on his face.


Our resort was way too nice for the time we spent in it.


I even got to run on two occasions on the beach (I don't know how i will complete the race on sunday!!)


We climbed a lot of nice, easy routes. And we also took a kayak once to the sea! Very relaxing, although I insisted on taking Bobby. The sea was restless but we managed out of there safe and sound.


And took some Lord of the rings like pictures.


Even though the waves were big


some people kayaked much better than us. He even told us something but we didn't get it because of his french accent. Mais oui...


Had a rest at an island close to Pra Nang beach.


If you must know I was wondering if my blisters were going to soften because of the salted water.


Climbed Lord of the Thais and Mala Mujer. Both beautiful, long routes with marvelous views from the top.




We even met up with Kiat, our trainer for this semester, and his friends. Had lovely diners. Notice my knee tan (I do look silly, don't i?)


Went into Diamond cave and then to Pra Nang beach on the other side. Just lovely.


I know now that I can climb 6b. Rewarded myself with a mango sticky rice afterwards (notice I did not wash my hands).


Ate a lot of tom yam soup (i suspect the shrimp!)


Enjoyed the magnificent views both in Tonsai and Railey.


Had a lovely time all in all.

Side note: You can run marathons, do yoga, climb mountains, but NOTHING beats losing weight like good ol' diarrhea!!

Out of office

Pending any unforeseen circumstances (plane crashes, forgot passport, etc), I will be here for the next 6 days. I promise to

1. eat as much thai food as I can


2. climb as much as I can


3. run for half an hour on the beach every night

In other news, today is my grandfather's birthday!! He turns 81 today. 81!!! And I remembered all by myself!!

I feel so bad that I wasn't able to go for the last training of the Kilimanjaro team!!! Nita, Mei Fen, Tausif, Kumaran and Jon (sorry if any spelling mistakes), GO GO GO GO GO!!

Geek humor

Got this from ScienceBlogs:

Whenever you build an airplane, you have to make sure that each part weighs no more than allocated by the designers, and you have to control where the weight it located to keep the center of gravity with limits. So there is an organization called weights which tracks that.

For the 747-100, one of the configuration items was the software for the navigation computer. In those days (mid-1960s), the concept of software was not widely understood. The weight of the software was 0. The weights people didn't understand this so they sent a guy to the software group to understand this. The software people tried mightily to explain that the software was weightless, and the weights guy eventually went away, dubious.


The weights guy comes back a few days later with a box of punch cards (if you don't know what a punch card is, e-mail me and I will explain). The box weighed about 15 pounds. The weights guy said "This box contains software". The software guys inspected the cards and it was, in fact, a computer program. "See?", the weights guy said, "This box weighs about 15 pounds". "You don't understand", the software guys responded, "The software is in the holes".

Wake up people!!

Finally woke up from this weekend's slumber. And although I am still depressed (just found out that I weigh sixty fucking two kg omg omg) I am carrying along. So. Got asked after comp what kind of music I like and believe it or not I couldn't answer. My last neuron that was still awake but still, dead tired, could only speak Singlish and laugh at my own jokes (which nobody else could get or understand). Been thinking the past few days how on earth I could not answer that question. So yeah man! I like music! Yay!! All kinds of music, all kinds of stuff ... Beethoven, red hot chili peppers, Bob Marley only on Sundays, Buena Vista Social club for drinks or when it's too hot outside, Starsailor when I want to be left alone, U2 most of the time, Metallica or Rammstein to wake up. I feel great for finally having settled this about myself. Amazing how sometimes you lose your identity only to find it back in foreign things you know you loved.

A good kick in the ass ...

... is just another step forward!

I guess ... Yup. L.A.S.T for Rockmaster! Yay :(( Or the first from the bottom of the queue, whichever. Anyhow, good competition. Route reading mistake on the first route. Pumped out on the second. Bad technique (left my butt too low) on the third. My finger didn't give me any problems except on the first route. There it hurt like hell. Tracy and his daughter Lindsey came to cheer. And so did all the team, which kinda embarrassed me cause they were cheering for nothing and I knew it. Lindsey commented that my back muscles are huge*... Too bad i don't know how to use them. Rewarded myself with a "sausage and mash" at brewerktz; the portion was huge but I just didn't care :)).

If anything, I just want to climb more. Siti said that she was also last for her first open comp, so maybe there is a chance. Siti is an incredibly strong, short, thin, brave climber. I cannot be short and thin, but maybe strong and brave i could manage.



she didn't say that though, she said well defined and nice - i am meeting a lot of incredibly polite people, a nice flavor for my bluntness :))

A lot of sports these days

Yup. Summing it up:

• Monday - Sleep sleep sleep. Tennis in the evening (1hr).


• Tuesday - Run about 10-11 km (don't know for sure, my iPod is iLost).


• Wednesday - Climb for 2 hrs (bad idea, finger pain again). Run about 10-11 km. Good thing Shumei wanted to run (as in she did not give in when I said "run now or don't run at all" when we were trying this very nice route), cause otherwise I would not have dun it. All i regret is that I definitely ran too slow.


• Thursday - Trek in MountHill Faber for 1 hr and a half. Did the hill three times. Ran two times on the final slope. Played tennis for twenty minutes. Maria is definitely improving, yay!


• Today - Play badminton for one hour.


• Tomorrow - Compete in Rockmaster. My aim is a) not to finish last (second last is good). b) be able to start. I have just realized that this Rockmaster will only be my fourth competishun. Evar! Woohooo! Scared.


• Sunday - Tennis two hours in the morning (if it doesn't rain). Then trek between MacRitchie and Bukit Timah parks. These are two adjoining parks but not very close, mind you. The trek should last about three hours. As you can see, I've already made plans for Sunday, so this will be the reason why I will not qualify for the Rockmaster finals. Rrrright.

Long long days

Yep. Things have not been wonderful Chez Claudia these past few days. First, there was Friday. Mmmm ... Friday was good. Up until the point we decided to play tennis. And I started to play with Maria first, who's just learning tennis (not that I'm better, but still). Then I played with Marian, whose mind wasn't in the game for some reason or other. Which got me really pissed, because my mind WAS in the game, and I wanted to play. So. I set up this rule. For every point that he loses or whenever his mind wasn't in the game, he would do 5 push-ups. The same for me. So in the end, the score was 85-65 push-ups. 85 for me, 65 for him (needless to say that after I put up this rule, his mind was instantly in the game :)) ) So I ended up having to do 85 push-ups. Actually, Maria did 9 for me, so I only did 76 in series of 10. Only my ass. The next day, I could barely take a cup of tea to my face. Sunday morning, I could barely use the air con remote control. To top it up, I just realized last night that I lost my ipod Friday night when we went to the pull-up/push-up bars. Yup. My nice, red, ipod. With my nike-plus sensor. And with my nice engraving "Stop being a dreamer, Start being a doer" (which you can see I made it up myself). Sheesh, life sux.

Saturday, to my shame, instead of going to Rockmaster (very very close to my home) to cheer for the novice and intermediate climbers, I went shopping! the whole day!! There's no excuse for me, but I did it because I am officially NOT climbing (until tomorrow) so I didn't want to see anybody climb. Shopping was good though. Long time (maybe three months) since I've done it.

Sunday, well ... played tennis for two hours from nine to eleven in THE FUCKING MORNING. Then dozed by the pool. Then dozed some more in MacRitchie reservoir car-park, where I waited for ONE hour for the guys to show up for our trek. No, I was not early. Not by much (10 mins). It will be fun to watch them do push-ups though. Cause you see, I was so traumatized by my push-up experience that now I am making them do one push-up for every minute they are late after their 10 minutes late allowance. Cool. Life is good when you get to torment people. The trek was the only good part about my weekend I guess. It was marvelous. We went jungle bashing for about 20 minutes- not really a jungle, it was more like a normal forest from back home, but still it was great to be a bit secluded and in the wild (this is rare in Singapore).

Monday. Public holiday. Had it in my mind to go to work. Canceled the meeting with Cherlyn - i was supposed to belay people on the route we set on Wednesday. Then, instead of going to work, I slept the whole day. Yup. The whole day. From twelve to six pm. We played some tennis in the evening and that was that. A lot of tennis, a lot of sleep for me these days. I miss my red ipod.

Ahhhh ....

Spent the whole day yesterday helping Cherlyn set some routes for some youth competition. Whoa! Very very very tiring it was, especially since I decided that it would be good to approach the wall wearing sandals! The tiles were very yucky, especially if you held them with a sweaty hand ... Anyhow, my finger hurt really bad so I only set up three quarters of one route. But I helped out a lot!!

And in the evening we went to eat Durians! Yay! I absolutely love them. I think I ate the most too! Poor mortals, they had no idea how much I can eat, haha! :)) Pictures coming soon, I hope. I ate so much durian last night that today I can only take salty stuff. Plus I still feel extremely bloated and full. But it was worth it, the durians were great!

It's that time of the year again

When after boulderactive I try to train maybe a bit too much and then boom! injury strikes! Yup. My right-hand ring finger is out of business. For like I don't know how long. Been hurting for quite a while now ... I have a very very high pain threshold so I thought I would just ignore it and it will go away. Noes noes. While ignoring it I tried cold water treatment and the likes, but no can do ... must rest. So I rest. Yesterday I only climbed for half an hour. Using mostly only my left hand, and the index and thumb from my right hand (i taped my middle and my ring finger together to make sure I don't use them). Pathetic but what can i do. Tonight we have training. Yay! booo!! Tomorrow I am helping Cherlyn with some route setting and then durian parteee in the evening. Yay!!

Looking for replacement

I am so sorry to say but I am looking for a replacement. For whom?! For me, of course!! I just can't take it anymore, I simply can't ... This monday they went out to dinner with Tracy, one of their new friends. And since Tracy had said that he is hungry, and they very well knew what this meant when it happened to her, they rushed in a cab to the restaurant. The cabbie's driving style was simply awful and this left us all feeling a bit dizzy. While I was relaxing on her lap and contemplating the nice indian food we were going to have, she got up, payed the taxi, got out of the car ... And there I was, left alone on the seat! Oh my ...I can't begin to tell you how it is to have one's self frisked by foreign hands ... YUCK ... to have all your private cards and places being scooped out and prodded at with foreign fingers ... Aww ...

I was so distraught I couldn't even speak to tell the cabbie to phone the number on the bright orange card that said "Marian" ... he's the responsible one of the lot, he'll know what to do to save me ... But noes ... The cabbie drove back to the restaurant but couldn't find her in there - this is because the picture I carry of her is one when she was fat and ugly(er) ... Poor little old me, I had to spend the night in the car, in one of those horrible areas of Singapore, a far cry from my cozy orange bedroom. It was very difficult to sleep because all my cards were in one place and obstructed my spine. Plus all the cats were meowing ... urgh ... In the morning the cabbie took me to NUS and left me there. He said it was a fair exchange that he would take all my 37 dollars for all the trouble. I was still under shock and I couldn't protest.

Two hours later, we were reunited at last! She hugged me close and re-arranged the cards, filled me with CASH. All was well again. Until last night. I went and bought three oranges and Marian placed me close to them such that I can get a whiff of the adorable orange smell. But then ... he went ahead and put the oranges in the fridge. And guess where I spent last night?!?!?!

Ah, weekends!

Spent the whole day yesterday OUTDOORS!! Yupii!! In the morning we went to Climb Asia, where I found this amazing 6b+ gray route (that I cannot link yet - i fall midway). Here is Tracy climbing the route (this is also the only picture in which I look reasonably fit) The rest show my huge back and forearms (believe me, u don't wanna know).









We stayed there from 11 to 4 pm. Afterwards Nita came and picked us up and we went MacRitchie!! Yay!! The blur one in this picture is me. Yup. I managed to sprain my ankle TWICE. Once in the parking lot (Yeah, i know, and I should be telling them pro stuffs about the mountains), and once on the trail. To my credit, I was super tired and hungry (only 1 1/2 banana and half an orange for lunch). The girls did an extraordinary job and managed to finish the 10 km carrying 10 kg, whoa!!! Next week we will be going through the jungle (at Kumaran's suggestion). I hope we don't get lost there, because we managed to get lost on the much walked trail and ended up going in a circle - what will happen in the jungle?

Marian is beat.
"How do you feel?", I ask.
"Like i've been ran over by a train", he says.
"What kind of train?"
"Supply train!"

Aconcagua (I)

I've put it off for too long now, so this is the second-last story about Aconcagua and how we, the first romanian all women's team, climbed it. I would like to say that from the start my focus was on getting everybody (that is Catalina, Lili and I) to the top, as a team if not as friends. Now if you remember, Catalina had tried three times before to climb it, had not trained and had serious knee problems. Lili was fresh out of the office, extremely stressed about having failed on tres cruces and parinacota. To top it up, C, always has a knack at being on somebody's back for whatever reason. So, if somebody would step on her toes, she would be on that poor critter's back for ever. Or, if nobody would step on her toes, she would still find somebody that might've and go from there. It was the case with Dan, then with lili on and off, and at last, with me.

So we finally arrived at Plaza de Mulas after having trekked for 25 km through the bloody desert, 1000 m elevation difference. I think from Confluencia we had maybe 10 minutes of green, and then - nothing! Just red, red, brown, red. At the beggining of the trek Aconcagua shows its majestic south face, but only for a while. This prompted some young Argentinians that we were passing on and off, to yell "ACONCAGUA!!!" at it every time it would show up around the corner. The trek is through the valley of the Horcones, a small creek that grows to river proportions in the afternoon - it gets its water from the glacier on top of which Plaza de Mulas resides.

In the afternoon, the Horcones water is chocolaty, from all that red dust. We saw a lot of climbers or tourists coming down. Our favorite game was guessing who had been to the top. A lot of mulas as well!! The 1000m elevation is not sudden, it starts lightly around half-way. However, just before you reach Plaza de Mulas, you have to climb a horrendous slope. We were out of water for about three hours (it took us 9 hours, but we were also carrying the tent) by this time, so at least for C. it was horrible to climb. So much, that when i got to the top, i came down, took her backpack (almost forced it from her) and helped her up. I sweetened it saying that I expect her to do the same for me if the going gets tough, and I meant it.

We set up camp. Our cameraman, Marius, had taken off at one point because he got so pissed of at C. that he couldn't take it anymore. M. and I had a row (romanian style - which means, with lots and lots of yelling) but in the end we cleared things up. I did say something that he will never forgive me for (or even let me forget): i told him that we had the same load (which we did) and thus he can't say that he was in a hurry. Ah ... young and foolish. When we arrived, Carlos and Vanessa, the couple that was taking care of the Lanko camp at Plaza de Mulas, greeted us with juice, tea, juice, juice, and soup! A blessing, as we were totally spent. We spent one day to recover in Plaza de Mulas. It is like a small town, with all the comforts of home, including internet (very very slow), telephone, and restaurants.

You HAVE to use the ecological toilets (pictured) provided by each company. Ours did not have a door, but a green flap. There's also a doctor there, and you are encouraged to have him/her check you out. We did that at Confluencia, and somehow we didn't have the time to go to this one as well. Other teams were camped at the Lanko camp. We had the OTHER romanians I told you about. A team of boisterous argentinians, including a female rock climber (she was sooooo fit!!), that had their own support team - members of their family that were just hanging out in Plaza de Mulas with radios etc, waiting for news. A 60 something french guy, Pierre, that barely spoke english, and was by himself. The other team from Explorer that had just summited and came down on our rest day. I was truly happy for those guys. I envied their guts, but that is my problem and my nemessis.

From Plaza de Mulas to Nido de Condores, our next camp, 1000m higher, you have to scale this absolutely huge slope ranging from 30 degrees to around 50 degrees. We called it our Golgota. To the end of the slope, where you still have 300m elevation until Nido de Condores (Eagle's crib) you could see people as very very small ants going up and down it. We spent the whole rest day sitting in base camp watching people going up and down the slope. Lili, who was showing signs of intense nervousness, sat with a bottle of water by her side and did not utter a SINGLE word the whole day. That huge slope and those small ants climbing it is not very encouraging mind you. On top of that, the weather is not very encouraging also. We could see white flat clouds on the direction of the summit, made by a very fierce wind they call "Viente blanco" (white wind). To say nothing of the cold! The sun gets to the camp around 10 am. Before that, it's so cold that you HAVE to wear your down jacket. The sun sets around 10:30 pm. At Nido de Condores and higher, it sets even later, and the sunsets are absolutely amazing!! [pictured]


We went from Plaza de Mulas to Nido de Condores two times to carry gear and re-acclimatize. Our last trip was also the hardest, because, even though we were not carrying crampons and that much food, we were carrying tents, sleeping bags, down jackets and the like. These are also very very heavy items, especially when you're deprived of oxygen and/or on the road for such a long time. Going up to Nido de Condores for the last time, we met up with Zsolt Torok, a new addition to our club by the way, who had just completed the Polish Route solo, after being with some other Explorer members to the summit two days before. That's right, he was on the summit two times in one week. He told us how on the polish route while he was walking by himself, he stumbled upon the mummified body of another climber. Apparently he was a Czech climber that had died on the Polish glacier and his family had decided to leave him there. How freaky is it to walk alone and find somebody dead in the middle of your path?! Looking at Zsolt, and the immensity of his backpack and at how fit he seemed while I was so dizzy from my smallish pack, I realized that it's going to be a loong time (if ever) before I can even dream to attempt this kind of routes.