Whew! I Ran 21km & Went On A Food Adventure ...

As planned, a whole gang of us went to Ipoh last Saturday, immediately after the Larian Hari AntiDadah at Putrajaya. I really don't know what's with my Dad and Uncle Steven ... not to mention Auntie Cheryl! They are all ADDICTED to running!

Anyway, we left home at about 11.30am. Uncle Steven and family were in their Hyundai sportster while Mike joined us in our GT. Surprisingly, I wasn't that tired, even after having to wake up at 5 in the morning and ran the 7.7km earlier. According to Dad's plan, we dropped by at Slim River for our lunch. We always does that whenever we head north for a holiday, ever since I was a small toddler. The 'Tapah Fish' and 'River Pat Su Koong' (catfish), caught fresh from their river there are supposedly their speciality. My Mom was the one who introduced this place to us, way back when she was still attached to a company with its factory at nearby Behrang Station.

After lunch, we continued on our way to Ipoh and reached our homestay accommodation on the dot at 3pm. It was somewhere in Bercham. All of us wasn't sure what to expect of this homestay but alas, it turned out great. It was just a double-storey terrace house with nothing to shout about on the exterior. But the interior was clean and comfortable. It was like we're at home. I would definitely recommend to others. Mike and me bunked together in a room downstairs as we single men were barred from going upstairs ... the women's rules!

Leaving the women behind, we men folk headed to Majlis Bandaran Ipoh to collect our bibs and T'shirt for the Ipoh Internation Run next morning. It was a wild goose-chase! The organiser change the venue. Anyway, they had a Kembara ready to lead all the misled people like us to Stadium Perak, the actual venue. Thank God they had a backup plan!

It was a big mess when we reached the stadium to collect our bibs. It was so slow moving waiting to pay, get our receipts and bibs.:-w We ended up waiting there for more than an hour. The waiting just left us so high and dry that we had to popped in at the 'mamak' shop to 'yum cha'!

Going back to our 'hotel' was another adventure. By the time we actually reached our 'hotel', we've tried all the roads and backlanes. None of us were familiar with Ipoh, we lost our way. L-)

Later, we met up with Uncle Lim and his family for the famous 'Ipoh Ga Choy Kai' for dinner. For supper, we went looking for 'durians' but the seller was just trying to rip us off. 3 medium-sized ones (about 5kgs each) for RM66!!! All of us went to bed dreaming of 'DURIANS' ... 8->

Next morning, we all woke up to a huge surprise ... it was raining heavily. How to run in the race? Run in the rain? Well, it's not that I've not done that before but it'll be a MESS! By the way, I've change my run from 10km to 21km at the last minute. After an agonising delay of half-an-hour, I started and completed my run in 2 hrs 10 mins with a placing at 148th. #:-S

Immediately after the run, we all went for the famous Ipoh Dim Sum at Foh San. It was jam-packed and we had to stand by a table for more than 30 minutes just to get a place. We had to split the gang too. The Dim Sum was delicious! BEST!! CHEAP!!! After we checked out from our 'hotel', again we went hunting for stuffs to eat ... 'taufu fah', 'nam heong white coffee' and the illusive 'durians'. Never got to taste the 'taufu fah' coz finished! Coffee ... great with 'char koay teow', 'asam laksa', 'chee cheong fun' and 'char siew pau' ... oooooo ... slurrrpppppp

Left Ipoh for home at about 5 pm. We turned off the North-South Highway at Sungkai ... again on a 'durian' hunt! Incidentally, we spotted a hot spring and decided to check it out. With the thought of soaking our feet in hot water, we were ever willing to drive 9km off the trunk road with oil palm estate and 'kampung' houses dotting the road sides. Just as we were nearing the hot spring ...

'DURIANS'!!! The illusive 'DURIANS'! Imagine eating right under the 'DURIAN' trees!! I think the happiest person then was Auntie Cheryl. Finally, the hunt's over. =P~

Because of the King of Fruits, we never really got the chance to test the hot spring. Too late with only an hour before closing time ... not worth it with an entrance fee of RM10. So with 'durian' considered as dinner, we all headed back home ... not forgetting to mention 'ta pow durians' too.

By the time we reached home, we were all so tired that we hit the sack real early. I-) Feel free to check out the pictures of our adventure at Kota Kemuning Pacers' blog.