Bukit Marakuching Hike, 5 Jan ’13

I absolutely loved this hike and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves a nice long walk. If you’re coming to Brunei, this is one trail that you should not miss if you’re going to do any at all!

Steady Run to Tasek Lama, 23 Dec ’13

Phew, was it hot!

This Tasek Lama route is becoming a bit of a favourite now. It’s not bad really. There aren’t proper pavements for the first kilometre, followed by some treacherous narrow road edge treading for the third kilometre, and then a full blown deep excavation/construction site that I manage to casually dawdle through.

Run to Tasek Lama, 20 Dec ’13

Below are the stats from the day of my previous post when I took the photo of the silly monkeys at the entrance of Tasek Lama. I mostly go to Tasek to have a little relaxed walk on the short trail with my friends, which is why I need to get my run done and out of the way beforehand. Yes, I go for a run AND THEN go for a little “exercise session” with my friends immediately after. It makes sense because

Lonely Morning Hillwalk at Tasek Lama, 17 Dec ’13

I’ve been told it isn’t safe to traverse the long trails at Tasek Lama on your own, especially at the time of day when the trails are quiet. You don’t know what psychopath is lurking out there… Or (supposedly) what supernatural being. Or not-so-supernatural being, i.e. aggressive psycho monkey or venomous creature. Anyhow, one morning a friend cancelled on me at the last minute when I was extremely looking forward to the walk. I couldn’t resist the temptation so I ventured forth into the wild jungle by myself. Probably shouldn’t ever do this again. In the case that I do though, I will definitely make sure someone knows where I’m going, what I’m doing, and exactly which trail I’ll be on. The world is such a terrible place, but YOLO.

I don’t think my poor Garmin can handle all the tree cover! My pace was all over the place, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t bad as the stats are telling it really! I was on 0:00 min/km… Objective proof I was teleporting.

Check out this satellite image. That’s some proper tree cover you can’t deny. Intense tree cover which could actually put my life at risk… What was I thinking?! Must never do this alone again!

Love, Brunei Runner. xxx

Walk and Run Intervals at Tasek Lama, 4 Dec ’13

I actually thought this one was particularly difficult mentally, which was why I ended up walking a lot of it. I wanted to give up. And I did (clearly shown by the embarrassing lap splits right at the bottom of this post). The best bit of the stats saved to last. fml.

p.s. I wonder whether humidity affects the difficulty of a run?

Brunei Runner. x

My embarrassing run and walk intervals. The second “lap” represents a portion where I walking on a really unstable bridge. The other slow laps are just me gasping for air and dying.

Run to Tasek Lama, 28 Nov ’13

Tasek Lama, 24 Nov ’13

 

Tasek Lama Brisk Hill Walk, 24 Nov ’13

It’s quite easy to get lost at the Tasek trails. I think I need to go there another few more times before I stop getting lost! If you’re planning to go try out the long Tasek trails yourself, please try to start early to avoid getting caught out in the dark. It starts to get pretty creepy around ten to six. Next thing you know you’re out there in the jungle in pitch black. Unless you love being out there in the dark, and would like to take the expression “being at one with nature” to an extreme level, you DO NOT want this to happen to you! Another thing to note – don’t fully trust those maps you find along the paths. There will be points along the route (not indicated on this map) where the path divides. GPS does not help either because those routes aren’t specified on Google Maps. I believe the one obvious thing you could do is to just try out the trails and familiarise yourself with the route. Start early (around four would give you two hours) and don’t get disheartened when you get lost – you can see from the map below that I got lost today too, stopping and tracing back my steps to where the path last divided. You can kind of tell where the path is just by the presence of people walking along it. This is not a fail-safe way to know the route though! People do use alternative paths! Also, I would suggest bringing company with you. In the case of failure, you can take relief in the fact that someone else is there with you (also, failing with you)!

Anyway, I had a wonderful time killing my legs on those hills today and I hope you would too when you go there yourself. Just think of the beautiful legs you will have once you’ve done it (about ten or thirty times – don’t kid yourself, you need to work to have beautiful legs).

Stop getting fat and work.

Brunei Runner. x