True Love?

clever use of words to persuade readers to your point of view. a useful skill indeed.

why do i climb?

often i have people come up to me and ask me, "what? you are still in climbing? not sian arh?". this statement is often the source of my angst. the most recent time this phrase was voiced to me was during the climbing open house we had for the sports camp. jups the slavedriver put me and yixiong through our paces and converted us into 'showhorses' for the freshies.

alas, my reply is still the same. a nonchalant smile. a shrug of the shoulder. the shuffle of the feet. with the passing of age, it has dawned on me that it's useless to launch into a tirade to defend your personal pursuit of happiness.

i'm lucky to have found my passion. others are not so fortunate. 10,000 hours; and i'll be a master. a true master, as opposed to being a mediocre jack-of-all-trades.

i daydream about the next climbing trip. more of climbing's secrets are revealed to me with every expedition to the great outdoors. i relish that crux on the route that stumps me. for me, that moment when i'm gasping for air; when my arms are flooded with lactic acid but i'm still fighting for the next hold; when my ears block out and block up; when i enter the zone and take total control over my body - are moments that make me feel ever so alive. i'm addicted to that feeling. and i always go back for more.

for me, there is no good route or bad route. routes that suit my style or routes that don't. all that matters is whether i can send the route or not. how i coerce my body to fill that void in the rock. how i meld into the craftily created cracks and crevices. how i subtly tease the route into accommodating one more climber to reach her crown.

start of a new sem

am beginning on year 2 now. hoping that 6 modules this sem wont kill me.

this sem i'm taking:
RE2801 Urban Planning
RE2802 Real Estate Economics
SC1101E Making Sense of Society
WP2201A Expository Writing: Language Death
PH1101E Reason and Persuasion
ES2007D Professional Communication

having 3 arts modules makes me feel more like an arts student rather than a real estate student. some people have asked me why have i taken a real estate degree, when i should really take an arts degree because of my love for reading and writing. i guess it's because i find more practical use in a real estate degree. i could always pursue the arts at a leisurely pace on my own accord.

frankly, i'm a little intimidated by my WP2201A class. it is a pilot project run by USP. the workload is rather heavy - 2 seminar style lessons a week 2 hours each time plus all the readings. furthermore, my other 14 peers come from fields like sociology, philosophy and political science. but whatever. the first lesson was really fun. the tutor is vastly experienced in linguistics and language. he helped broaden my perspective on language and also taught us how to avoid disastrously boring sentences in our writing. so far so good.

climbing has been good for me. staying at okr is a god send (just metaphorical). the spacious and airy room, and its proximity to the climbing gym will go a long way into helping me pull my CAP up. i'm able to get down to the gym for a dose of bouldering before hitting the books without the hassle of waiting for the freaking shuttle bus which comes at 30mins intervals at night. i can feel my bouldering improving slightly already.

i may not know what i want eventually out of my university education. but this i know. i know that i want to be that frog which crawls out of the bottom of his well. i want to travel to crags all over the world and climb my hardest. i want to climb up to the 8b level in the future. and i also want to get top 3 for an opens men bouldering competition in singapore. after all, if dreams arent far fetched and proposterous at first glance, then are such dreams worth chasing?

krabi round 4

hello blog

i havent filled in your pages lately. possibly because i'm busy with this and busy with that. possibly because i couldnt find the inspiration for a decent post. but whatever. here i am now enjoying reflecting and penning down my thoughts.

what better way to begin than by describing my experiences at krabi round 4 from 19th july-3rd august?

the trip started out rather eventfully with a conman taxi out to cheat us. the plan was to take the airport bus from phuket airport to phuket bus terminal. a bus from phuket bus terminal to krabi bus terminal. and a song theao from krabi bus terminal to aonang. we had already rejected the advances of countless taxi drivers who hounded us at phuket airport. there was this particular driver who kept hounding us and eventually offered to send us to krabi bus terminal for 200baht. i should have known that it was too good to be true . that conman dropped us off at some ulu bus stop and told us to give him more money to drive us to krabi bus terminal. wtf. we decided to just sit at that bus stop and just wait for the bus. the rickety crickety bus came 30mins later. i curse the taxi driver have all his teeth drop out for lying to us. but this is not the end of the story. three quarters through the journey, the rear wheel of the bus popped. ME AND FEL WERE SITTING ABOVE THAT WHEEL. the entire vehicle vibrated like crazy. and the driver continued driving! i must say that thais are some really garang people.

we reached aonang some time in the afternoon but the adventure was only just beginning. we were the only 2 people waiting for the long tail boat to bring us to tonsai but the boat doesnt leave till there are 8 passengers. just as we are resigned to either stay over a night at aonang or pay for the difference for the boat ride, some angmohs joined us and made up the number. the boat ride began. but boy were the waves CHOPPY. i've been to tonsai 3 times and i've not experienced waves that were choppy to this extent. the current lifted the boat almost 70 degrees up and slammed us down back to the water. this was the scenario for the entire duration of the journey. we were freaking drenched. next time no need go disneyland for a roller coaster ride. an aonang to tonsai boat ride is a much cheaper and more nausea-inducing alternative.

we stayed at krabi mountain view resort for the first part of the trip and did all the crags along the side of tonsai - the nest/wild kingdom, fire wall, melting wall. i brought fel multi-pitching up groovetube and we abseiled down. she kept moaning that she didnt want to die. haha.
i sent britishly white. but the rope drag almost killed me. luckily felicia helped me to second up the route to clear clips. i had to heave at the rope with my entire body weight to pull it down like 1 metre. repeat that process to get the rope down that 20plus metre route and you have a seriously pissed jansen ko.
i also tried cross eyed at melting wall. this is one seriously 'balls' route. need to multipitch up 2 clips first and have fel belay me off a precarious position to even start the route. the route is a fight all the way to the top. halfway through i stuck my hand into a jug and lo and behold! a furry bat flew up and batted angrily around my head. in my opinion, this route is WAY harder than tidal wave in terms of 'balls' and mental strength. singaporeans who travel all the way to krabi and spend all their time on tidal wave dont know what they are missing out. i must say i am guilty of this too. for my first 2 trips i spent countless attempts on tidal wave. i always feel like i cannot move on unless i finish it. i now realise that if you are not ready, do not go and jump on a route. i crushed tidal wave on my 3rd trip and even campused up the 4th to 5th clip. but i suppose this is a growing up phase. i certainly hope i've grown wiser.

for the second part of the trip we shifted over to tonsai bay resort. we stayed in the aircon hot water bungalow for the first night and it was perfect. my body was aching for hot water. the next 2 nights we stayed in the V2 house and it was horrendous. first of all, the tap wasnt working properly. whatever residue you spit into the sink leaks onto your feet. secondly, BED BUGS! the scars on my back are an enduring reminder to myself to scutinise the freaking room first before accepting it. sleepless nights. cold nights spent on the beach instead of inside of the room wrapped under a warm blanket. crappy feeling.
we spent these 3 days climbing along the beach.
i sent society of gravitational studies. this route taught me an important life lesson. i finished the route but didnt feel happy at all. i better write it all down here to remind myself not to make the same mistake again. i brought the clips up the route. because of the nature of the route - the intensity of the moves and the 'gek-sai' clipping positions, i needed very precise belaying. i needed the belayer to give me rope quickly when i needed to clip in and to take in rope quickly when i dropped it and brace swiftly when i fall. i guess i should have discussed the finer details with fel before jumping on the route. guess i was anxious to send the route - this having been my long term project. i kinda vented my frustration at her a little when she didnt give me rope fast enough and made her upset. i am a freaking idiot. what's the point of sending a route if the important person at the other end of the belay line isnt happy? on hindsight i should have just kept my cool. i eventually sent the route but it was no biggie. send and move on. if i'm too pent up about it i'll never move on to bigger and badder routes.
i sent cafe andaman. some 7b route that feels more like a 6c.
i flashed tiger queen. watched some taiwan climber of 20 years do the route first and gathered enough beta to flash it. i learned alot from this climber. he has taught me the importance of humility. life is a series of experiences, each of which makes you wiser.
i tried tantrum. my best attempt was to lead all the way up to the 5th clip. on that final and best try, everything just clicked together. the dyno, the figure 4, the campusing across the roof. now i just need to work on my endurance to send that route. unfinished business, yet again. i look forward to the day when i am strong enough to go to each crag and send all the 7s there in one day. and then at the end of the trip compare the varying difficulties of the 7s at all the different crags in krabi - which is exactly what that taiwanese climber was able to do. respeckt.
and for those who are interested, an extension has been added to jai dum.

the last leg of the trip was spent at yaya resort in railay.
i sent quarks. nothing much to say about the route. short and savage would have been a more apt name for it.
i sent narsillion at low tide on my second attempt. very nice and long route featuring a variety of moves. need to keep your head together if you want to onsight this, which is something i failed to achieve. i will work on my weakness. sometimes you need a certain amount of daredevil-ness and derring-do to amuerte with the route. jansen ko is still too weak and has much to learn.
i worked on knights in white satin. this route is seriously a balls route. when i said that cross eyed is scary, i was exaggerating. the fear factor of cross eyed pales in comparism to knights in white satin; given the longer run outs and the very well placed bolts. i give this route 2 thumbs up. this was the only route which i had to scream to clear clips. i needed to scream to shut out the fear and enter the zone. i'm glad to have finally tried this classic. the old birds tell me that you cannot say that you have truly been climbing in krabi if you didnt try this route. i certainly cannot dispute the truth of that statement. i am psyched to finish this route on my next trip.

after the stay in krabi we went to bkk for some shopping. chatuchak weekend market and platinum fashion mall kinda settled my clothing needs for the entire year. we shipped back 10kg because our luggage was bursting at the seams. fel infected me with her shopping genes. cheap cheap shopping there. i never ever want to shop in singapore again.

ok that's all for this post. till we share again, dear blog.