Actually the competition was not longer than three days but since my team had to try out the indoor pool so we came a day early to KK which also gave us extra time to rest before the competition kicked off and after it ended so altogether we spent 5 days in KK. My teammates who’ve gone to the previous Sabah meets were right about the pool though as we did a few laps to get our bodies used to the temperature, it was exactly 0 degrees Celsius (just the same as the temperature of iced water to be more specific).
During our stay we had a pretty busy schedule and also had diet to follow for breakfast and lunch (we wouldn’t want to drag our stomachs across the pool wouldn’t we) luckily dinner was exempted. Other than that we had a curfew (we had to sleep before 9pm) and also had to wake up 4 am to get dressed and eat breakfast early to get our food digested before we warm up at the pool. The best thing was that we had our own rooms and most of us were in the same floor so I never got bored at all.
On our first day of the competition ,it was between 5-6am during the crack of dawn when we were on the way to the stadium I saw an astounding view of a chain of mountains surrounded by billows and behind these superb mountains was a crown of mountain if I’m not mistaken it’s Mt. Kinabalu (literally it looked like a crown).As soon as we arrived at the stadium we warmed up, due to the taste of having to try out the pool the day before my body had set the sensation in my mind causing an involuntary action making me take 5 minutes before diving into the intensely cold pool even though I tried force myself to dive in. I didn’t have that much events that day I only had two and both were in the morning session, my events were only 200m breast stroke and 100m freestyle. During the 200m breast stroke it was close fight since everyone was just seconds away from beating each other. I got a little paranoid though; I had a feeling of losing count of the laps (I’m relieved that that never happened). Then a few minutes later trailing behind was the 100m freestyle (it’s tiring that my events that day were crammed), by then I had only enough fuel for 50m and hardly enough for the next 50m so I swam with 50-80% speed but that wasn’t enough to get me pass the KK swimmers .I’m still wondering until now how do these people do it they’re like human sharks, they have infinite stamina specially “The Giant”. This peculiar machine took part in most of the freestyle events (his best stroke) and broke many Malaysian records during the meet. There was this young lady that caught my mind because she broke a record in my favorite stroke (breast stroke), her name was Awang Pan Freda (don’t mistaken her to be Malay by the name cause she isn’t, she’s pure Chinese).
During the afternoon session I spent my time in the hotel and mostly going round the city along with a few friends (those who didn’t have any events in the afternoon) checking out malls. It wasn’t much of a predicament finding the malls there since our hotel was encircled by mini malls (about the size of The Mall excluding the hotel). These mini malls had more to exhibit than The Mall however (no offence but The Mall’s shops are almost similar to each other) and are more congested with people during the week days. The only disadvantage about being in the middle of trading centers was that the air was concentrated with whatever gases you get from cars and cigars, so basically throughout my stay, there wasn’t a time my throat could stop choking from the grimy air that filled my lungs except when we were at the pool (the indoor stadium was kind of isolated from the city). When got we got back I hung out with my brother’s pals in our room until the sky was jam-packed with stars swimming in the sapphire sky. I didn’t buy much not much of a shopping person unlike Mu Hin, who got a head start with a shopping spree when he arrived (he came to KK by plane).Who can blame him, he has cash flowing like water from a fountain. You won’t believe me if I told you he brought Rm3000 cash and a credit card which limits to about B$5000 and I don’t believe it but that’s not enough for him since every night we would go to incongruent places and in every place we go to he always has something to clutch on once we leave for the hotel. That night the whole team except for our Muslim associates ate at a Chinese restaurant, we had profusion of a variety of food that the table was chock-full. After a heavy meal I had a walk round the mall with my buddies including my bro, we stopped by at almost all the video shops. Other than that Felix and I looked up and down the mall hunting for the very thing that would give us extra energy for the next day’s events. Unfortunately we failed to obtain “Gatorade” (the drink of the gods) so had to just bear with what we had. Since it was still early Felix and I didn’t give –up searching for Gatorade, we searched every mini mart nearby including 7/11 but it wasn’t a success so to cool us down from all that walking I bought us slurpees and a box of cards to pass the time with. Slept early that night but I kept waking up because the phone kept ringing at different intervals of my sleep and whenever I picked it up there were just two things that could possibly happen either I’d hear complete silence or just another wrong caller.
On the second day, my brother and I woke up early and I still felt sluggish because of those obnoxious callers. That day I didn’t feel that much energetic as the day before and had a loss of appetite since my taste buds were still in a deep slumber so basically everything I ate had no taste but I managed to force myself anyways. That morning was pretty vague since I didn’t get to see the peak of Mt. Kinabalu. It was a long day since I had the 50m breast stroke in the morning session and the 4x100 freestyle relay in the afternoon session so I spent the whole day there at the stadium but I wasn’t bored at all, I was entertained actually watching other people swim and cheering for those who’re close to breaking the record. Before every event coach gave us his special mix of energy juice to drink, it tasted so sour that my taste buds were about to burst . My first event for that day was 50m breast stroke if I’m not mistaken, I was close to beating the guy in the next lane (I should’ve done the long stroke all the way) if I wasn’t so slow at slamming my hand on the touch pad and also if it wasn’t for that constriction I felt on my legs which kind of restrained me from pushing myself beyond my limit but I persisted the pain and went on. That was every swimmer’s challenge in close combat, the fastest hand to get on the touch pad wins even though the difference was only a fraction of a second and also the muscle constriction which happens rarely but succeeds in slowing you down if you let pain consume you . After the morning session ended we headed back to the hotel as usual and ate lunch had a few minutes to replenish our bodies then we left for the stadium. The whole afternoon session just watched my teammates and cheered for them since my event was the last event of the day. As my final event of the day was about to start I had butterflies in my tummy but fortunately everything went smoothly we weren’t last but we were close to 3rd. As the day ended I felt relieved that we had one more day to go and finally freedom. That night we went round the biggest mall in east Malaysia (One Borneo Mall), the mall was so vast that even though there would be a lot of people in the same place they would be well spread out so it seems less crowded. The mall even had its own Chinatown and it had Nike shops and Adidas shops at every corner and you believe this the mall’s lavatories for the men had a small screen for each urinary cubicle, the sad thing was it only showed adverts. Then again wasn’t much in the shopping mood but I did get dragged into the arcade by my brother, at least I had something to do there. The Chinatown was so cool; it sold so many things which had traditional designs and some gem stones which had medicinal properties. While we were waiting for Mu Hin to get to the entrance, Bahrin showed Felix and I his weird bloated tummy which was overlapping his abs. We left for the hotel past curfew because Mu Hin ran a bit late due to all the shopping he needed to do. That night I slept an hour and a half past bed time and then again my sleep was bothered by somebody (who cares who he/she is), at least it wasn’t as worse as the night before.
On the last day of the competition, I woke up early again but was more energetic this time and was totally ready to get the day done and over with. That morning was just the same as the morning before and we followed the same routine. I had three events which were the 100m breast stroke, the 50m freestyle and the 4x100 IM relay. That day was no ordinary day; I was no longer affected by the intensely cold pool. My mind was set on one thing “winning” or at least not getting last. The 100m breast stroke went well because I didn’t feel any constriction in my legs therefore I was able to overtake two of my competitors. In between our events we played cards which helped in keeping us relaxed and motivated our minds. The 50m freestyle was one of my personal favourites since I broke my old time which was 39 seconds by 5 seconds (34 seconds), “The Giant” was 8 seconds faster though but it’s okay. After the 50m freestyle Bahrin, Mu Hin and I went to the diving pool to warm up. We goofed off at the pool when Mu Hin started to get interested in synchronized swimming, Bahrin out of nowhere started to push his leg upwards with his whole body underwater and Mu Hin danced and soon followed after Bahrin leaving me the only one motionless. Soon I too got dragged into the swimming dance craze. Suddenly from a distance a crowd of synchronized dancers booed at us (I think they found that as an insult).Then came the most anticipated event of all the 4x100 IM relay (Bahrin did back stroke, I did breast stroke, Felix did butterfly and Mu Hin did freestyle). So far Mu Hin and I were the only ones who haven’t bagged any medals. Our team was so close to another medal in the bag during the IM relay. We were at the same pace the 3rd placer but then they left us behind by 10 seconds so all in all we got 4th out of all 8 teams.
After the medal presentation was done and over with, we hit the hotel to change and had a team dinner at some Chinese restaurant and had a mouth watering meal. Finally I could bloat myself up which I did until I could no longer walk. After an awesome dinner we went to One Borneo Mall again but that wasn’t the fun part. The fun only started when we reached the hotel, Felix’s mom (team manager) bought us a couple of French fries at the bar and a couple of carbonated drinks which Bahrin, Zul and I suspected to have a bit of alcohol due to the taste (bartender must’ve wanted us to get wasted). Then Felix, Bahrin and Zul played snooker while I and the rest of the team watched. After that the guys and some of the kids and I went to Bahrin’s room to hangout. Felix, Zul and I played a short game of cards while Wesley and Bahrin played Dota in the room, soon after Zul, Mu Hin, Bahrin and I got hungry so Felix took over the other laptop while we left for KFC. When we got there, Zul and I kind of insulted Mr.KFC and made the KFC staff giggle while Mu Hin was ordering food. After that we came across a street called “Jalan Padas” in other words Hot Street on the way to Burger King how awesome is that? When we got to Burger King (just a 5-minutes walk from KFC) we did the same thing still exchanging laughs and jokes while ordering food. It’s weird that Burger King had a microphone for the cashier since KFC didn’t have one and I’ve never seen fast food restaurants with one of those. Suddenly a lady went into Burger King then I noticed Zul and Bahrin giggling behind me so I asked them what was going on then I realized the lady that came in was the black version of Mariah Carey, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. On the way back to the hotel we ran into a police car passing by, I was kind of out of control because I was high on adrenaline that I showed my middle finger to the police and stupidly hid behind the Burger King Paper bag. Fortunately, I they didn’t see it. When we arrived at Bahrin’s room we stayed up until 2 or 3 am in the morning. I don’t remember what happened until 3 am the memory is so vague since I was high.
That’s pretty much what I did during my stay in KK. I miss it already hope that we guys could hang out again. Hopefully at this upcoming Miri swim meet we could goof around again if we have time. Enjoy this post XP!!
