Suvarnabhumi Airport Photos - Part 2

The new airport was opened on 28 September 2006 but a few things were not ready a month later as can be seen from these photos.

Cables, paints and other stuff is stored at various corners.

Signboard at the entrance of the shopping area. The tiles used for the floor are quite slippery.
These men were on the roof and doing some construction work.

I was sitting in semi-darkness in the departure lounge. During the one hour I was there, two bulbs blew out causing the lounge to become even darker. Ten percent of the bulbs was not working. There is a design problem here as the lights were directed upwards to reduce glare. Fine if the roof was white in colour as the light rays would be reflected back. But when the roof is made from grey coloured concrete , it doesn't work very well.
Some more men working on the roofs above the shops.
Other problems include:-

• Insufficient toilets as only 100 has been built. An additional 300 toilets will be built.
• Insufficient signage. Curently many signs are "home made" from paper.
• Cracked aircraft taxiways and car parks.
• Only one bussiness lounge (Thai International) is available. Other airlines buss. lounger are not completed.
• Dirty windows and floors.

The Thai authorities will be carrying investigation to see if there are any corrupt practices involved for the new airport. The airport could have been much better without these problems. This is not to say it is not a world class airport but I am sure these problems will eventually be fixed at some cost .

Suvarnabhumi Airport Photos - Part 1

The airport is huge (can handle 45 million passengers per year) and spaciuos. The photo shows the departure lounge area.
The airport is shaped like ocean waves. Painted white instead of blue though.
The interior has a minimal and bare look with cable trays, pipe and unpainted concrete. Popular nowadays with new airports and saves money.
The arport structure is made of trusses. Looks quite nice.
Gardens at the ground level , similar (copied?) to KLIA.

Running: Is it FINALLY Over for me ?

Tomorrow I am flying back to Islamabad , Pakistan. I will be there for another two months.

This afternoon I had lunch at KLCC's Burger King with Ronnie, Jamie, Newton and DK. The main topic conversation was the usual ; running. Ronnie handed to me a beautiful corporate sponsor trophy. The upcoming two races were talked about - Bidor and Subang Jaya 10km, both to be held next Sunday. The other topics were the "competitors" - other runners; who is improving and who is getting there. I felt a bit left out of the scene after not running any races since Feb 2005 (Great Eastern 30km).

I only ran once during the fasting month. I ran 5 km on the hotel treadmill. Butr after that throughout the whole month, my right knee was sore. . After I returned to Malaysia on Saturday f0r Hari Raya, I did not run but my knee seemed to be getting better. But I found out otherwise yesterday (Thursday) when I decided to try to run at the Klang stadium. The first 800m was OK but my knee become sorer as I countinued. I decided to stop after 1.6km. Worse was yet to come. My knee was sore and a bit swollen at night time.

After five years (since March 2001) of battling the injury,continuing running (18 half marathons) through a persistent right knee injury - initially a torn meniscus, w the injury has gradually worsen and is now at its worst I think. I suspect my injury has now progressed to a point where the knee articular cartilage has become damaged. Hence my right knee is sore even when I am walking or just standing up.

So I have decided to stop running during my next two months in Pakistan. After that I will have to see what happens. It is a medical fact that knee meniscus tears are normally incurable. The reason for this permanency is the meniscus receives blood suppy to only 30 percent of it's area. (Red area). The remaining 70 percent does not contain blood vessels (White area). Without a blood supply, the repair mechanisms by cell action is not possible.

Even after 2 months rest. I don't think I will be able to do do long runs and much less running races. Maybe I have to stop running altogether. Perhaps it is the only option I have left now.

P.S : To those who have been reading my blogs since 2003, I think I have mentioned at least three times I was going to quit running. But I am serious now !

Pakistan Report # 4 : Another Shopping Trip

I went shopping again on Saturday. This time is I went to Sardar bazaar in a city called Rawalpindi, 18 km from Islamabad. Like I wrote before, Islamabad does not resemble a typical city in Pakistan. In Rawalpindi the main road was jam packed with all sorts of vehicles. There were colourful buses, vans, "tuk-tuks, cars, trucks and motorcycles. Other than the vehicles running on internal combustion engines, there were others vehicles running on animal or human power. There was a cart pulled by a horse with sacks of flour, bicycles and even a a man pulling on a cart filled with fruits. It was very chaotic and a scene you would never see in Malaysia.

I bought two leather jackets for RM 160 and RM 200 for men's and ladies respectively. They were not for me but a colleaugue asked me to buy them in Pakistan.

The Pacemaker Run was held at the Lake Gardens onn Sunday morning with a cake cutting ceremony for the birthdayboy. Ronnie (PM1).

I won't be running this fasting month. I still have a knee problem.

This morning in the local newspaper in one of the headlines " Hunger Haunts over 1.8 million children in Pakistan". An estimated 1.85 million children in Pakistan are at risk of malnutrition and 74 out of 120 districts of the country have been found to be food deficient in terms of availability at the grassroots.

Shopping Tip : If you want to buy Giorgio Armani suit, consider buying it in Pakistan. On Sunday I visited a shop which actually makes Armani suit and pants for just RM220 (USD 60) . They were not a fake or imitation product but it is the real thing. The shop make these suits in Pakistan and later they are sold under the Armani brand for USD 200 or more.

Pakistan Report #3 : Shopping

On Saturday I went shopping for souveniers in Islamabad. Islamabad, the capital city does not represent the conditions in the rest of the cities in Pakistan. For one, the roads are free of traffiic jams. Secondly, it has a well-ordered and planned areas. In a way it is like Putrajaya and Putrajaya certainly does not look remotely have the chaos and dirt of Kuala Lumpur.

I went to three places in Islamabad; Melody market Aapbara market and the Supermarket. Aapbara is the oldest market in Islamabad and the roads certainly reflected its old age with pot holes everywhere. The Supermarket is actually not a supermarket but rather a city block filled with shops. There is no shopping complex in Islamabad so you get forget mall crawling in air conditioned comfort.

Last week, two roket launchers (107 mm Russian made) were discovered hidden in bushes near President Musharaff's offices. They were wired up with a device to be trigerred from a mobile phone. It was something of a shock to residents here as these things are not supposed to occur in Islamabad. Everywhere else in Pakistan every week there are bombs exploding , people killed in sectarian violence (Sunni vs. Shia) and dacoits (highway robbers) robbing.

I haven't run since 2 weeks ago as I am still having a knee problem.