Sungai Siput: The Idyllic Town with Secrets.

Will run for the Sultan Azlan Shah Run in Kuala Kangsar tomorrow - 11th May 2014. Hopped in the bus to KL last night. This morning, Iqbal and myself drove to Ipoh for the night stay. Turns out that we're heading to Sungai Siput instead.

It seems that the hotel that Iqbal booked is located Sungai Siput instead of Ipoh. Not entirely his fault since the map showed in the net points to Ipoh. Turns out that the hotel - MH Sentral Hotel also have a branch in Ipoh, namely the confusing MH Hotel - hence the mistake.

So instead of experiencing Ipoh: The Tin City, I have to write about the Sungai Siput: The Idyllic Town with Secrets.

I had trained for this run diligently since the past few months. Mostly because of the distance. I'm quite as confident with my stamina but instead the unexpected hit me yesterday, on Friday, on the day that I supposed to hop to the bus to KL.

My chest suddenly felt tight. I felt the tightness every time I inhaled deeply for air. Went to the clinic. Checked my blood pressure. Normal. Suspected that I have some semput problem - mild asthma. Not a good sign for the run tomorrow.

The doctor prescribed me a three dosage of pills for the problem. One of them have a side effect of mild trembling. Even right now when I am typing this entry, my fingers twitching involuntarily. 

So this evening, I went for a short 3km run just to start up my system back before the run next morning. Don't want to suddenly crash my system tomorrow.

First the shirt for the run. Gratefully that it is a shirt that I can wear as an everyday shirt, even though I'll not wearing it for running tomorrow. Didn't trust a shirt. Will only wear a running vest in running ever since found out that the sweat will be unbearable during the run.

Grrrr, it is very hard to type with my twitching fingers right now.....

Iqbal had taken the chance to sleep when I went out for the run. He was driving all the way from KL to the hotel.

I ditched the earphone and the mp3, cautious of the road cars. 

Sungai Siput is as idyllic as I expected to be. Not much cars on the road. The town is quite traditional as it could be.

It was just after it was raining. The road was wet but the weather was pleasant.

The highest man built structure in town - the mosque minaret.

And this is the very traditional town where the cloud touch the tip of the hills.

My generation didn't really connect with this small town, but this town had been linked to the terrorist activity in the past. A really dark past.....

Sungai Siput is famous for the incident that led to the Malayan Emergency. The Malayan colonial administration declared a state of emergency on 16 June 1948 after members of the Communist Party of Malaya killed three European plantation managers here. The CPM was subsequently banned in July. Many Singaporean historians and anti-communists allege that Chin Peng ordered the killings. Chin Peng claims he had no prior knowledge. In fact, he says he was so unprepared for the start of hostility that he barely escaped arrest, losing his passport in the process, and lost touch with the party for a couple of days.

That night we went for a drive to Kuala Kangsar, the place that we will start the run tomorrow - SMK Clifford. The place don't seem so far after all - it is just 16km from the hotel and it took us only 30 minutes.

We ate at the ''Hottest Place in Town' - Uncle Joe restaurant.

And when we went back to our room, it was already 10pm.

The best thing is - my breathing became better after the run. Less sick feeling - a better sign after all before the run.