cont. from BARE FEET 10 KILOMETER WALK (28th January 2025)

Yes, this is part 2, a continuation of the earlier essay. After all, it was a long walk in the sand (most of the time, I was on the sand).

An early morning light, gentle cool breeze was blowing ever so softly. It didn’t seem to come in from the direction of the sea. It was not strong enough for people to pause everything they were doing to say, “ah yes, I feel the breeze”. Most things are taken as a given or for granted, or with a “so what?” attitude.

The sun was up, not overhead. It was still in the distant east, but climbing at a steady pace to meet its overhead position at noon.

As I stretched my gaze to the edge of the sea in the distance, I could see ships, three of them, all keeping a safe distance between each of them, move from the south upwards to the north (I still have my sense of direction). This would mean that many of them would have made their way from ports in the east like Sabah, Sarawak, China, Japan, and other countries to the west, upwards to Europe and the U.S. Come to think of it, this would mean that vessels travelling from the east, going around Peninsular Malaysia; would be travelling on the right side of the Straits of Malacca, going up north to Europe and the rest of the west.

Therefore, vessels coming from the west, would use the left side of the Straits of Malacca (closer to the Indonesia), and go around the peninsular to head to the east. The narrow Straits of Malacca is one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, with about 94,000 ships (200 ships per day) (1) passing through it each year.

I got the walking exercise on the Samsung Health app on my Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra fired up. I think Samsung’s Health app is one of the most comprehensive health information trackers there is available today. It is worth noting that this is one of the most accurate health data providers. It tracks almost all of my health extensively on a daily basis. The caveat I place on it is that the information it comes out with are only indications to how I am doing, health wise. Nevertheless, I find it fun to use.

The length of the beach was only about 300 meters long. So, I was walking up and down, from point to point and return, quite quickly. At the beginning of the “journey”, the beach had quite a lot of people on it, though not enough to say it was crowded. After a few laps on the beach, I removed my cheap, rubber slippers and parked them next to where Jeannie had left hers. It was the spot, water-wise, where Jeannie was in the sea.

When I started walking bare foot (feet?), I had hardly covered a few hundred steps. I found that walking on the damp sand was easier that in the dry beach sand, where each step , I sunk in the sand by a few millimeters, and momentarily, lost my balance, due to the unevenness of the sand. This was kind of slowing me down, too; as I like to keep a quick pace and complete my daily walk within the 1 hour 50 minutes to 1 hour 57 minutes.

As I walked on the damp sand, my speed (pace) picked up. After a short while, I had created a trail of footprints back and forth. I knew they were mine. First of all the pattern and path were the same, to and fro. Then, the size of the footprints. It was size 8,9, or 10 (depending on which country measurement is used). I usually use US size 9.

Within an hour, the crowds on the beach had swelled up. People who were there for sometime, must have been wondering to themselves while watching me walk down the beach to the other end, and then return, then go down the beach again, creating laps, “This guy is crazy or what? (“Or what?” is very Malaysian. Not quite sure if a statement has been made or a question has been asked), patrolling the beach up and down”. What must have made them even more curious was that the sun turned up its heat, like it had a knob to raise or drop its temperature; and yet, I was walking like there was no stopping me.

During my walk, I allow my mind to roam freely. Sometimes, I take in the scenes around me, the people and any thing that may be out of the ordinary.

Letting my mind roam freely is freedom. No Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chat GBT or anything like that can ever mimic the mind of a human, that’s my belief. The creators of these technologies would like you to believe that these technologies do, until you ask them if their minds can be replicated. More important question, “Will they allow their minds to be replicated?”

As I passed the 8km distance I walked, I realised that I was at my usual regular speed as per my daily walks. Before long, I crossed the 10 kilometer distance, and hit 10.46 kilometer when I achieved the 15,000 – step goal.

Wow! I actually walked 10 kilometers barefooted. That was a record of sorts for me at least. It seems like a crazy thing to do when I think back. Sure, the beach and sand were kind to my feet. Not much pebbles or any other thing that otherwise would have hurt my feet. I did feel a couple of blisters building up though; but not too serious.

I walked back to my slippers which I laid next to Jeannie’s on the beach. They were gone, both pairs were stolen! I waved Jeannie to come up from the water and asked if she noticed someone around our slippers, as they had disappeared. Jeannie said she was too busy enjoying herself to notice any slipper thief or anybody that resembled a slipper thief (not that she or even I, would know what a slipper thief looks like).

It did not bother us as our “feet protectors”, otherwise known as slippers; weren’t expensive. We walked barefoot back to the hotel, satisfied with ourselves; that she spent time in the water and I, did my 10 kilometer walk – both having accomplished what we set out to do for the day.

If you have a chance to do something wild (not too wild, I hope) or something out of the (extra) ordinary, please share it in the comments. I am not sure if I will pull off another “stunt” like this again.

NOTES:
1. Wikipedia