Who will you meet in heaven?

I think I am probably a fan of Mitch Albom as I have read almost all of his books. My favorite is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" which I've read in 2007 and deeply touched by it. 

It's about the story of afterlife. In the author's fictional heaven, we will meet 5 people from our time on earth when we die. We might not even know them but they were all in our life for a reason, who help us understand the things we went through.

When I learned that there is sequel to this book, namely "The Next Person You Meet in Heaven" I quickly grab one without hesitation, and finished reading it in three days.

Sometimes we would think how unimportant and insignificant we are. But the actual fact is somethings we did (maybe unintentionally) may have changed others' life forever, in good or bad ways.

If I would meet five people in heaven when I die, I hope those are the people I've a positive impact to their life.

I would recommend these two books.

王維鳥鳴澗的閒靜

人閒桂花落，夜靜春山空；
月出驚山鳥，時鳴春澗中。

王維這首五絕，短短二十個字，卻有無限的想像空間。
不僅詩中有畫，還有動感與音效，讓人玩味再三。

這首詩給我的感覺是“閒”和“靜”。
因為閒，方能聽到花落。
因為靜，方能感到山空。

而第三句的“驚”字則是神來之筆。
夜太靜，所以乍現的月光也能把山鳥驚飛，只留下鳥鳴啁啾，迴盪在空寂的山澗中。

我尤愛唐詩用字的簡煉，短短幾句卻是意境深邃。
許多人寫文章囉嗦冗贅，想是古詩詞尚未讀通之故吧？

Ayutthaya Marathon 2018

賽會：Ayutthaya Marathon
地点：Historical Park of Ayutthaya, Thailand
日期：2/12/2018
时间：4.00am
距离：42.195km 
成绩：4:55:14
战鞋：Nike Lunarglide

"Same same but different." 

I learned this phrase in Thailand, which means "similar but with significant differences". 

For me, each and every marathon is "same same but different" too. Same distance, but different experience, different joys and agonies. 

Ayutthaya is the ancient city located about 90km north of Bangkok. It's also easily accessible by train from Don Mueng Airport. Upon arriving at the airport, we just walked through a pedestrian to Don Mueng Railway Station, which is just outside the airport. It's a very small station the passengers have to cross the railway tracks to the opposite side of the platform. 

The fare is unbelievably cheap with only 20 Bath for 3rd class cabin. There is no aircond in the 3rd class cabins, and no designated seat as well. Any well since there were not many passengers, we had no difficulty getting our seats. It's my first train ride in Thailand, and a great experience for me.The opened windows, ceiling fans, huge luggage stacking on the overhead rack and even the smell bring back the nostalgic memories of riding KTM train some 40 years ago.

The journey took about 45 minutes to reach Ayutthaya. There are motorbike-renting shops outside the railway station. We rented a cute pink motorbike for 250 Bath for a day, which had to be returned by 7pm. 

Passengers crossing the railway track to the opposite site of platform.

3rd class cabin.

My "Little Pinky"

The main attractions of Ayutthaya are mainly located at the historical part, so as the starting venue of the marathon. 

The experience of a marathon starts with its bib collection. Even though the number of runners are small, they still using the electronic devices to scan the QR code on our registration slip. Then we had to present the print out which stated our bib number to another counter to collect our bib. In my opinion it's unnecessary process and it really caused the queue longer.

The start venue is in front of tourism centre of Ayutthaya. There are not many hotels in the historical area of Ayutthaya, hence we settled at a budget hotel called The Avail which is located 2km away. Since I had returned the rented pink motorbike, so on Sunday morning I had to walk alone to the starting venue. I hoped to grab a motorbike but no luck, as there's the streets were so quiet at that hour.

The marathon was flagged off at 4am sharp. Along the route we ran through the ruins of ancient temples and palace, local Muslim neighborhood, rivers, lake, parks and padi fields. Some stretch of the roads are very dark, hence a headlamp is advisable. The route is generally flat, except we have to conquer 6 bridges in total. 

At around 6.30am I reached around km-24 where there padi fields on our right. I was so fortunate to witness the huge red-orange sun climbing up slowly from the horizon. It shone on the mist above the padi fields and turned it to gold, as if covered by a layer of fluffy golden blanket. The sunrise was so beautiful I almost in tear watching this amazing beauty of nature.

However, the warm sunrise turned into scorching hot sun after 7.30am. The heat and humidity made the running became very challenging, and I found that my energy draining away from my body together with my sweat.

Anyway I still continued to run as enthusiastically as I could, or at least pretended so as there're many photographers at the final miles. 

I'm not a fast runner but I'm always a happy and grateful runner. And here I am, finishing my 31th marathon with a big smile in The Land of Thousand Smiles.