Day 2: 22 August 2017, Tuesday

This morning, I had breakfast at the rooftop of Mingle Hostel before setting off to catch the SEA Games. Breakfast was included in my hostel booking and it was pretty basic fare – toast, eggs and coffee/tea. Basic, but good enough for me since I am a bread-and-coffee-breakfast kind of guy.

The open-air rooftop area was lovely, with a few tables, mismatched chairs and benches, and an old-school metal swing scattered about. As I munched on my toast, I was joined by two other travelers, Jason from London and Uli from Australia, and we struck up a conversation.

Jason shared that he had been in KL for a month, and his main purpose for coming here was to learn MMA (mixed martial arts)/Jujitsu from a supposedly famous master. Uli had previously been in Sri Lanka for two weeks and then a month in Bali, and may stay in KL for the next five weeks. It was a very pleasant breakfast as we traded stories and talked about where we were going next.

It was really interesting to meet such free-spirited people and to know that everyone was on their own journey in this thing called life. There is no one correct way to live your life – who’s to say that what you’re doing is right or wrong? Along the way, you meet people and they become part of your journey, shaping you up to become who you are as a person. Even though the meeting may be brief, and you may never see each other again, each person contributes in some small way towards your life journey.

At about 9:05am, I hopped on board an Uber to go to MiTEC (Malaysia Trade and Exhibition Centre), located about 7km away from the city centre. The ride took 15 minutes and the fare was RM13.24 (S$4.23). MiTEC was recently opened in time for the SEA Games and it was the venue for several games including table tennis, hockey, volleyball and weightlifting. I was here to watch the table tennis matches, which were scheduled to start at 10am. Admission was free.

As I was early, I went up to the stands and found myself a seat close to the action. At the time, I didn’t know that this section of seats was reserved for athletes and members of the coaching staff only. No wonder it was so empty. Well, the ushers did not stop me from entering this section anyway. It was only later during the afternoon session when I was directed to another section of seats that I realised I had been sitting in the wrong section earlier in the morning.

Anyway, for the morning session, it was the Singles Semi-Finals and Singapore was up against the formidable Thailand for both of the Women’s semi-final matches. In the first match, Feng Tianwei played against defending women’s singles champion Suthasini Sawettabut. In the other match, it was Zhou Yihan versus Nanthana Komwong. Both matches were played side by side concurrently so I had to constantly shift my attention from one match to the other.

The match between Feng Tianwei and Suthasini Sawettabut was super exciting and I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. Tianwei was pushed all the way by her Thai opponent, who was up 10-7 in the final set before Tianwei levelled the score to 10-10. Tianwei then saved another two match points before finally emerging victorious at the end of seven sets. It was gripping stuff. The victory was especially sweet because Suthasini had defeated her in the 2015 SEA Games in a shock loss in the group stages.

In the other match, Zhou Yihan cruised to a straight-sets victory. With that, it was an all-Singapore Finals between Feng Tianwei and Zhou Yihan, to be played later at 2pm.

It was a really different atmosphere watching the games live in person as compared to watching them back home on TV. The collective groan when one of the Team Singapore athletes drops a point, and the involuntary tensing up of your body at match point…these feelings cannot be fully replicated and transmitted across a TV screen. They have to be experienced in person and shared with your fellow audience members sitting beside you. And that is why watching sports is a religious experience for some.

The Men’s Singles followed after, with Singapore versus Thailand and Singapore versus Philippines in the two semi-finals matches. Both Team Singapore representatives Gao Ning and Clarence Chew had little difficulties securing victories, so it was another all-Singapore Finals between the two, to be played at 7pm later.

At about 11:50am, I took a Grab ride to Publika mall nearby for lunch. Grab was an official partner of the SEA Games so there was a RM6 promo code. The ride was free after redeeming the promo code. Sweet!

I had my lunch at Shell Out. I didn’t manage to eat it the last time I was here so I was determined to have it this time. There was a set lunch promo and I ordered Set E (giant scallop & lala) and added 300g of prawns. The bill came up to RM76.60 (S$24.50) after taxes. It was super sinful but oh so satisfying.

After lunch, I took another Grab ride back to MiTEC for the Women’s Singles Finals. The Grab driver lost his way so I got back late and missed the opening exchanges between Feng Tianwei and Zhou Yihan. I initially thought that the finals would be more exciting but it turned out not to be so. I think it was mainly because both players were representing Singapore so you know that a gold medal was already assured. It was far more exciting to play against a competitor from another nation.

By the way, Feng Tianwei won the match 4-2 in a rather straightforward fashion. It was her third singles gold medal and it was especially satisfying after recent events. In October 2016, she was dropped by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) after a poor showing at the Olympic Games. Apparently, she “does not fit into STTA’s current plans for rejuvenation” so was cut out from the national team. Despite this setback, she continued to train independently, securing her own funding, training partners and coaches. This gold medal is a validation of her hard work and never-say-die attitude. Much respect to you, Feng Tianwei! (P.S. I love how her initials read FTW, which mean “For The Win”. How apt!)

I did not stay to watch the Men’s Finals because it was taking place only at 7pm, and another all-Singapore affair. For the record, Gao Ning won the match. At about 3:15pm, I left MiTEC and went to KL Sentral train station to buy my Go Genting bus ticket.

Go Genting is an express bus service that takes you from the heart of Kuala Lumpur to Genting Highlands. There are a few departure locations in KL: Pudu Sentral, KL Sentral, Terminal Putra LRT Gombak and One Utama. More information about the departure timings and prices can be found here.

The one-way bus ticket from KL Sentral to Awana Transport Hub is only RM4.30 (S$1.37) for adults and RM3.20 for senior citizens and children. From Awana, you’ll need to take a short cable car ride up to Genting, costing RM8 (S$2.56). Therefore, the total price for a trip from KL city to Genting is only RM12.30 or S$3.93. That’s less than S$4!

If you want to break it down further, it costs less than S$24 to travel from Singapore to Genting using my method of taking a Transtar coach to KL (S$20) and then the Go Genting bus and cable car to Genting. It’s really quite cheap, and much cheaper and more convenient than driving your own car up.

I bought the Go Genting bus ticket with a 2:30pm departure from KL Sentral for tomorrow. When writing this post, I just found out that the nearest departure location from my Mingle Hostel is actually Pudu Sentral and not KL Sentral. Pudu Sentral is just 600m away from my hostel and it would take around 8 minutes to walk. Oh well, now I know.

I then took the LRT back to Pasar Seni and went back to MABA stadium to catch the second preliminary round basketball match between Singapore and Indonesia, arriving 10 minutes late for the match. The Indonesians proved to be much stronger opponents than the Laotians. It was a close match at first, with both countries taking turns to grab the lead. Our Team Singapore men gave it their all but it wasn’t enough. The Indonesians gradually pulled ahead and snatched a 70-54 victory. Nevertheless, kudos to our athletes for displaying team spirit and fighting till the end!

End of Day 2, and what a day of SEA Games action it had been! This experience has stoked my interest to watch more sporting events live…Maybe I’ll head to Tokyo to watch the Olympic Games in 2020, fingers crossed!