Green Hills and the Leper King ...

It was a fine Saturday morning, 7th may 2005, not perfect, but after weeks of severe heat wave a cool saturday morning was a welcome. The plan for the ten of us was to hike up Bukit Timah hill. So after trudging down steep steps, walking thru' rocky paths and occasionally posing for shots around scenic landscapes, we finally reached the summit. A one hour hike up ... a little too fast for our liking, it made our previous hike, the 10km round trip to the McRitchie Tree Top bridge and back, felt like a mini marathon. But we made the trip down more memorable by taking the climb up the 184 steps.

A group photo at the summit

Another successful outdoor outing. We're running out of places to go in S'pore. Let's see what's next.

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the Leper King ,you're right, he's the cool masked character in Sir Ridley Scotts' latest epic "Kingdom of heaven". Must admit it was quite a far-fetched tale (from ordinary blacksmith to warrior to knight to baron to defender of Jurusalem without batting an eyelid, like a hero out of a greek legend) , but the memorable characters and amazing scenes made it worthwhile to sit through the 2 +hrs, staring up at the big theatre screen just 7m away. This is the second time I'm watching one of Ridley's movies from the first few rows of the theatre, the first was Gladiator. It was indeed a challenge to absorb all the rapid-fire action of the skirmishes and battles from where I was sitting, my eye had to cover the entire length and breadth of the screen each time before the next throat was slitted or before the next trebuchet was fired.

Anyway back to the Edward Norton's character, the leperous ruler of Jurusalem, King Baldwin IV, he was very well portrayed in the movie, a man of obvious physical deformities and weaknesses, yet held strong when he was required to. Though his reign was short, he never shrugged his duty to his kingdom and especially his people. So when he died, the kingdom was in turmoil as it fell into the hands of Guy de Lusignan. Some true fans may bemoan the absence of the all important battle at the Horns of Hattin, but just like Gladiator where the story revolves around Maximus, this tale revolved around Balian d'Ibelin(Orlando's character), so what we had instead was the storming of Jusrusalem, a sure-win victory for Saladin. The leper king, may be remembered in the history of the crusades for all the wrong reasons, and he may be outshined by greater and more powerful characters like King Richard of England, King Philip II of France, or Saladin or Salah al-Din - the great muslim leader, but he had his moment in history and lived his life the best he could despite his weaknesses and limitations.

"be without fear in the face of your enemies, be brave and upright that God may love thee, speak the truth always even if it leads to your death, safeguard the helpless and do no wrong..."

a knight's oath