Ain’t no mountain high enough for this 68-year-old

SINGAPORE — After being a couch potato most of his life, Mr Lawrence Paul picked up hiking when he retired at age 64. And the former businessman wasn't just into taking a brisk stroll up the 178m Bukit Timah hill like most retirees. He was into climbing real mountains.

The Singaporean heads up to Malaysia to hike almost every week, and every few months, he ventures overseas for more challenging climbs. In the four years since he's picked up the hobby, the 68-year-old has summited at least 30 mountains in countries like Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal.

Among the peaks he has bagged are Japan's 3,776m Mount Fuji, Mt Kinabalu (4,095m) in Sabah, as well as a number of smaller peaks in Malaysia such as Gunung Rajah (1,685m), Gunung Ulu Sepat (2,161m), Gunung Nuang (1,493m) and Gunung Yong Belar (2,180m).

But his greatest achievement to date was making it up the 5,364m South Everest Base Camp in Nepal in seven days instead of the normal nine two years ago with six other members practically half his age.

Indeed, the sexagenarian, with a head full of white hair, cuts an unusual figure in the hiking interest group that he joined on the social website Meetup, where majority of the members are in their 30s or 40s.

"People will try to ask me my age, I will ask them to guess. I don't want them to know because I don't want to be belittled," the active ager said.

Singapore might have an ageing society, but Mr Paul is a prime example that one's life need not get more sedentary as one grows older. Before he sold his glass fittings company, Mr Paul told TODAY he worked at least 12 to 14 hours daily, six days a week.

But after he retired, his 33-year-old daughter suggested that he browse the Meetup website to take up some hobbies. It was there that he was introduced to hiking.

Asked what he enjoyed most about hiking, he said: "You can go places that nobody goes, you see things that you never see. That is the beauty of it."

But when he first got started, he said it was pure "suffering" as his whole body would "ache like hell". "I (first) started with trails at MacRitchie (Reservoir Park), then my first overseas hike was Mt Lambak Kluang in Malaysia, about 500m," he said. Then he gradually challenged himself to push higher and higher.

His highest achievement was reaching the South Everest Base Camp in April 2016. The trip took his team of seven about half a year to plan and prepare. The hike alone cost each person US$1,200 (S$1,638). Though it was gruelling, Mr Lawrence said giving up was not an option.

"Even if I am tired, even if I crawl, I must also must crawl up. Do you know how miserable it is to not to (reach Everest Base Camp)?" he said.

Having been competitive his whole life, Mr Paul does not believe in half measures. For example, even when he found out that his middle right toe was broken during a health screening last month, he did not heed the doctor's advice to rest.

"The doctor told me not to hike for three weeks, but 'itchy feet' how can recover?" he said.

It was also this "itch" in his leg that kept him going. Usually on Friday nights, Mr Paul would hop onto a bus to Malaysia with his friends, hit the trails immediately after having breakfast on Saturday morning, and on Sunday, they would be on their way back.

"Most people will say we are crazy people, because we hardly sleep in the bus!" he said with a laugh.

Although his wife, who is not into the same interest, does not join him on his hikes, his two grown children, both of whom are currently living overseas, are more proud than worried about his hobby, the 68-year-old said. For not only can he take care of himself, but he also helps to take care of others too.

For instance, in November 2016, one of his team member in her 30s "totally freaked out" when making her descent from the summit of Jade Mountain (3,952m) in Taiwan. She had "jelly legs", so Mr Paul and the guide helped carry her backpack and supported her all the way down.

To keep himself in shape, he exercises four times a week. Besides running, he takes the stairs up and down from his 47-storey flat in the Dawson estate.

But, he is not strict about his diet. The only supplement he takes is fish oil.

Keeping fit, he said, goes beyond the physical, which is why he keeps his mind "sharp" by designing products. For instance, after his late elder sister became bedridden 10 years ago, he then started to design a mobility aid to help caregivers of bedridden patients to carry patients around the house.

It has a frame, which is attached to rails on the ceiling. A caregiver can "load" the patient on the mobility aid, and move the patient from room to room, wherever there are rails attached.

For his next challenge, Mr Paul has set his sight on the Camino de Santiago in October. The famed Christian pilgrimage in Europe, which has several starting points, takes one by foot to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in north-western Spain.

But he added: "There may be many impromptu trips before that too."