Ms Loo Chinese Restaurant at Taman Setia Indah, Johor Bahru

Ms Loo Chinese Restaurant (N1 34.373 E103 46.008) is located at Jalan Setia 9/17, Taman Setia Indah, Johor Bahru.

Ms Loo Restaurant

We had visiting this restaurant for dinner few time ago. My main purpose here is to taste the One & Only "Camphor Tea Duck" around Johor Bahru area. There other restaurant which also has this dish is at Pulai Spring Golf Resort.

This time I decided to snap some photos to share about it...

The indoor environment

Some customers like to sit at the outdoor area which is along the street, but we prefer the indoor area...the environment was just like normal restaurant at Johor Bahru area.

Our order for the night :-
1) Curry Fish Head
2) Hakka Yong Tau Foo
3) Vegetable cook with chili
4) Camphor Tea Duck (Signature Dish)

Curry Fish Head serve in aluminium foil to preserve the heat

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

Vegetable

Camphor Tea Duck

Curry Fish Head
The curry was thick and delicious! Nice taste.

Hakka Yong Tau Foo
Special and good. I think this was the first time I started to Love the Hakka Yong Tau Foo.

Vegatable
Above average.

Camphor Tea Duck
This duck was marvelous! And also our purpose here! The special recipe was really tasty and the duck was gentle enough!

The Damage :-
Total of MYR78.00 for 6 adults and one kid (Included drink). Very reasonable! Right?
The Camphor Tea Duck only serve in 2 sizes : MYR19.00 for small and MYR38.00 for big.

Food rated : 4.5/5
Camphor Tea Duck : 4.9/5

If you haven't taste the duck before, I suggest you give a try! You will like it. :)

Ms Loo Chinese Restaurant
Business hour : 11.00am-3.00pm, 5.00pm-12.00am
Close on every Tuesday

Location map of Ms Loo Chinese Restaurant

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Rich-Joseph Facun: Darshana Ganga

There are a couple of images captioned "moksha" on Rich-Joseph Facun's Darashana Ganga gallery that are certainly disturbing, but the remainder of his gallery show us Varanasi and its streets at its grittiest, and being one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, it is a gritty city. This is a work in progress, and I suspect that more images will be forthcoming.

For centuries, Hindus have sought "moksha", the release from the cycle of life, death and reincarnation by dying in Varanasi or having their remains cremated on the ghats alongside the Ganges. Hindus from across India and beyond, often choose to live out their last days in this 5,000 year-old city.

Rich-Joseph Facun is a photographer based in Abu Dhabi, who specializes in documentary projects dealing with personal Independence, pursuit of dreams and the discovery of self-identity. He studied photography at the School for Visual Communication at Ohio University.

He documented the life of a Navajo family in 2001; a project that gained him a Pictures of The Year award. He was also named as one of PDN's 30 New and Emerging Photographers amongst other numerous awards. His work has been published by various publications ranging from The New York Tines to FADER magazine.

Amongst Facun's many galleries, I particularly liked Merchants of Main Street, a collection of very nicely toned photographed of stores from all over the USA.

WSJ Photo Journal: Pushkar Mela

Photo © Kevin Frayer/Associated Press-All Rights Reserved
The WSJ Photo Journal with a photograph by Kevin Frayer has reminded me that the Pushkar fair (or mela) is taking place from October 30 to November 2 this year. It is one of the world's largest camel fairs, and is held in the quaint town of Pushkar. At that time, hotel rooms and other accommodations are available at a hefty premium, especially at the venerable but ideally located Pushkar Palace.

While it's famed for its camels, the fair is also a marketplace for livestock including the reputed Marawri horses. It has recently become a magnet for tourists, both local and foreign, with tour agencies setting up itineraries centered around the fair itself as the main attraction. Photo trips also abound, since the camel traders, the sand dunes of the Thar Desert and the setting sun prove irresistible to photographers hoping to capture the Rajasthani essence.

Although a one-time-must-see event, the Pushkar mela itself has become a tourist event rather than a genuine tribal camel trading occasion. The actual trading itself takes place days before the start of the event, and by the time tourists arrive, most of the trades have been competed, and only the stragglers are left.

You can read my take on Pushkar fair in an early (and acerbic) post on this blog under the title "Reheated Itineraries".

Coming Soon: Bhutan Galleries!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I'll be soon posting two galleries of some of my work made during my Bhutan Photo~Expedition a few weeks ago.

One is a multimedia photo gallery of Monks' Debates at the Kharchhu Sangha in Bumthang (which has already been seen by subscribers to my newsletter), while the other will showcase some of the dancers at the Jambhey Lakhang tsechu in Chamkar.

So watch this blog!

My Work: Bhutan Monks, A Cat & TV

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
This photograph (click it for a larger version) was made at the Wangdichoeling Palace in Jakar, Bhutan. Built in 1857, it served as the principal summer residence of the first and second kings of Bhutan; Gongsa Ugyen Wangchuck (1862-1926) and Jigme Wangchuk 1905-1952). Virtually dilapidated, it is now occupied by monks and novices who use some of its rooms.

It's within a stone's throw from the Bumthang Amankora Resort, whose daily rate for a single suite is $1300!

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
This photograph (click it for a larger version) captured two novices clandestinely watching a Bollywood movie at the Chimi Lakhang. The temple is dedicated to Lama Drukpa Kuenley, who is colloquially referred to as the Divine Madman, and is popularly considered to be a temple of fertility.

Footnote: I'm immensely gratified to have been mentioned in Lou Jones' excellent Marketing Travel Photography: Portfolio and Identity on Photo.net.

Under the paragraph titled Editorial Portfolio, Lou writes:

"Take a look at Magnum’s David Allen Harvey online magazine. He has some of the best talent working in the genre represented on his web site. Tewfic El-Sawy’s thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com has a unique vision with his site."

April Maciborka: India

Every now and then I stumble on a website that, to my mind, reaffirms the essence of what a travel photographer is, or should be, all about. So I hope you will agree that April Maciborka is one of those who carry that particular torch.

Her style, as evidenced by her various portfolios, matches my own visual philosophy: "travel photography meets photojournalism". Other travel photographers showcase lovely photographs of posed and smiling people...but that's not what this style is about.

The range of April Maciborka's work is certainly impressive. She seems to hail from Toronto but traveled and lived in South and Southeast Asia (as well As Africa) during the past four years, after graduating from Sheridan College with a degree in Photography. Her photographs have been published by American Photo Magazine, PhotoLife and PDN (where I first saw her work).

Take your time in exploring her many galleries and portfolios...it will take you quite a while. But if you prefer the type of travel photography in which ethnic minorities smile stiffly for the camera against the background of a perfect blue sky, you may want to look elsewhere.

Thamara Cafe at Taman Bukit Indah - Skudai, Johor.

The Local Indian Western Cuisine - Thamara Cafe. (N1 28.781 E103 39.839)
It's located at Taman Bukit Indah of Skudai, Johor (next to Taman Nusa Bestari). Just opposite the Tesco Hypermart between the single storey shop lots. You can refer from the map below...

Thamara Cafe in Taman Bukit Indah

This cafe is selling popular western cuisine (all day) and also Indian food (during lunch time).
Me and my family visited this cafe one of the evening for dinner, and we had ordered :-

1) Seafood Fried Rice
2) Black Pepper Chicken Chop
3) Lamb Chop
4) Tomyam Soup

Seafood Fried Rice

Black Pepper Chicken Chop with mash Potato

Black Pepper Chicken Chop with french fries

Lamb Chop

Tomyam Soup

The foods was Superb!

The Damages :-
1) Seafood Fried Rice - MYR4.00 each, we had it double.
2) Black Pepper Chicken Chop - MYR9.00
3) Lamb Chop - MYR14.00
4) Tomyam Soup - MYR5.00
Total was MYR39.00 included drinks (for 4 adults and 1 kid). The price was reasonable!

The Seafood Fried Rice was just nice. Rated : 4/5The Chicken Chop was Delicious and Succulent! And it served in quite big portion. Rated : 4.9/5
The Lamb Chop was Marvelous! It's not too dry and well marinated! Rated : 4.9/5

We were satisfied with the foods here!

I had a chat with the Chef - Mr E S Mani (one of the partner), he was actually a Chef in one of the restaurant at Singapore sometimes ago, and now...he would like to serve the similar quality food from S'pore in Johor Bahru. Anyway, I'm convinced!

The clean environment of the Cafe

Mr Kumar (the boss) will take care the cafe, and preparing the drinks for customer. He made a very good Mango Lassi!
"In various parts of Pakistan/India, mango lassi is a cold drink consisting of sweetened kesar mango pulp mixed with yoghurt, cream, or ice cream. It is served in a tall glass with a straw, often with ground pistachio nuts sprinkled on top. Mango lassi is most commonly found in Pakistan/India. It is widely available in UK, Malaysia and Singapore, due to the sizable Pakistani/Indian minority, and in many other parts of the world." Source from Wiki.

I missed the Lassi but ordered a Teh Tarik and it's equally good!

I did recommend to some of my friends to dine in this cafe, one of them was also a owner of a Thai Restaurant before, he commented the Lamb Chop was Perfect!
Other friends also gave their Thumb UP after tasted the foods.
Do give it a try if you happen in this area, I believe you won't regret! :)
Hurry! Their special price gonna end soon!

Others dishes from Thamara Cafe :-

Lamb Chop with Blue Cheese Spaghetti

Red Snapper with Home Recipe Sauce and Mash Potato mixed with garlic.

Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce

Salmon Fish with Citrus Sauce

Fillet of Lamb Loin grilled medium served with lamb gravy with a side of beetroot and brie cheese salad, mashed potatoes and drizzled with balsamic glaze (Weekly Special)
(Pre-order is needed)

Grilled New Zealand prime Striploin with beef jus served with mesclun salad & mashed potato

Blue Cheese Spaghetti

Spicy Masala Sotong (Squid) with rice

Related post :
*  Series of Steaks from Thamara Cafe, Taman Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru

Thamara Cafe
14, Jalan Indah 16/7,
Taman Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru.
Tel : +6012-7373103 / +6016-7171343
Business hour : 11AM - 10PM (Close on Monday)

Location map of Thamara Cafe


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Mariela Furrer: Timket, Ethiopia

I'm often asked to lead a photo-expedition to Ethiopia and I always demur, citing the infrastructural difficulties (mostly in the South) of setting up such a trip, and the concomitant high costs. However, as can be seen in Mariella Furrer's Timket gallery, Ethiopia is one of the most visually and culturally magnetic countries in the world. These images bring back the emotions I felt when hearing the beautiful chants at dawn during the Timket festivities.

Mariella Furrer is a photographer and photojournalist who has lived in Africa her whole life. She attended the Documentary Photography & Photojournalism Program at the International Center of Photography in NYC, and has since been working as a freelance photojournalist based between Kenya and South Africa.

Mariella has been awarded grants from the 3P Foundation, France and the Hasseleblad Foundation, Sweden. She has received an Honorable Mention from UNICEF Photo of the Year 2005 and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography 2006.

Timket is the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, and is celebrated on January 19 or 20.

For my own photographs of Northern Ethiopia, including those of my few days in Lalibela during Timket, drop by Footsteps in North Abyssinia.

Canon 7D: Shadow Image?

Photographers seem to have discovered a flaw in the new Canon EOS 7D, which results in a shadow of the preceding frame showing up in the following image when the continuous shooting mode is chosen.

The flaw was confirmed by Canon in Japan and elsewhere. Canon announced that it "is currently investigating and analyzing the cause of this phenomenon, and we are planning to release a firmware update to address this issue."

Canon USA actually has this on its website:

In images captured by continuous shooting, and under certain conditions, barely noticeable traces of the immediately preceding frame may be visible. This phenomenon is not noticeable in an image with optimal exposure. The phenomenon may become more noticeable if a retouching process such as level compensation is applied to emphasize the image.

This just reaffirms the wisdom of never buying the first edition of any camera (or computer, for that matter). Waiting for the bugs to be discovered by the impulsive (or impatient) buyers always pays off for those of us who prefer to wait.

It should be said though, that as far as I've read so far, no one has been able to replicate this flaw in the cameras supplied for testing.

Update (November 5): Corrective Firmware from Canon is now here.

NYT: Ariana Lindquist: Heshun (China)

Photo © Ariana Lindquist/NY Times. All Rights Reserved
The New York Times featured a short slideshow of Ariana Lindquist's photographs of Heshun, in Yunnan province, China. With beautiful scenery and abundant cultural traditions, Heshun is one of China's earliest border trade town, and is a perennial favorite of film directors, photographers, and painters.

Heshun is located on China's southern border in Tengchong County, and was once famous for its wealthy merchants who traded with India, Burma and the interior of China itself. Its location on the tea caravans route made it also an important hub for the tea trade.

During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, caravans arrived to Heshun ply their trade. They would bring silk, jewelery, books and Western commodities to exchange for jade.

I am tempted by articles like these to set up a photo expedition to Yunnan province...perhaps in 2011?

The Frame: Chhath Festival

Photo © Dar Yasin/AP. All Rights Reserved
The Frame, the photography blog of The Sacramento Bee, is one the main three large sized picture blogs, along with the Boston Globe's The Big Picture and the Wall Street Journal's Photo Journal.

It brings us 19 photographs of the Chhath festival where Indian Hindu devotees offers prayers to the sun. The festival is also known as Surya Pooja (or prayers to the sun) is observed in the eastern part of India 8 days after Diwali, the festival of lights. The festival in celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi as well as Mumbai.

Traditionally, Chhath festival devotees fast and offer water, milk and fruits to the sun god at dawn and dusk.

I'm glad to see that my friend Yasin Dar's(a Kashmiri photographer with AP) was amongst those published by The Frame.

Field Report: B&H & Adorama

Well, I succumbed to the "bigger is better" axiom and decided to add a 16gb SanDisk Compact Flash card to my inventory.

In arriving to this decision, I was guided by two facts: the first is that the images files from Canon 5D Mark II are monstrously large and that, although my 8gb CF cards are quite adequate, I filled them up a number of times in the midst of a photo shoot. The second reason is that SanDisk was offering interesting rebates on its cards, which meant $20 off the 16gb baby I got.

After spending an hour browsing at B&H, and touching-feeling-playing with the newly released Canon 7D (it feels solid, well balanced and its 8 fps sounds really good to my ears...but we'll see about the image quality), I was told that the SanDisk Extreme III Compact Flash Card were sold out. B&H was a madhouse this Sunday...presumably all from the traffic generated by Photo Plus Expo that took place the past few days.

So my next stop was Adorama where I did find the product I needed. While the delivery system at Adorama is far from being as sophisticated as B&H's, the card and its rebate sheet were readily available. The traffic was also very impressive at Adorama, with long lines at their cashiers.

Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak: India

Photo © Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak-All Rights Reserved
The face on Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak's website's cover is haunting...I can't tell if she's smiling or not. Have a look, and then explore his galleries which include photographs of East and West Africa, Maghreb countries, the Middle East and India, among others.

Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak is from Pozanan in Poland, and his photographs were published in CNN Traveler, National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Newsweek, Globtroter, FAO, Lonely Planet and many more international and national publications.

He also won a couple of prestigious awards to include the National Geographic Competitions in 2006 and 2007.

I haven't yet had the chance of exploring every single gallery as Swiatoslaw has been photographing virtually everywhere, but the one that captured my attention was his work in India. As you can see from the featured photograph, he's not shy in showing the unusual. His style and processing of some of his photographs remind me of Zackary Canepari's work.

Iskandar Waterfall at Cameron Highlands (September 2009)

We passed by this Iskandar Waterfall (Lata Iskandar in Malay) (N4 19.483 E101 19.477) while leaving Cameron Highlands on our Day 3. I just wanna find out are there any different from my last visit on 2003.

The park was clean and there was nice walkway from the main road towards the waterfall.

I was intend to climb up to the upper fall, but unfortunately, our time was not allow...too bad :(

The water was clear as usual...you can view it from the pictures below...

The Main Fall

The Upper Fall

The Crystal clear water...

The staircase to climb up to the upper fall...

Stairway to heaven...

Opposite the fall, there are few souvenir shop and the wash room also located between the shops. The wash room was well maintain and clean! You have to pay MYR0.20 for using it.

The souvenir shop opposite of the fall

The stream after the bridge of the main road, clear water...

I will plan to stay more longer on my next visit, at least...I wanna climb to the upper fall! :)


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My Cameron Highlands Trip - 2003
* Cameron Highland in 2003, Pahang

My Cameron Highlands Trip - September 2009
* Rosa Passadena Hotel at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands (D1)

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Java Jamboree: Streets of Jogjag

We left Dieng Plateau in the early evening. It was a long journey back to Jogjakarta. The day's activity had by then taken their toll on us and for most part of the return journey, all of us slept. We would soon be back to the hustle and bustle of the hot and dusty streets of Jogjakarta. That night, we had dinner at one of the streets around Sosro Vijaya area. Sitting on plastic mats while your food was served on low, long tables at the roadside did not sound like a nice idea but in Jogjakarta, you might just want to do that. You would want to be serenaded by some talented locals too for a fee of course, to make your trip memorable...

Look around the streets of Jogjag...Guess where we have dinner?

Traveling Tip: Look around the streets!