TRAVEL IDEAS

Java Jamboree: Street Delights

I suppose you can find delights when walking down the streets of Solo. Keep your eyes open and you'd perhaps come across a poster advertising Sate Kuda or Sate Landak which I suppose is a type of food -like the satay we had back home -skewered meat barbequed over charcoal embers, only now the meat used were horse meat and porcupine meat and the advertisement claimed that they were aphrodisiacs. Then, you'd get to meet the jamu lady too, the lady selling traditional Indonesian herbal concoctions called jamu to pep up your health and well-being. And a school nearby may just beckons and you'd perhaps like my friends and I, zero in and get all ga-ga over schoolchildren playing in the school compound. We really had a fun and memorable time mingling with some schoolchildren and their teachers...

Can you spot the jamu lady and her jamu?-

Traveling Tip: Visit a school!

Java Jamboree: Chinese Desserts

I remember not being very impressed with Solo upon arrival. The streets looked rather shoddy and in need of a good scrub. There was nothing much to look forward to at night and thanks goodness, we came across this cheap-looking roadside stall selling desserts. The proprietor was a nice friendly lady who looked very much a Chinese but we weren't really sure. The desserts she dished out though were definitely Chinese in origin. The one made of peanuts, I am sure is easily available here in Taiping though the Indonesian version was thicker. Then, there was one with glutinous rice balls inside which reminded me of the glutinous rice balls of Tung Jie, the Chinese Winter Solstice. I like them all and the skoteng too which is actually ginger juice, which I remember having drunk it in Kunming, China; only now it is sweeter than you could imagine...

At a street in Solo...Now the push cart here does not offer any desserts but a kind of pancake...Can you spot the pancake and which one of the desserts is made from peanut?

Traveling Tip: Take time for desserts!

Java Jamboree: Eating the Surakarta Way

Upon reaching Solo or Surakarta, we had promptly employed the service of a van. We had not booked a hotel and the van driver kindly took us to a quiet street where there were a number of cheap hotels with rooms and facilities that seemed to have seen better days. One nicer one had not a so nice owner with a snobbish attitude of stay if you want and leave if you please and that had us scouting for a room elsewhere. I remember walking quite a distance and I was beat when we finally ended with one near where we had started. After a shower, it was off for dinner and we walked to a quaint eating place near where the statue Slamet Riyadi was, that's the name of one of the leaders that led a guerilla war against the Dutch in the late 40s. It was already dark then and there was quite a big crowd. People don't just sit on chairs or stools and eat with their food on their table here; some would sit on the roadside on mats and eat their stuff and we heard that was cheaper that way and on the second night, we decided to eat the Surakarta way...

Can you spot the guerilla leader, Slamet Riyadi?

Traveling Tip: Do it like the locals!

Mudskipper at Tanjung Piai - Johor.

We spotted about three type of different Mudskipper around the Tanjung Piai National Park.
Sometime I like to monitor the movement and the activities of the Mudskipper, but it's just too hot under the sun...:)
I don't know the type of the three mudskippers I captured below...will be appreciate if you can provide me the name of it. Thanks.

"Mudskippers are members of the subfamily Oxudercinae (tribe Periophthalmini), within the family Gobiidae (Gobies). They are completely amphibious fish, fish that can use its pectoral fins to "walk" on land.Being amphibious, they are uniquely adapted to intertidal habitats, unlike most fish in such habitats which survive the retreat of the tide by hiding under wet seaweed or in tidal pools. Mudskippers are quite active when out of water, feeding and interacting with one another, for example to defend their territories.

They are found in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions, including the Indo-Pacific and the Atlantic coast of Africa." More info at Wikipedia.

Related post :
* The Southern Most Tip of Mainland Asia - Tanjung Piai of Johor (Part 1)
* Fiddler Crab at Tanjung Piai (Cape) - Johor
* The Jetty of Tanjung Piai (Cape) - Johor (Part 2)
* Bluespotted Stingray at Tanjung Piai - Johor
* The Thrid Trail of Piai Cape (Tanjung) - Johor (Part 3)
* Bebaru Trail of Piai Cape (Tanjung) - Johor (Part 4)

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American Photo: Images of the Year 2009

American Photography Magazine is featuring Images of the Year 2009 . Rather predictably (but deservedly) Ed Kashi is the Photojournalism Category Winner with his essay documenting the Trans Amadi Slaughter, an abattoir in Nigeria that had sprung up after petroleum-related pollution destroyed local fisheries.

Photo © April Maciborka -All Rights Reserved
Other winners in the Photojournalism category are Larry Louie, Ed Ou, Andrew Biraj, April Maciborka, and Achille Piotrowicz. I thought that April Maciborka's work (above) documenting shrimp farmers in India was the best. Her toned photographs are really impressive.

I featured April Macibroka on this blog earlier this year, in which I thought that her work exemplified the essence of what a travel photographer is, or should be. The post can be found here, so I'm glad she earned the recognition that she did.

NYT: 2009 The Year in Pictures

Photo © Tyler Hicks/New York Times -All Rights Reserved
The newspaper version of the New York Times's Week In Review yesterday was a real fillip for photojournalism. The totality of the first page was of Tyler Hicks' superb blurry photograph of a US soldier in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, and much of the section was filled with the remarkable photographs by Emilio Morenatti, Moises Saman, Jehad Nga and Rita Castelnuovo.

On the section's second page, I paused at the editor's decision to publish two photographs by Tyler Hicks of the utter devastation of the Gaza Strip and the terrific loss of innocent lives, and the nearby positioning of a third photograph by Rita Castelnuovo showing a group of Israeli soldiers grieving over the loss of a colleague. I imagined the editor's cerebral gymnastics as to how to present a "balanced" view of the Gaza atrocity with a couple of photographs. Ah well...

As I said, the Week In Review section this week is a job well done. You can see it as a slideshow on the NYT's website.

Bebaru Trail of Piai Cape (Tanjung) - Johor (Part 4)

The Bebaru Trail is 600 meter long. This trail located before the Admin office of the National Park (you can refer from the picture at Part 1).
The Public Toilet, Campsite and the Activity Area like : Obstacle Course, Fireflies Tower & Mud Trail are in this trail.

There are two campsite situated site-by-site. Both are having the same facilities. Honestly, I love the campsite area. Where all the greenery surrounding...
Each of the tent area are separate, you can view from the photos below.

The Only worry I have is the 'Monkey'! They might attack the foods you bring during the night time! Other than this...it's really good Campsite!

The entrance of the campsite

The trail into the campsite

I cannot understand about this room for female??! Why the female has to sleep inside the Cage?!

The camping area

Each tent will has it's own privacy

The area also provided the shower room, barbeque and dining area (with electricity). All of these are simple setup.

Please save water

After the campsite, you reach the Fireflies Tower. I'm not sure how nice the view is, because I haven't try it yet! :) The BEST Fireflies view so far I experienced was the Kota Tinggi Fireflies...

Behind the tower, the is another Mud Trail. This trail is different from the previous post, because you will be walking directly into the mud! Prepare your boots!

The start point of the Mud Trail

I spotted another Benchmark over there. Seems like a GPS Station.

Next it will bring you to the Obstacle Course where most of the nature lover like it! There are two entrance with two different course. I'm not sure what the different inside, cause I cannot enter it by wearing sandals...:)

First Obstacle entrance. You got to swing to enter it!

Inside the course

The exit of the First Course

Then follow by the second course...

The second course, which I was trying to pass through it...but fail!

Inside the second course

Overall, I love this area very much! Beside the attack of the Wild Monkeys! haha! I believe there must be a way to chase away the monkeys during the night fall...do you have any idea?

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