Best Egg in town...

If you're ever a connoisseur of egg dishes and happen to be in town (Raub), you must try this omelette dish called locally in cantonese dialect "Fu Yung Tan", which incidently means "Egg Fu Yung" or better still, Seremban Egg. How the dish got its named shared with a town is one story but I remember having read somewhere that this dish IS a real local Malaysian invention and a gift to the culinary world.
What I love best about this modest but extremely tasty dish is the perfect mix of the sweetness from the angled loofah, barbecued pork, onions and the eggs which is perfectly seared on the outside but almost soft and liquid on the inside but at the same time broken like a perfect scrambled egg. This particular dish is my all time favorite and if you want to try it, go to the local wet market. At the back of the market, there's a hawker food court. Look for the stall with the signboard marked "Restoran Yuen Kee". As for the dish and voila - enjoy yourself the super fast cooking. One caution though, the state of cleanliness at this place is debatable but like all great hawker food - cleanliness is never on the menu!
Yuen Kee was once a full-fledged restaurant at the same spot but about 15 years ago, urban development forced the restaurant to become the miserable stall it is today. But hey, the egg is still one heck of an egg Fu Yung! Vive Yuen Kee!

Plateau de Beille at the French Pyrenees

A pictorial of my first encounter with a ski station at the French Pyrenees.

The way up...


Impressive rock facade at the town of Les Cabannes

a snow covered slope

Johan and Jacyntha playing...

The mountains of the French Oriental Pyrenees

Jacyntha trying on the slide

a snow tract on a slope

snow angel...

Morib in June 2009

Last month, I went for a few days' training in Morib and in the evenings, I had some opportunity to stroll along the beach (NOT on the beach). Sadly, the beaches were not very accessible, muddy and the water, well, no comment. The sunset however, presented a few opportunities for some nice photos.

The tree hibiscus in bloom.

Leaving no stones unturned, a long-tailed macaque on her evening rounds on the beach.

A series of light changes over the horizon in Morib.

Map of Raub, Pahang

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Waterfalls of Raub (part 1)...Bukit Telaga

Bukit Telaga is a series of short cascades mid-way from Raub to the Gap, the starting point to Fraser's Hills.

After the fallen bridge, one has to cross the river on the other side to get to the rapids upstream...

The upper cascades...

Rich foliages

Filtered light streaming through the forest canopy on a late afternoon

Wild begonia

Wild figs

The upper cascades

The last falls...hidden deep in the jungle

The lower cascades

Encore jewels from our jungles...Lata Jarum 2009

Dry spells usually follow the month of June and this year, it was no exception. Lata Jarum remains a favorite spot for locals for its cool waters as well as its expansive cascades over a few kilometers from the hills...for me, it's the cries of the cicadas that always remind me of the dry spells of my childhood and the fantasies associated with the jungles that my father used to tell me...

Tapak Harimau or Tapak Hantu, depending on who's telling...a beautiful shrub with extremely large leaves with unusual extensions, giving it its namesake.

Beautiful bloom of a ginger

A fallen leaf on a mudtrack

Two beetles

The upper source of Lata Jarum...the water spurts out under this huge boulder and there won't be any stream up-stream as the river has gone 'underground' until this point.

Flesh-coloured leaf bract of a young Mahang sappling.

Wild bananas, Musa spp.

An insect on the forest floor

In death, a grasshopper still has its unique charm (a dead grasshopper found on the drain)

Pictorial of a saturday in Raub (part 1)

The imposing rest house at a small hill dominating the town...

An oasis of green under the shades of the rain trees...

The main street

Hazy morning (from the haze)

Pigeons on wires...

Forgotten visages...

Long corridors of arches...

The wall mirrors of this coffee shop was hand made in huge panels of wood ornate with carvings, giving it an old-world charm like the Parisian bistros but helas, the new generation of owners do not see the importance of conservation and this beautiful object is at the mercy of daily abuse...

Another visage of the shop houses

There should be laws governing the reconstruction as well as renovation of old buildings as gems like these are being neglected and abused, not to mention with hideous choice of colours...let's advocate the need for conservation of our heritage.

Pictorial of a Saturday in Raub (part 2)...

The rest house with its splendid colonial-styled architecture with imposing raintrees for shade at the entrance- a definite object of conservation of Raubian heritage.

The old Police Station, built in 1906, is restored and no longer in use. Hope it will be some kind of museum at least...

The main street with a gaudily colored wall housing the famous curry chicken sempalit...

One the only few remaining old townhouse dating from the turn of the 20th century

The same house, upclose...

The details of the doors...

Ye olde pawnshop still exists...

The oldest shoplot in town- Yong Joo Long, was founded in 1900.

The Town Council building repainted gray. Before, this was painted in whitewash, as it should be to respect the needs of the climate and esthetics but I suppose air-conditioning can change the ideas of esthetics in architecture...

Perched high on top of the hill (at the back) is the colonial bungalow in half-wood, half concrete design meant for the residence of the district officer...a heritage from its colonial past.