In Cognac country (2)

Francis I, born in 1494 at the House of Valois now the Otard Chateau,modernized the Charente River's navigation system and Henry IV considered it the most beautiful river of France. This calm river flows through the town of Cognac and an impressive array of the famous liquor houses flanks its banks here. Of course, the town gave the famous liquor its namesake (I was told that Cognac is among the highest income per capita town in France).

I had the second opportunity to visit this town back in the spring of 2005. It was a cultural visit for the purpose of learning French and this time, we got to first see how oak barrels are made and later visit the Otard Chateau to get a fully guided trip on the vinification process of cognac, called eau de vie in French (water of life). It was a very pleasant and informative trip and definitely worth checking out if one ever visit France, out of Paris. For the liquor connoisseur, where else to buy a good bottle of cognac sauf directly from the cave (cellar) of the house itself!

At the courtyard

The quiet Sunday street of Cognac town.

The front entrance to the chateau.

Part of the inner courtyard.

The governor's lodge

The entrance to the lodge.

The Helmet Room, named after the helmet-like emblem on the chimney.

Royal emblem of Francis I - the salamander

Freezes on the wall depicting the history of royal lives at the lower vaults of the chateau.

This is where the good stuff is kept - a walk along this vault is enough to give one a giddy head with the wonderful aroma exuded by the aging oak barrels with liquid 'gold' in them...

Markings on a barrel of X.O.

The Charente flows through this town...

Inside the State Room.

Royal emblem - the ermine

Portrait of Francis I

The museum cum merchandise display

Outside again...

Some of the tools...

At the courtyard...

Another view of the Charente

The unmistakable twin towers that dominate the Cognac landscape.

Visit cognac at this site:http://www.ville-cognac.fr/

Visit the Otard chateau at this site: www.otard.com

Sungai Sia Encore...

As one visit the same site over and over again, new features would almost begin to pop up everywhere because now the eyes search for other unfamiliar details albeit the less noticeable ones. This way, every visit will almost certainly be fruitful with new discoveries...

A grasshopper sunning itself on a fig leaf.

A tiny fluttering jewel often found at the edge of the forest, Abisara spp.

Cherry tomatoes they're not - a bunch of lovely salmon-shaded berries of a jungle vine.

Another bunch...

A congregation of Yellow Grass butterflies, Eurema spp.

Hairy fruits on the branches of a shrubby tree...

The majestic Red Helen, Papilio helenus helenus.

Bako National Park 2008

November 2008 - it was the wedding of my niece at Kuching and we took advantage of the holiday seasons to do a bit of tourism in Sarawak. One of the many places we visited during the 10 days stay was Bako National Park. The park itself didn't seem much and the flimsy boat ride to the other side of the bay to enter the park did not leave much to desire but the impressive view of the majestic Santubong in the distance at the other end of the bay certainly made up for the inconveniences. Anyhow, it was a day trip, on a rainy mid day and that couldn't account for any real adventure - just first impressions...

You better believe that the signboard warning tourists of potential dangers from crocodiles is not a prank.

Voila what's waiting about 20 meters from the quai - the real McCoy. This one's a baby sunning itself on the cages of a floating fish farm. The boatman told us that big ones come out at night and there was an incident where a child was taken not long ago, the type that the newspaper and local folks refer to as 'Bujang Senang'.

Rocky facades greeted us on arrival at the beach.

Nearing the dropping point on the muddy-sandy beach.

A bearded pig.

Walkways along the mangrove for visitors to catch a glimpse of the proboscis monkeys frequenting this area.

A large alpha male that brought the group onto the beach at low tide and he ascended the tree tops later to feed. It was very interesting to observe the alpha male's behaviour as it led the group of monkeys around the mangrove to feed. Silence and patience was well rewarded.

The male proboscis monkey moving away.

Bright blue Fiddler Crabs marking their territories by flashing their unusually large and loop sided pincers.

A hand painted signboard.

Taking a snapshot to mark the occasion.

The enigmatic Santubong at the other end of the bay.

Souvenirs from the past at Sungai Sia

In an almost movie-like opening scene of a tropical paradise setting some 38 years ago, I got my first glimpse of Lata Jarum. Back then, there were no comfortable tarmac that led cars up to Ulu Dong - just 'kampung' road a.k.a very bumpy and long ride in an old Nissan 120Y from Raub town. For a six-year old boy, it was a real adventure that had no equal...from Ulu Dong onwards, it was only a logging path and we children had to drag our feet up the hill till the cascades, picnic et al...those days, there weren't any development to the site, just plain 'ol Lata Jarum au naturel and to get to the other side of the thundering cascades, we had to cross a huge log that span the boulders. Thunderous sound of the water, mossy boulders, butterflies swarming the sandy beaches and monkeys...yes, lots of them were seen eating a strange variety of golden fruit dangling from aerial roots all over the place, which leads us to present day at Sungai Sia. One fine afternoon last month, I had some friends over from KL and I took them swimming at my regular rendez-vous point at Sungai Sia. What struck me from the vantage point of my regular 'waterhole' in the clear water stream was what that was fruiting right across the banks -the same fruits that got me fixated 38 years ago at Lata Jarum, right across the impassable left banks, on dangling aerial roots of a huge fig tree. Yes! It WAS a species of fig that I now only come to recognize and finally put the cork on the wonders that I had all these years. Armed with my faithful Nikon compact, I had to scale upstream, climb onto a huge fallen log, cross it like a tigh-rope walker to get to the other side and redescend the left bank to get to the fig tree. It was worth the sweaty effort- an answer to an enigma that puzzled me all these long years. Strange, I have yet to see this fig again at Lata Jarum since the first encounter 38 years ago.

An aerial root of a fig tree heavily laden with fruits...

Close up of the fruit - a velvety fruit like the texture of an apricot...and the same size too!

The spiral up...

At the very base.

An interesting plant in the shades glistening under the speckled light from the canopy.

Butterflies congregating on a mud bank.

One hazy winter at Poitiers

Winter in the Atlantic Coast side of France is not always the coldest nor the heaviest in snow. In fact, snow is a rarity to this region but one fine winter morning in 2005, it came in the form of powdery snow. Happy me, I went for a stroll in the snow and snapped myself some photos in sub-zero temperature...