Ulat buluh for fishing...

I was strolling along an abandonned logging track with my camera when I chanced upon two men sitting on the floor sorting out something on a bamboo stem: it turned out they caught a nest of boring worms (probably the larvae of beetles or wood borers). It is one of the most effective bait for fishing in the river and they are not easy to come by...They can usually be singled out from a bamboo thicket by the look of the leaves showing sign of infection on its stem (they tend to look sickly and spotted) and the bamboo stems should be abnormally short because of the infection...

They were placed on a large dried leaf of a bread fruit tree and then divided among themselves. In Malay, these worms are simply called "Ulat Buluh" or bamboo worms.

Hog's day out...

I was photographing butterflies around the road shoulders of a forested trunk road when I saw this young hog coming out into the open grass road side to forage for food...it was cautious and when it saw me, it eventually trotted back into the forest up the hills...

Paris on a day (2)...

For those who fancy a "trishaw" ride in paris - here's one...

David Gandy hocking undies for Marks and Spencer in Paris - can get autograph on the affixed day on the window display...

Toyota too show off their stuff - but mostly cars already in the market (Avgo), not just the fantasy concept cars like others...

Well. Citroën and their new Cactus - loved the idea of the car... 

Weekend makan...

Some friends came over for dinner last Saturday but I didn't want to do too much so we opted for something that goes "one oven cooks all" and the whole thing just got a life of its own and carrot became the theme of the meal...

 For starter: baby carrots with fennel and cumin to accompany foie gras

 Roasted lemon herb chicken (Herbes de Provence) with vegetables: carrots, onions, garlic and tomatoes...

 A simple salad with Morbier and 6-month Comte cheese

Purple carrot cake with whipped cream...

La Cuisine du marché, a bistrot inside a market...

Inside the covered market of Besancon city is a bistrot that serves reasonable food at reasonable prices. I just love the simple way to eat oysters here - no fuss.

Zoology at the market...

A good place to sniff out local species of fish still thriving in the local waters would be the local fish market and in the case of raub, the farmers' market on weekends. As Raub is an inland town, only fresh water fishes are found and recent years, many species had seen serious decline in number, sizes and most importantly, in number of species as our polluted waters can only sustain hardy foreign species like the grass carps, tilapias and African catfishes...horrors for the ecologist...

 People still buy these for a nolstagia of long gone era - taste of locally caught wild fishes from the rivers...

 One of the commonest cyprinids in our rivers - the Ikan Sia, Mystacoleucus marginatus. A small cyprinids that seldoms reach 12 cm in length.

 Rarity: Ikan Sikang, Raiamas guttatus. 

Paris on a day (1) ...

It is always very difficult to decide what to do with just over half a day in a city like Paris. Of course there are always the tourist clichés everywhere but then again, making effort wasn't in my menu of the day and so, back to the old circuit around town...

Franck Gehry gets a hand with the brand...

Nespresso playing coy...(shop under renovation)

A smoker in the street...from my observation, I find that women smoke a lot in France

La defense, all run-down

One can no longer go up to the museum at the top of the arch...

The mirrored stairways of a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant in Champs Élysées.