Another visit to The Big Red Strawberry Farm at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands

Due to the early rain (about 4pm) in Cameron Highlands, we visited the The Big Red Strawberry Farm (N4.49624 E101.38656) in Brinchang town because it's fully cover in the farm. This was our second time visiting the farm and we like the way they arrange the plants and vegetables nice & neat, and it's clean too!

Initially, I was thinking to buy some plants or flowers for my garden...but just worry about the weather is different from the Highlands and it may not grow properly....

The flowers that I like...

Nice and colourful!

The prices of the flowers and the plants are much cheaper compare with the nursery around Johor Bahru  sell here. End up, we just bought some nice cactus...6 for RM10.

Lovely Green flowers...

The water stayed in the middle of the plant after rain...

Then we walked into the Lettuce and Strawberries area...

The Hydroponics Lettuces...

Lettuce seeding and the growing lettuces

Now they allow visitors to enter the Cassarova Strawberries area to pluck the strawberries, the fees is RM25.00. The Cassarova Strawberry is different from the normal strawberry where you can see it everywhere in Cameron Highlands, it's bigger, much sweeter and not that sour.

'Cassarova' Strawberries farm

We spent about 30-40 mintues to 'harvest' in that area and this (below) was what we got ...:)

Cassarova strawberries from The Big Red Strawberry Farm

The Strawberry Chocolate Fondue is the popular dessert at Cameron Highlands during our visit. It's widely available on the highlands including this strawberry farm...

I didn't take note on the price for the Fondue package at the cafe....

I think we will visit the farm again on our next trip, just felt very comfort walking in the farm...the staffs in the farm also freindly as usual...

We were hanging around the farm until the rain stop, then went back to the hotel for some rest...

The pink Hibiscus

Related post :-
*  My Cameron Highlands 3 days 2 nights trip on November 2012

Location map of The Big Red Strawberry Farm at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands

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POV: The Subway Picture

Appalling and disgusting. How else can anyone describe this? The New York Post, known for its sensationalism, and one of the rags belonging to Rupert Murdoch, has deservedly earned the opprobrium of every sentient being.

What does it have to do with travel and documentary photography? Nothing, other than it involves a so-called "freelance photojournalist", who through his action in taking this horrific picture, sullied the profession's reputation...which wasn't that stellar in the first place.

I saw a post on Facebook linking to an article published on Gawker bearing the title of Would You Have Taken The Subway Photo? asking that question to a bunch of Pulitzer-winning photographers.

I don't give a rat's ass what the Pulitzer winning photographers think, or what they would have done. Does winning the Pulizer prize bestow upon them more morality than the rest of us? This has nothing to do with taking a picture. This has to do with being a human being. And don't take me for a fool by saying that it was the duty of a photojournalist to document such an event.

I can only judge others' action by what I would have done had I been in this "photographer's" shoes.

I would've been frozen in my tracks at the horrifying scene unfolding in front of me over the course of 20 seconds...there's an infinitesimal chance that I might have run towards the man in a doomed impulse to do something...but I suspect I would've been transfixed at what I was about to witness. The last thing on my mind would've been to raise a camera and take a picture.

But let's pretend my nerves are made of steel, that I'm a hard-core photojournalist on the NYC subway beat for a while, and that I took the picture. I would have never given the picture(s) to the New York Post. Never.

But let's assume that I had to...perhaps because I'm a hardened hard-core photojournalist, or because of a contractual obligation that prevented me from deleting pictures, or because I felt the need to give them to the NYPD.  I would have refused to take a red cent for it.

But let's pretend that I lost my moral compass for a moment and took the money. I would regain it and give the money to the victim's kin to defray the burial cost, and try to cleanse my soul.

Yes, Mr R. Umar Abbasi...you need to cleanse your soul. And don't describe yourself as a "photojournalist".

As for The New York Post...you know what you are. I won't waste time telling you what you already know.

Ian Ruhter: The American Dream Project

If I'm to believe my blog's statistics, posts dealing with photographic alternative processes are hugely popular...as popular as comparisons between the Leica M9 and the Fuji X Pro-1.

So here's one about photographer Ian Ruhter (whose website's front page describes him as an "alchemist"...I think a well deserved self accolade). He processes his large format photographs using the collodion wet plate process, a photographic process used in the 19th century. He also authors the Silver & Light Tumblr blog that has some of his images. By the way, the above video on Vimeo registered some 104,000 plays.

Ian Rihter is traveling across the United States photographing the people and places with a delivery van that he converted into a giant camera. This collodion wet plate process was the fashion during the Civil War era and creates unique images on metal plates. Each plate is hand-coated, exposed and then hand-developed. The plate becomes both the positive and the negative, so each image can only be produced once; creating a singular photograph that can't be replicated.

Photo © Ian Ruhter. All Rights Reserved

Uncle Chow Kopitiam (The Hidden Gem) at Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands

Recommended by one fo my friend - Ben, and read a lot of positive review of this cafe...we decided to give a try during lunch time.
From the guide of Garmin GPS device, we drove into Taman Royal Lily which is located at the inner part out of Tanah Rata town. The Uncle Chow Kopitiam (N4.46722 E101.37244) is situated at the corner unit of Jalan Royal Lily 4/2.

Uncle Chow Kopitiam, Tanah Rata

No problem on the parking area and the shop just next to a small hill, cooling and refreshing!
The setting is simple and cozy, even it called it kopitiam but I'm quite disagree with it because of the comfort, clean dining area, it should at least name it - Cafe. :)

The setting and environment

The kopitiam is selling Local, Chinese and Western food, beside that...they also have many type of snacks and dessert, a good place for afternoon tea break too...

The dessert of the day...

The snacks and kuih-kuih displayed in the glass cabinets next to the counter...I saw some Nyonya kuih (snacks) also available, surprised! :)

Kuih-kuih (snacks)

We placed our orders...with the lady boss. She was friendly!

I had a Nasi Goreng Kampung (Traditional Fried Rice), my wife and daughter sharing a bowl of Chicken congee and order the Aloe Vera dessert...

Nasi Goreng Kampung ( Fried rice)

Chicken Congee

Aloe Vera Dessert

Food taste were above average!
I like the fried rice with the sambal chili. Nice!

The sambal served with the fried rice

My wife and daughter were happy with their Chicken congee and especially the Aloe Vera Dessert! The dessert was nice and not too sweet...
The Damage : RM21.00 for the meals above included drinks.
Too bad we will leaving soon, otherwise I would like to have the tea break again in this 'Kopitiam'.

I had a chat with the friendly lady boss and realized that the cafe awarded the 2nd position in Cameron Highlands by its Cleanness and Comfort by the town council, another award was 'One of the Top Restaurant at Cameron Highlands' by Cameron Highlands Online.

The awards for the restaurant

Do visit the Kopitiam if you happen to be around at Tanah Rata town, I think you will like it! Recommended cafe in Cameron Highlands.

Uncle Chow Kopitiam

 C2-G-01 Block C2
Jalan Royal Lily 4/2,

Taman Royal Lily,

Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands.

Business hour : 8am - 4pm.

Related post :-
*  My Cameron Highlands 3 days 2 nights trip on November 2012

Location map of Uncle Chow Kopitiam at Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands

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Sungai Palas BOH Tea Centre at Cameron Highlands

The farm alley is still narrow and winding all the way till the visitiors parking of Sungai Palas BOH Tea Centre (N4.51579 E101.41634). The total journey from the Brinchang Main Road to the Tea Centre parking area is approximately 3.5KM.

BOH Tea Vivitor Parking area

Once we got out of the car, there still a short distance to walk to the Tea Centre, it's locate at the small hill in the Tea Farm. The walk was refreshing and relax, it took about 10-15 minutes.

It was a nice walk within the Green...

The BOH Tea Centre is one of the Famous Attracttion in Cameron Highlands. I had been attracted by the unique structure of the tea centre on the hill which is not too far away...

The unique structure that protruded on the hill

If you notice the stairs next to it, that will be our return path later...

Sungai Palas BOH Tea Centre at Brinchang Town

The place was crowded! Yeah...it's a tourist hotspot. :)

I like the design very much. Let me share some photos in the cafe...

The Cafe area of the BOH Tea Centre

Everyone is busy queuing up for their snacks and drinks...included me...

There are indoor and outdoor area in the cafe...

The ourdoor or so call balcony area of the cafe

The scenic view...

We had 2 cups of BOH milk tea and a sausage with the unique name - 'Firecracker'. I bought it cause by the name...total bill was around RM15.

The sausage

The 'tea' was quite bland and the sausage was cold, not crunchy...but all of this was not our purpose to visit, it was actually the 'View'!
Look at the Breathtaking view from the cafe! It was Fantastic! We were relaxing at the cafe for more than an hour...Nice!

Scenic view from the cafe

This was the place where I can forget about everything and just sit at the cafe to enjoy the Marvelous view of the tea plantation! We can see the small village (where we parked our car) clearly from the cafe...
The photo above was on my right and the photo below was on my left...

Scenic view from the cafe

There is a small session selling all the tea leaf produced by the farm just within the Tea Centre, beside that you can also read the history of BOH Tea Farm at the gallery...

The BOH Tea Centre Gallery

That is the machine to grind and dry the tea leaf (correct me if I'm wrong) which is still in operation at the factory.

Had our factory walk after the tea break, and it's open for public.

BOH Tea Factory

Once we stepped in, there were 2 machines grinding the tea leafs....there's no clear explaination on the operation, so we have to base on what we saw within the production area.

The grinder machines

The word 'Sirocco' at the machine, I guess that's the Brand...too bad I can't find any information online...

The next session is where all the grinded dried tea leafs send for packing...I guess...

The tour was rather short, it took only 10-15 minutes to glance through the operation in the factory...

We chose to walk through the tea farm in our return path to the parking area. You can smell the tea leafs while walking...nice!

The path where we walked back to our car...

It was a nice experience having the tea break at the cafe! Especially the fresh air! I wish they can provide some info at the production area, and all visitors can understand the process of the tea leafs, that's make the perfect trip to BOH Tea Centre of Cameron Highlands.

History of the BOH Tea Plantation at Cameron Highlands
"BOH Plantations was founded in 1929 by J.A. Russell, a British businessman during the British colonial era in Malaya. He was optimistic of the tea plantation business due to huge demands despite of the world-wide Great Depression at that time. As a result of the potential, he applied for and was granted a concession of land for his first tea garden in Habu, Cameron Highlands.
Today, BOH Plantations owns three tea gardens - the first garden in Habu, Fairlie Tea Garden and Sungai Palas Tea Garden. To ensure the freshness of its tea products, BOH Plantations also set up a packaging factory near its main garden. BOH tea products are distributed both in domestic and international markets." Source from Wiki.

Related post :-
*  My Cameron Highlands 3 days 2 nights trip on November 2012

Location map of Sungai Palas BOH Tea Centre at Cameron Highlands

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The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions

I thought it'd be good idea to have all my past and future photo expeditions-workshops aggregated in one location separate from my regular websites, especially as I realized (rather belatedly) that some of my older itineraries/descriptions have evaporated in the ether when I moved from one ISP to the other.

All the itineraries and details of my photo expeditions from 2007 back to 2000 (about 8 or 9) have gone "poof"! So I will have to reconstruct them from various sources, emails etc, over the course of the coming weeks.

In the meantime though, here's (work in progress) The Travel Photographer's Photo Expeditions-Workshops from late 2008 to the present, including the one scheduled for May 2013. This aggregate website has the description of each trip, and includes the links to the audio slideshows and photo galleries produced during these trips.

The Butterfly Farm at Brinchang, Cameron HIghlands

After the simple breakfast provided by Rosa Passadena Hotel, my daughter suddenly asking...it's there any Butterfly and insects farm around Cameron Highlands?....Great! We were heading to Butterfly Farm (N4.50714 E101.40681) which is about 500 meters from Kea Farm Brinchang, Cameron Highlands immediately...

The Butterfly Farm at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands

The private vehicles parking area of the farm that really convenience to all the visitors! Because the farm entrance is located just about 8 meters from the main road...
The entrance fee is RM5 - adult and RM2 - children (12 years old and below)

The area is nice and refreshing. We went into the first session of the farm - Butterfly area...many colourful butterflies everywhere! My daughter was so excited!

The plants and flowers were so nice within the garden...

Huge butterflies in the farm...

Apologies that I cannot post all the butterflies photos here, too many butterflies! As you can see there were many of them hanging at the corner and everywhere in the area...

Once we stepped out the butterflies 'cage', the path continue to a insects, reptiles and bugs session.

There are many different spices of the Big Beetle Bugs family around!

Beetle bug

Next to the beetle bugs, I found my favorite - The Tarantula, beautiful and poison! Few different type of the poison spiders available in the farm...

One of the Tarantula at Butterfly Farm

Another type of spider, forgot the name of it...

Iguana and the lizards family...

Frogs pond...

Many visitors throw coins into the pond and make a wish, they believe it will bring good luck! Especially Chinese. There were 2 coins just laying beside the frog in the photo above...

And I felt that she was 'Cool'! (below...)

Kind of tiny green snake in the farm.

Out all these small animals, the area also full of colourful flowers and plants...

The Hibiscus (Malaysia National Flower) had many colours and interesting!

 Mixture of yellow and red colours...

The original Red Hibiscus

The pink Hibiscus

All names on the cactus...Oh! Don't kill them...

Just can't imagine if I fall on these...! Ouch!

We stuck at this small tree for quite some time...the reason is to discover the 'Stick insect'...can you notice it in the photo below?!

The Stick insect in Butterfly Farm

It was a nice and educational Farm for everyone! I will visit again for photography purpose...

We spent almost an hour+ in the farm that good enough to digested our breakfast, and continue of next itinenary to Sungai Palas BOH Tea Centre for another round of tea and snacks...

Related post :-
*  My Cameron Highlands 3 days 2 nights trip on November 2012

Loaction map of Butterfly Farm at Brinchang, Cameron Highlands

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