Tawau Tour

 
Tawau is a town on east side of Sabah. From Kota Kinabalu you can take a 45 minutes flight to Tawau Airport. From the airport take a taxi for 30 minutes ride to Tawau. There are plenty of hotels in Tawau but I stayed in Hotel Emas.
 
If you need Internet access, Sedap corner has free wifi. Its only 3 minutes walk from hotel emas. Ask the counter staff and they will show it to you. The food is good, the girls are pretty and friendly. If you are lucky you can also ask them out for dinner at the same time ask her to show you around town before you show her around your hotel room :).
 
From Tawau I went to Semporna. The journey took about 1 hour. At Semporna you can take a boat to go island tour. Go to the Jeti, beside the entry to Dragon Inn there a lot of small challet. Those are offices for tour and boat operators. Ask around and you can get good price for island tour. There are also diving packages there. Maybe you can dive Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai. In Semporna there are lots of hotels. Dragon inn is a good one. As for pub and karaoke there are plenty. Food?? Lots of food here. Seafood especially. For me I dont like to stay in Semporna coz its too small with nothing to do at night except going to the pub one after another.
 
My advise stay in Tawau and make daytrip to Semporna.

Holiday Villa, Cherating

 
I stayed at Holiday Villa, Cherating in Kuantan, Pahang for 5 days. From Kota Kinabalu I took a 21/2 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport and from there another flight to Kuantan that took about 30 minutes. From Kuantan Airport took a taxi to Cherating Villa that cost RM55.
 
This time of year Cherating is very warm. Luckily the room has air-condition and its working well. I stayed in Challet by the pool. Its a big room, has good funiture and its comfortable.
 
Overall the room here are good. There are 2 swimming pool and if pool isnt big enough you can always go to the beach which is very near. There is also a karaoke there if you are looking for something in there but no girls in the karaoke. There is a Spa with reasonable price package. Internet access in the rooms there a none. At the lobby there is tmnet hotspot. Buy the prepaid at the counter and register online. Its RM28 for a 30 day access. If you are not willing to pay, there is a free wifi which not many people knew bout it. Eastern Pavilion has a ballroom. Inside the ballroom there is a wireless router. Ask the staff there to switch it on and you will get free wifi. You can sit at the SPA and surf. Good rooms, good facility and good service.
 
Unfortunately the food here is not good. Its not bad but try eating it for 5 days str8 and you will understand what i mean. Take a 3 minute walk and go outside. Turn right at the gate and you will find 2 malaysian food restaurant, 2 seafood restaurant and a bunch of shops. You can eat all you want and the price is good. The seafood restaurant also sell beer. The shops has all the basic needs and they even sell clothing. I bought 2 Cherating shirt for RM10 each. If you are looking for disco, The Legend is a resort that have disco. Leisure Villa (if im not mistaken) has a lounge with live band every night. The nearest town is Bandar Chukai which is 15 minutes away if you take a taxi. Bandar Kuantan is 30 minutes away. Along the way there are a lot of stalls selling Keropok Lekor. If you want to buy Keropok Lekor buy the dark ones. The white ones have too much flour in them. Sometimes the dark side is better.

Overall Holiday Villa Cherating is a good place to stay. As for the food you can always find a place to eat within 3 minutes walking distance. The rooms are big with lots of facility to choose. If you a planning a quiet holiday by the beach this is it.

Kota Kinabalu Terminal 2 Airport

 
Kota Kinabalu Terminal 2 Airport is finish for about 6 months now. Its now working fully and no more smell of wet paint. If you fly AirAsia then you will be using Terminal 2.
 
Its now bigger and have a lot more room. Easier to park car if you are waiting but beware there are police wathing and will ask you to park the car at proper parking space if you wait too long. As for parking space there are plenty.
 
Terminal 1 is currently under renovation. Its going to be bigger better and can accomodate a lot more flights because the current airport is at it maximum usage.

One Shot: Candace Feit

Image Copyright © Candace Feit - All Rights Reserved
One Shot is a brand new feature on TTP. It'll be similar in concept to the weekly Beyond The Frame, but will focus on a single photograph by a featured photojournalist or travel photographer rather than on my own work, giving the background story on the chosen photograph. I can't say how frequent or regular that feature will be, as it will entirely depends on whenever I find a photograph that 'speaks' to me and that has a really interesting cultural or historical story behind it.

I'm happy to start off the One Shot feature with a photograph by the enormously talented Candace Feit of a young student (a talibe) studying and memorizing Qur'anic verses in an Islamic school in the Senegal. These students (the "talibes"), are mostly from poor rural families, and study at a daara, or school, run by a religious teacher or a marabout, with whom they live. Classes consist mainly of memorizing Koranic verses, but most of the day is spent on the streets begging. Some critics say that marabouts are a cross between a modern-day Fagin and a tutor, while others see them as performing a social service by taking in these needy children but, in the absence of social services, having to survive through begging.

Candace tells me that these young boys are also known as "tomato-can" children because that is what they use to collect money, sugar, rice, or whatever they are given when they are begging in the streets. Another interesting fact is that the wooden boards on which the youngsters write the Qur'anic verses are washed clean as soon as the verses are memorized. However, the washed ink is never thrown out but is given to sick people who add it to their bathing water for healing purposes. Although I have an old wooden writing board with Qur'anic inscriptions and the diagram of a mosque on its face, I never knew that about the washed ink.

I like the way Candace made this particular photograph, standing above the student...the back of his head contrasting with the bright surface of the wooden board (what do they call these boards!?...they must have a name), and the curvature of his hand against the elegant Arabic script. (Click on it to see it in a larger size).

The whole concept behind these Islamic schools or daara as they're called locally, is virtually identical to the monastic schools for Buddhist novitiates in many Asian countries.

I've already featured Candace Feit's immense photographic talents in an earlier post, and you can see the rest of Candace's photographs of the Islamic Schools in the Senegal on her website.

Eureka! New HTML Newsletters

After much procrastination, I've finally switched from my long time HTML newsletter provider to a new one. The new provider has a more economical and reasonable 'pay-as-you-go' pricing system, which means that I can buy a certain number of email credits (about 3 cents a recipient) and use these credits until they run out. Since my email newsletters are irregular in frequency, this system is more sensible, and fits my needs.

I use these newsletters to announce new photo expeditions and/or new photo galleries on my website. If any reader of TTP blog wants to get on my newsletter list, just visit my website and subscribe in the newsletter box (the bottom right side)...yes, it's that simple and it's certified non-spam.

Manuel Libres Librodo Jr. : Myanmar

Image Copyright © Manuel Libres Libredo Jr - All Rights Reserved
In my opinion Manuel Libres Librodo Jr. is much more than an emerging travel photographer from the Philippines...he is an exciting new travel photography talent, whose photographs betray an exceptional degree of professionalism and aesthetics. Manuel has only been photographing for four years, and as readers of TTP will see his photographs are breathtaking. Some of his photographs are digitally enhanced by heightening saturation and coloration...and a few are perhaps overly saturated, but the overall quality of his photographs is exceptional.

He is originally from the town of Lambunao located in the central part of the Philippines, and is currently a teacher in an international school in Bangkok. He had a one-man-show at the One Workshop Gallery, Makati, Philippines, and published his photographs in Digital Photo magazine, What Digital Camera and Mabuhay magazine, as well as having UNICEF featuring some of of his work in a calendar.

To introduce Manuel in TTP, I've chosen his work of Myanmar (Burma), a country which I visited twice and which I hold with great affection. The photograph of the Inle Lake fisherman which illustrates this post is by far of the best I've seen.

So hurry and click on Myanmar: Heartbeat of Gentle People

Bruno Morandi: Hijras of Pakistan

Image Copyright © Bruno Morandi- All Rights Reserved
Here's a real treat for TTP readers. Bruno Morandi is a globetrotting French photographer who managed to document cultures that I am particularly interested in. Although pursuing architectural studies, he started off his career as a young guide in the Himalayas (especially in Nepal) for adventure tour companies, and gradually became interested in documentary photography. He published a number of pictorial books, and is well-known in the realm of travel photography. Blessed with an excellent 'eye', his photography style is straightforward, relying on all-inclusive framing and the power of colors.

For TTP, I chose his gallery of the Hijras of Pakistan. Hijras is the Urdu word for hermaphrodites, but are not exactly transvestites. Hijras function in society only as women, and their partners are men or other Hijras. It is said that they are neither men nor women...that they have men’s bodies and women’s souls. Traditionally, the Hijras earn money in three ways: they collect “gifts” in the local bazaar, in the evening they bless bridegrooms (frequently they cause a ruckus in weddings and are therefore bribed to leave the festivities) or newly born sons, and at night they engage in prostitution. Their clients are “normal” men, who allow themselves both a wife and a Hijra, with whom they may maintain a love relationship lasting for years.

The history of Pakistani Hijras is rooted in the culture of the subcontinent. As early as 1000 B.C., ancient Indian medical texts mention the existence of a “third sex,” when the genetic matter of the father and mother are present to exactly the same degree. An old legal text also dealt with the third sex, which had no right to inherit property, was not allowed to conduct sacrifices, and was expelled from the caste. The third sex was recognized to exist but was discriminated against. Becoming a Hijra is a process of socialization into a "hijra family" through a relationship between a student and a guru, leading to a gradual assumption of femininity. Hijra families are close knit communities, which often have their own houses.

The culmination of this process is a religious ritual that includes emasculation, but, although expected in the hijra subculture, not all hijras undergo emasculation, and the percentage of hijras that are eunuchs is unknown. The Hijra community in the democracy of India has become a potent political force, and although still discriminated against, they are gaining some clout.

I have met a number of hijras during my photo shoots in Sufi shrines of India, but haven't had the nerve to photograph them in their environment. How Bruno managed to gain their trust and be allowed in their houses to photograph is remarkable.

Yes, I envy Bruno for having photographed so much of what interests me, and I hope to follow in his tracks.

Here's The Hijras of Pakistan

POV: Caption Brouhaha

A brouhaha erupted in a professional photographers' forum over the captioning of a photograph by the owner/publisher of a well-known (and well-respected for its technical content) photography website. The issue at hand is a photograph of a girl, in her very early teens, standing at a doorway in a pose that the photographer described as " sexually provocative" and hence captioned it as "Lolita". Let me add here that the photograph was made somewhere in the Amazon.

One of the photojournalists member of the forum was sufficiently offended by that caption that he emailed his point of view to the photographer, and asking the reason for naming the child as Lolita. The response (perhaps understandably) came back as defensive, dismissive and tactless: " Given the fact that she looks to be about 13 years old and is pregnant, can you think of a better name?".

This led to a brouhaha with all kinds of commentary, both intemperate and more balanced, and eventually to the photographer publishing a statement on his website, which essentially is summarized in the following quote: "In this case I titled a photograph of a clearly sexually provocative young woman with a word in the popular vernacular that, I believe, adds to its overall effect. It is not an editorial statement. it is the title of an art work."

I will neither post the photograph nor give details of either the forum or the photography website for obvious reasons, but in this particular dogfight I believe that the photographer was wrong in captioning the photograph of this child with such a provocative name...which, at least in our Western society's vernacular, is indeed suggestive. He has made certain assumptions about the child that may not be true...and could've easily have found her real name. Naturally, if the photograph of the girl was taken in the United States or Europe, the photographer wouldn't have dared to publish it without a model's release, or at least without her real name. I think he was also wrong in his knee-jerk tactless reply.

I have seen the photograph and to describe it (as he does, above) as an art work denotes an over inflated ego. It barely qualifies as a snapshot...nice try though, but let's move on.

I think the positive out of this spat is that it provokes us to think how we caption our own photographs, and how we present them to the public. Although I describe myself as a travel photographer, I believe that I have responsibilities identical to those of photojournalists, and I work hard at avoiding to editorialize my captions. Depending on circumstances, I obtain the names of everyone I photograph to caption their images accurately. If I don't have the name, I just don't make up one...to me, giving a name such as Lolita to a young girl by a photographer (unless she agrees to it, and it qualifies as "art") to be tactless and unprofessional. This photograph does not qualify as art by any stretch of the imagination.

Siddharth Jain : Rajasthani Festivals

Siddharth Jain, an emerging photographer, resides in Delhi but travels to the wonderful state of Rajasthan to satisfy his hunger for color and movement. He describes himself as a "photo enthusiast", but he is much more than that. He published his first full feature on Trekking the Himalayas in Asian Geo, and assisted the fine arts photographer Peter Steinhauer during various assignments in India.

He's currently working on long term projects involving out of the mainstream Indian festivals, a subject matter after my own heart.

I chose his lovely photograph of a Rajasthani folk dancer (it might be a Kalbelia?) for its movement and color.

His website is currently being worked on, but in the meantime you can visit his slideshow gallery of Rajasthani festivals here.

Ben Lowy: Wandering in Ethiopia

Image Copyright © Ben Lowy - All Rights Reserved
Benjamin Lowy is a New York-based photojournalist, who covered major stories as the Washington DC sniper case and the ongoing conflicts in Israel, Iraq and Haiti. He has been on assignment for Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic Adventure magazines and his work has also appeared in Stern, CNN, WCBS, PBS, as well as in numerous books. He recently completed the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass in the Netherlands.

I came to know his excellent work through the National Geographic Adventure magazine, in which he published a feature on his trip on the river in Yunnan, China, pushing on to four other countries, including Laos.

His website has a number of very interesting, and some may say unusual, galleries but I chose the Wandering in Ethiopia to showcase here on TTP. It's an unusual perspective on his travels within this amazing country, especially in the city of Addis Ababa and Gonder. The photographs are super saturated, and are more urban-related than anything else.

A young photographer whose promising career is assured, Ben's work has attracted the attention of many in the photography industry and has deservedly won many awards.

Here's Ben Lowy website.

POV: Shame

Hamed Zalmy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The New York Times just published this photograph topping an article on the killing of Mullah Dadullah in a so-called "joint" operation by Afghan security forces, American forces and NATO troops. The article goes on to say "Mullah Dadullah’s body was displayed for journalists on Sunday morning..." and the Governor "led journalists to see the body, on the veranda of the governor’s palace. Mullah Dadullah, an amputee, was recognizable in part from his missing left leg and thick black beard. He was wounded in the head and left eye and his face and chest were bloodied." The photojournalists surround the corpse laying in pink sheets (were these chosen instead of regular white sheets to minimize the unwanted reflections of flashes?), photographing and videotaping the gruesome spectacle.

I am relieved that Dadullah was killed as he was thought to be responsible for ordering numerous assassinations of clerics, government officials and health and education workers, as well as kidnappings and beheadings, including of foreigners. He was responsible for training and sending scores of suicide bombers to Afghanistan. I also understand that he was the zealot who ordered the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. So in the inimitable simpleton-like language of some, he was certainly 'a bad guy'.

However, I cannot rationalize the publishing of such a picture in our "civilized" mainstream media. What purpose does it serve? Proving to the Taliban that Dadullah is indeed dead with pictures will demoralize them is idiotic to say the least. The Taliban are primitive zealots and ideologues, who now believe that Dadullah is a martyr and is in heaven. Publishing such a picture has a zero impact on their morale, and will give the Taliban justification to publish their own 'war trophies'.

No, this only serves to debase us all.

Update: I was reminded that it was Dadullah who ordered the decapitation of the unfortunate Ajmal Nashqabandi, the Afghan journalist and fixer for a number of Western photojournalists. I had written a post on Ajmal and the need for international recognition for fixers and local journalists. I'm glad that justice has prevailed and the murderer of Ajmal and others has received his due. Nonetheless, publishing such a photograph is shameful.

Crisis in Darfur

Image Courtesy CFR On our main street, I recently saw a young shoolgirl setting up a small stand with a sign saying 'save Darfur' hoping to collect donations for the unfortunate victims of this relentless genocide. This prompted me to look for the best guide on this atrocious situation, and found it to be the excellent multimedia presentation published by Council on Foreign Relations in collaboration with MediaStorm.

The Darfur guide is the second in a series of interactive guides to the most complex issues and conflicts on the planet. The six-chapter project includes a multimedia narrative, interactive maps and timelines, and extensive information on the situation in Darfur.

Featured in Chapter 1: The Grim Reality is the work of photojournalists Lynsey Addario, Marcus Bleasdale, Stanley Greene, Olivier Jobard, Benjamin Lowy, Kadir van Lohuizen, and Paolo Pellegrin. There is an introductory narrative by Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN.

Crisis in Darfur

Dive into Sabah Waters

Pulau Sipadan, Sabah
Good for all level of divers, big sea creatures, challenging dives.

The first time celebrity diver Jacques Yves Cousteau visited this island in the 70s, he was so impressed with the island's biodiversity that he stayed on for six months and crowned Sipadan as one of the top five dive sites in the world. Tengku Datuk Zainal Adlin, Chairman of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia and an avid diver, agrees. " You can see everything in one single dive - turtles, giant parrotfish, schools of trevally jacks, sharks, and many species of reef fishes ". What makes Sipadan so unique is its location at the heart of Indo-Pacific basin, which supports a rich marine ecosystem dating back to 100 million years. shaped like a mushroom, the island is perched on top of a submarine volcano.

The list of dive sites in Sipadan is staggering and it is the playground of giants: turtles, hammerheads, manta rays, gray reef sharks and humphead parrotfish. Most of these creatures are hard to come by elsewhere in South East Asia. You get to surround yourself with a vortex of barracudas so huge that they eclipse the sun. Swim into an underwater cavern that sneaks up the 'central pillar' of the islan, or go to the Cleaning Station to see turtles and other big fishes behaving docilely while being cleaned by small reef fish such as moon wrasse and surgeonfish. When you want to take a break from the legendary wall dive, perch yourself at the edge of the Drop-off and stare into the deep blue. Prepare to be overwhelmed as ocean life plays out in front of you. Do like most divers do - group Sipadan together with Kapalai and Mabul in one extended dive holiday.

Lodging: There is none on the island. Divers stay at Mabul and Kapalai, which are just 15 minutes away.
Getting there: Fly from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau before continuing the journey on hired minivan to Semporna for your boat transfer to the Islands.

Pulau Mabul, Sabah
Good for Much Diving, Experienced divers.

Mabul holds the reputation as one of the best sites in the world for much diving (diving in shallow depths with limited visibility). The objective is to spot rare and sometimes bizarre macro species such as vibrant-coloured nudibranches, mantis shrimps, ribbon eels, seahorses, stonefish and ghost pipefish.

Lodging: Sipadan Water Village Resort is one of the premier places to stay.
Getting there: Same as Pulau Sipadan. Its adviseable to arrange for pick-up from Tawau airport for a fuss free journey to Pulau Mabul.

Pulau Kapalai, Sabah
Good for Beginners, night dive, macro diving.

Though it is very near to Sipadan, diving in Kapalai opens up to a completely different world. The island's relatively shallow waters is suitable for beginners, yet a quick dive off the jetty is fascinating enough with the presence of leaf scorpionfish, crocodilefish and lionfish. Kapalai is considered a heaven for macro lovers and a good site to spot rare creatures such as frogfish, blue-ringed octopus, harlequin ghost pipefish and sea moths. Hifzie Hassan, an underwater videographer who has logged in more than 500 dives, highly recommends a dive in the evening to steal a peek at the mating dance of the elusive Mandarin Fish.

Lodging: Sipadan-Kapalai dive Resort is a beautiful gateway tailored for divers.
Getting there: Same as Pulau Sipadan.

Pulau Mantanani, Sabah
Good for Manatee and ray spotting

Mantanani is a faily new dive spot but already, 16 dive sites have been identified along with three wrecks. The dive sites are home to the rare and gentile manatees, known locally as dugong. You'll also be able to spot many different species of rays, including the marbled stingray, blue spotted ray and eagle rays. Muck diving is also recommended, with high chances of finding imperial shrimps, pink-eye gobies and blue-ringed octopus.

Lodging: Mantanani Resort is the only dive resort on the island.
Getting there: Fly to Kota Kinabalu and the make your way by taxi to Kota Belud, which is just an hour away. There are speedboat connections between Kota Belud and the island.

Pulau Mataking, Sabah
Good for Macro diving

Mataking is linked to Sipadan via the 328ft deep Alice Channel. Of the 30 dive sites available at Mataking, Magic Rick, Mantis Reef and the Alice Wall are firm favourites. The island is known for macro and well camouflaged creatures, such as thorny and pygmy seahorses, scorpion leaf fish, robus giant pipefish and blue ribbon eel. It is also common to find trevally, giant clams, Spanish mackerels and dogtooth tuna in these waters.

Lodging: The Reef Dive Resort is a recommended place to stay.
Getting there: Pulau Mataking is accessible from Semporna via a 45 minute speedboat ride.

Layang-layang, Sabah
Good for Hammerhead shark spotting, experienced divers.

Layang-layang is not an island but an atoll of linked coral reefs that have never been polluted or fished. Hence, the biodiversity is astounding and rewarding to all levels of divers. The highlight is to swim with schools of hamerhead sharks, which gather here in April and May to perform their mating ritual. The visiblity at Layang-layang can reach up to 50 meters. However, ths can also be dangerous because you could easily dive deeper than you think, so check your depth constantly.

Lodging: Layang-layang Island Resort is the only dive operator and accommodation on the island.
Getting there: There are regular flights between Kota Kinabalu and Layang-layang

Pulau Langkayan, Sabah
Good for Quiet dive holiday macro diving

Victoria Hilley of Kota Kinabalu based Touchdown Luxury Yacht Charters prefers to dive in the secluded setting and quiet atmosphere of Langkayan, an island that combines a rewarding cocktail of reef, wreck and macro diving. Jawfish Lair is one of the mostloved dive sites. The resident yellow jawfish is well camouflaged and easily missed by untrained eyes, so ask your dive master to point one out to you. Who knows, you might see one with a mouthfull of eggs. Also try spotting mimic octopus, ghost pipefish, frogfish, devil scorpionfish, stingray and leopard sharks.

Lodging: The resort on this island is run by Pulau Sipadan Resort & Tours
Getting there: Fly from Kuala Lumpur or Kota Kinabalu into Sandakan. The speedboat transfer to Langkayan departs from Sandakan Yacht Club.

Beyond The Frame: Narga Selassie

Traveling by boat from Gondar to Bahir Dar after a rather stormy passage, I stopped at Dek Island to explore Narga Selassie, one of the most important monasteries in northern Ethiopia. The island is the middle of Lake Tana, the great body of water in the centre of the Ethiopian plateau. Founded in 1748, Narga Selassie is one of the many monasteries on the lake's islands. The monasteries are the expression of a Ethiopian Christian identity and civilization.

This ancient Ethiopian silver cross held high by a hermit priest was photographed at the gate of the monastery. The monastery church of Narga Selassie is on Dek Island There is no country in the world that matches Ethiopia in the number of forms and types of its crosses. Ever since Ethiopia's conversion to Christianity, the cross has appeared almost universally, not only as a liturgical instrument in churches and monasteries, but also in common devotion and in daily life. The original Ethiopian Crosses are derived from the Egyptian Ankh and have intricate interwoven and crossed designs worn primarily by African Christians.

Most of the hermit priests live on these monastery islands all their lives, and survive by cultivating sorghum, and on donations given by tourists infrequently stopping to admire the Narga Sellasie concentric church.

This photograph was published full page length by Outdoor Photography magazine to feature its Travel section