Welcome to a new edition of the in 2006.

After Chinese New Year and Thaipusam I went for a short holiday to China. This newsletter is send out from a nice market town south of Kunming in Yunnan called Yuxi. It's just north of the Lao border. Since I am not at home to prepare as much as I would like to, this edition of the is a bit shorter then you are used to.

What do we have in this edition of the ?

• Tour de Langkawi in Sitiawan and Lumut
• Airial photos of Lumut and Pangkor
• Diving at Sembilan Islands
• Sembilan Divers NEWS
• Chinese New Year

You can read our latest updates in my Blog:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Pulau-Pangkor-blog-1.html

or subscribe to my feed:

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Tour de Langkawi in Sitiawan and Lumut

Sitiawan and Lumut have hosted the Tour de Langkawi. The Tour de Langkawi is a 10 day international cycling course with quite a few internationally known riders. Sitiawan hosted the finishe on Saturday February 5. The start of the third stage was the next Sunday morning in Lumut.

It was a excellent moment to see a bit of what professional cycling means. You can read my report for Sitiawan and Lumut at:

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/tour-de-langkawi.html

If you are interested in the developement of the Tour de Langkawi this year, visit

http://www.tdl.com.my

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Airial photos of Lumut and Pangkor

In the last edition I already mentioned the Era Bed and Breakfast Hotel in Lumut. I have to do it again. The reason is that Mr. Syed offered kindly some amazing AIR PHOTOS of Lumut and Pangkor.

Although I have not used those pictures on his Hotel page I have used quite a few photos on other pages.

Look for example on my homepage:

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com

and on the Lumut page

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Lumut.html

Mr. Syed was as a navy officer able to shoot these photos from a navy helicopter. If you are interested in buying some photos, feel free to contact me at:

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/contact-us.html

or use the contact form at the Era Bed and Breakfast Hotel page.

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/guest-house-in-lumut.html

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Diving at Sembilan Islands

Diving at Sembilan has good and bad days. On the bad days, Sembilan Divers do not even go out. On the good days, visibility can be anything from 5 to 12 meters.

I had been diving with Meg and Ken from Japan. Meg recently wrote me an email. Here's an excerpt:

"We checked your website and we found it very interesting to read about your diving experience. We wish we had found it earlier. As you describe, Sembilan is a nice place to dive. We have been diving in the Carribean and California among other places and here it's for sure good diving. We really enjoyed it"

So far Ken and Meg who are now in north Japan on their snowboards!

When I read Ken and Meg their comment I knew I wasn't just dreaming seeing barracuda's, sea horse, sea turle, trumpetfish, banner- and angelfish to name a few. I love diving here!

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Sembilan Divers NEWS

Claudia, the manager of Sembilan Dovers wrote to me that more diving will take place. There will be diving trips every day from 19 to 25 February and April 1. As Claudia told me: "We must need minimum 4 bookings for each dive trip. So if you are experienced or a novice, join Sembilan Divers for some diving at the Sembilan Islands".

Sembilan Divers Fishing trip
Sembilan Divers has something new to offer: fishing trips! Many readers have an interest in fishing. Sembilan is the place to be. Although I prefer watching fish instead of catching, it's an interesting option.

Write to Sembilan Divers, use the form at my Sembilan Divers page or simply visit the shop in Lumut when you are there.

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Personalized Children Books

I love books, I have always loved reading. I know, I wrote that in the last newsletter too. And I have to say it again. The books really amaze me. The idea of a personalised book is already great but the way MyOwnBook do their job is an eye opener. Ok, maybe I am biased, originally I was a librarian, I have a love for books, for good and beautiful books.

I am still grateful to my parents who always encouraged me to read but I also have to admit, I wished I had books like this when I was a little kid.

"MyOwnBook" is a little publishing company in Kuala Lumpur who had the idea to personalize children books. Make your child the hero of the book and let him or her dream away. Read more on the book page:

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Books.html

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Chinese New Year

For many centuries Chinese people all over the world celebrate their own New Year based on the lunar calendar. I spend my Chinese New Year here in Sitiawan with some friend having some excellent red wine noodles and fireworks. I could write a whole page about Chinese New Year but I already did that last year.

For some more background of the Chinese New Year, read the special issue of the of last year:

Special edition of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletter Chinese New Year

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Thaipusam

Thaipsuam is another festival celebrated in Malaysia. Every year the Indian population celebrates Thaipusam and this year it happened at February 12. Pangkor was maybe not the most spectacular place to visit during Thaipusam. But if you were in Penang, you must have had a good time. It's a much bigger thing there then here in the Pangkor area.

Unfortunately I wasn't be able to be in Malaysia for this great festival. Last year I wrote about my expereriences, you can have a look here:

http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Indian-festival-Pangkor.html