The last few weeks I have spend quite a bit of time in Penang with visits to Teluk Bahang and the Tropical Spice Gardens, more about that further in this newsletter. In between there have been some changes made to the Pangkor website. That included a report of the opening of the Ikan Bilis shop in Pangkor Town!

Eileen Chiang wrote an article about Bandar Harapan for us. This and more in the August newsletter of the Pulau Pangkor.com website. And Mrs. Pearly wrote an extensive guide for Penang, see further in this newsletter for details.

• Opening Ikan Bilis shop in Pangkor Town
• Request for old photos of Pangkor, Lumut and Sitiawan
• Cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
• Teluk Bahang
• Living skills about nature for nature (by Eileen Chiang)
• Penang Passion
• Back to work with SBI
• Bicycling in Malaysia
• Penang Travel Guide
• 123Greetings.com

Happy reading!
Peter van der Lans
Sitiawan

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Opening Ikan Bilis shop in Pangkor Town
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Two years after a fire razed 19 shop lots to the ground the new ikan bilis shop from Mr. and Mrs. Beh had it's official shop warming party! Finally I would say. The shop was already several months open but on August 2, the shop was officially re-opened. It was not a small party, contrary, the whole street seemed to be involved. There was a group of Chinese Drummers with a blistering performance, officials and, of course, plenty of excellent food!

I was invited to join and I did that with great pleasure. I admit, I was a bit astonished by the size of the party but it was good fun and I was happy to see that the shop has not only more space but also more products to offer to customers. Here's a report of that afternoon on Sunday August 2.

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

And more about ikan bilis:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/ikan-bilis.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/ikan-bilis-sale.html

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Request for old photos of Pangkor, Lumut and Sitiawan
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Over the last few years I have seen Lumut, Sitiawan and Pangkor developing. I can't help thinking what it used to be like here. So I need the help of you! Do you have any photos of Pangkor, Lumut or Sitiawan that can show us what it was here, 10, 20, 30 or more years ago?

Pieter Kruger did send us some photos of the time that he worked in Lumut, already almost a decade ago.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/lumut-photos-overview.html

But we would love to see photos from much longer ago and from Pangkor island. Do you have any you want to share? Great,  please contact me here:

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

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Cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
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Nazlina's Cooking Classes in the Tropical Spice Garden are beginning to become very popular. There are several reasons for the success. Of course Nazlina is an excellent cook, she knows her stuff. But you can be an excellent cook, if you lack the talent to teach, you're doomed to fail. Not with Nazlina. I have seen her at work a few times now. She's knows her stuff and teaches in a way even I understand!

Of course it helps to have your class in the Tropical Spice Garden! What a great place that is. The garden itself has over 500 plants and herbs and Nazlina uses some of them in her classes. Further, she uses old techniques few these days even remember. If there is one place you want to learn to cook the Malaysians do, it's here in the Tropical Spice Gardens with Nazlina Hussin:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/cooking-traditional-food-class.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/tropical-spice-garden.html

Don't forget to watch Nazlina's video on the cooking class page: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQkOOuFfg4
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Teluk Bahang
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According to some sources the National Park in Teluk Bahang is the smallest national park in the world. That might be so, it is nevertheless a must see. There are several thing you really should do.

First, hire a boat for the day and let you drop off at Monkey Beach. There's a hike up to the Watchtower. If you are lucky (or if you have it arranged) the lighthouse is open. It's a beautiful place from which at very clear days you even can see Langkawi.

Unfortunately it's a one way path, so you hike back to Monkey beach and continue the journey to Pantai Kerachut. It's a popular pick nick spot for locals but hardly sees tourists. Nearby is the Mermitic Lake and a great little hike around the lake is recommended! Also a visit the small turtle breeding station at the beach should be on your agenda. Bring water and food. It's an excellent day out of the busy Penang city center.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/teluk-bahang.html

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Living skills about nature for nature (by Eileen Chiang)
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Having difficulty to plan or decide where to go and at the same time able to spend quality time with family members or friends over the weekend or even public holiday?

Imagine, a 30 acres organic farm with plots of organic vegetables, herbs and local fruit trees which is just within your reach, a place which you able to breathe in fresh air and enjoy the wilderness in the early morning? Isn’t it this is the most perfect place for a family outing and to get rid of the busy lifestyle?

Bandar Harapan (City of Hope) is definitely a top choice especially for people from a busy town or city around Klang Valley. This farm was established in 1993 at Ara Damansara on 30 acres of land. The sole purpose for Bandar Harapan is able to help the disadvantage community and single mothers to be self sustaining and sufficient by providing them training and gain exposure on farming and farm management.



Unlike other farms, Bandar Harapan also serves as an eco and user- friendly farm for the elderly and children too! It is a centre which you get to learn basic green skills such as composting and farm management. Besides that, there are also a couple of programmes which are designed to suite family and corporate such as land adoption, traditional and authentic food culture and Eco farm hunt.

Come and join us at Bandar Harapan to give our Mother Nature a hope to become a better place for us and our future generations.

* For more information about Bandar Harapan, do visit: http://www.bandarharapan.org/bandarharapan/index.html
* For latest updates, join our Facebook group: Friends of Bandar Harapan

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Penang Passion
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Recently I was lucky enough to meet the writer of Penang Passion: Miss Tze Yin Koh. Her book (she wrote already 3 books), Penang Passion is an excellent example how culture, food and passion about both can go well together. Anyone who has an interest in Penang and the local Penang cuisine, should buy this book. You can't go wrong for RM 80!

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/penang-food.html

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Back to work with SBI
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Once again I bring Sitesell under your attention. Not for nothing. The success of the Pangkor website is for a large part the result of using Sitesell. Why? These days it's no longer enough to know a program like Dreamweaver, Frontpage or understanding html.

What is necessary is to understand how to reach your potential readers. What do they want? What do they need? What are their requirements? Many webmaster still seem to think a good LOOKING webpage in Internet Explorer is enough for Google, Yahoo and Bing to come along and index you at the top spot of their search engine. Few realize there are with Google alone more then 200 factors that weight your website for a position in the Google search engine.

To understand those 200 for Google alone is an impossible job, let alone you can understand them for all search engines.

Few realize that a personal view on your website helps you building trust. Or, as we call it in Sitesell, Pre-Selling!

Pre-selling? Yes! Who's anyway going on the net to buy something? Few, if any. Most people go on the net (apart of email etc.) for information: FREE information. For that reason it is essential to pre-sell your product, whatever that product is: a tour in Yangshuo, a washing machine or a product in EBay. The SBI websites all work from the principle that you should inform people about the product in an honest and personal way. And that's what I do on the Pangkor site.

So if you need a hotelroom you should know I have been to these hotels, I have seen them all. If you book a cooking class, read Penang Passion, go for a bike ride based on what I write, just know that I have done it all for you to check out if it is worth.

And Sitesell teaches me how to do. Plus the numerous additional features. Which? Think about an automatic onsite blog, feed, all pages are automatically (re)submitted to the main search engines, a very helpful forum, standard templates for those who are not html savvy, tracker library and much more.

One of the most important modules of Sitesell is the Brainstormer. This tool helps you generating keywords/phrases to get the best profitable keywords in your niche, complete with the best 10 websites in your niche according to Google, Yahoo and Bing. For this module alone you should work with Sitesell.

- http://ilovesbi.sitesell.com/webselling64290.html 

A special announcement was made that until August 28, you can buy 2 SBI packages for only $100 more. Share your business with a friend, family member or simply take both packages yourself.

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

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Bicycling in Malaysia
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The last few weeks I received several emails from Malaysians interested in riding a bicycle in Malaysia. I am particularly happy to see that cycling in Malaysia gets more popular. In areas like Penang, cycling is already extensively practiced. But I receive more and more signals that people even in Kuala Lumpur using a bicycle. That is great news. Bicycling is a healthy exercise. Contrary to what some want you to believe, cycling is easy and for all ages. I wrote a few pages for my bicycle website about cycling in Malaysia:

- http://www.bicycle-adventures.com/cycling-in-malaysia.html

and cycling is indeed for everyone:

- http://www.bicycle-adventures.com/cycling.html

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Penang Travel Guide
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Mrs. Pearly wrote an extensive website about Penang: http://ww.my-island-penang.com. She has now converted her website information in a handy PDF file which is available form here:

- http://www.a4trip.com/en/malaysia/penang

The extensive guide is an eye opener even for many travelers and locals who know Penang very well. Highly recommended

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123Greetings.com
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123greetings.com is your no.1 choice for sending online e-cards. Or, if you want a weekly dose of fun and joy, you simply subscribe to the online email newsletters at 123Greetings.com ! This free weekly newsletter service is your one-stop fill for interesting updates on coming events, free e-cards and exciting offers from our partners and sponsors. Just go get it and make your loved ones smile. http://www.123greetings.com/newsletter/

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