This is always a busy time of the year. The Muslims have celebrated their Ramadan with the Hari Raya festivities, the Chinese had their Hungry Ghost festival and the Indians are preparing, as we speak for the Deepavali. The Moon Festival and Nine Emperor Gods festival will come in October and by the end of the month there is a bicycle ride around Penang island. I might join it although I am not keen on this kind of mass event.

Earlier this week I visited the more remote areas of Penang: Balik Pulau and Pulau Betong, more in this newsletter. And this weekend I will make a report of the Hari Raya festivities in Little Penang. I know, but there was not a lot to do in and around Pangkor island. We did however got a request for more photos of Taiping in the late 1950's and early 1960's but we are always happy to receive ANY old photos of Pangkor, Lumut or other areas in Perak.

And we have an article about craftmaking by Orang Asli, see the article about Empowering Communities Through Trade and help the Orang Asli.

Next week you will receive a special newsletter about our friends from the Turtle Conservation Centre (TCC), Terengganu with a new project they are starting. More next week, with photos!

• Balik Pulau and Pulau Betong
• New video for Pangkor, Lumut and Penang
• Nazlina's cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
• Tiger Rock
• Activities in the vicinity of Lumut
• Request for old photos of Pangkor, Lumut and Sitiawan
• Empowering Communities Through Trade 
• Xingping and Pudi
• 123Greetings.com

Happy reading!
Peter van der Lans
Sitiawan

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Balik Pulau and Pulau Betong
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As you probably know by now, I like the more remote areas to explore instead of holding on to where everybody else goes. Penang is since long a major tourist destination but most tourists only visit Georgetown and the area towards Batu Ferringhi and, if you want, Teluk Bahang. However, Balik Pulau and the remote roads leading to Kampung Pasir Panjiang are areas seldom visited by tourists.

But unknown is certainly unwanted and in this case you will find some real gems. The flatlands of west Penang have quite some to offer, And for a good meal I recommend one of the two asam laksa shops in Balik Pulau town center. Here is more about Balik Pulau and Pulau Betong:

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

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New videos for Pangkor, Lumut and Penang
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I have added two new videos for Pangkor and Lumut. The uploaded videos get a goods response in YouTube too. In fact they are a compilation of photos I made over the years and compiled into a video (using Picassa 3, a free Google program). While browsing through my photos, I realised I had too many good photos and no space on the website to publish them all. That is now partly solved. Have a look at:

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

There are two new videos available for Teluk Bahang and the Mukah Head Lighthouse in Teluk Bahang. I hope you will enjoy them:

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

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Cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
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Once again I ask for attention of Nazlina's cooking classes. Why? Because her classes are good. As I always want to know if I recommend something good on the website, I followed one of her classes. This time it was curry chicken. With respect to the Chinese and Malays, I do think the Indians make the best curry. The only exception I have to make now is for Nazlina's curry chicken. That was an amazing curry. And I wasn't alone in my opinion. Here's the group who followed Nazlina's class:



- 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

In case you have doubts about Nazlina's quality, read some reviews of former students:

- http://www.pickles-and-spices.com/cooking-class-in-penang.html

One Australian student even wrote about Nazlina's cooking class for an Australian newspaper:

- http://www.pickles-and-spices.com/support-files/tra-2009-07-18-pg013-1.pdf

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Tiger Rock
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Tiger Rock is one of the hidden gems in Pangkor. I am not talking about the actual Tiger Rock, a bit further from the Dutch Fort, but about a small high end hotel in the Pangkor jungle. As Rebecca, the owner, once told me, it's not for everyone. Once you see the hotel, you understand why it's not for everyone. Contrary to all other hotels, there's no beach as Tiger Rock is located at the east part of the island (beaches are at the west part).

So why would you consider Tiger Rock as an option to stay? Answer is simple, you want to explore the Pangkor jungle in luxury style. With the wild animals of the jungle around you (and no, you will not find them in your rooms ) this is the place to find peace and traquility. Have a look at the studio, imagine waking up, open the doors and hear the sounds of the jungle coming to you. Imagine the Giant Hornbill flying around. It's the only place in Pangkor you have a chance to see them.

And with a swimming pool and excellent (included in the price) meals, you will feel yourself a real VIP.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/tiger-rock.html

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Activities in the vicinity of Lumut
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One of the hit and miss things in Perak is some unknown areas not far from the mainstream tourist sites. Around Lumut at the mainland Perak there are some really cool bicycle rides to make. Of course you can take a motorbike but you will miss the peace and lack of noise.

Opposite of Lumut is Damar Laut, not to be confused with Damai Laut (Swiss Garden). Damar Laut is hardly visited, if at all. Still, here are some nice little kampongs and amazing sceneries.

Or you take the roads to Kampong Bahru, an even lesser visited kampung at the Dinding river

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Damar-Laut.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/daytrip-by-bicycle.html

Another option is to get a boat in Lumut and go deep in the mangrove swamps of the Dinding river:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/lumut-dinding-cruise.html

You will see where the pier of Taman Paya Bakau. But to be honest, nothing beats the mangrove forest to explore from the water. Once in the boat, you have more changes to see crabs, monitor lizards, monkeys, prawns, mudskippers and even snakes.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/mangrove-forest.html

Although in many bigger mainstream tourist cities you can visit Indian temples, few ever visit the kampung temples. Near Lumut is such a small but attractive temple in the middle of a palm oil plantation. These temples are usually build and maintained by local workers at the plantation. Typically they're basic

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Request for old photos of Pangkor, Lumut and Sitiawan
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Again we ask for photos of Pangkor, Lumut and other areas in Perak. Some people have already made contributions, see for example our Taiping late 1950's, early 1960's donated by several ex British service men.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/memories-of-malaya.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/empire-and-jungle-pool.html

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Empowering Communities Through Trade
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It is not easy to earn a living as a craftmaker from marginalized or indigenous background. With the falling prices of handicrafts coupled with immense competition from sweatshop items, some craftmakers only pocket less than 10% of its final market price.



So why not start shopping with a conscience?

Elevyn, a social enterprise established in late 2007, launched www.elevyn.com to sell and buy handmade items produced by marginalized or indigenous artisans. Its goal is to bring economic justice for craftmakers and to improve livelihoods and financial independence of marginalized or indigenous communities.  Elevyn does this by providing a global market access to socially conscious buyers via the internet.

Each time you click and buy an item from www.elevyn.com, up to 85% of the money could go back to an artisan from a marginalized or indigenous community.  On top of that, an additional 5% is automatically channeled into a specific cause, e.g. "Send the Kids to School" that support the artisan's community.

There are 8 shops currently on www.elevyn.com. These shops offer a range of hand made products such as traditional jewelry, accessories and scarves by indigenous communities, silk paintings by the deaf and mute women, and bags by victims of sex trafficking.

Elevyn is also shortlisted as one of the two finalists for the Youth Social Enterprise Intiative (YSEI) Start Up Challenge. Elevyn is the only Malaysian fellows in the final stage of the challenge. Help Elevyn raise USD 3000 in product sales by 15 November 2009 by purchasing an item(s) and spread the word to friends and family!

• For more information about Elevyn, please visit www.elevyn.com/
• Information of the YSEI Start-up Challenge can be found on www.elevyn.com/challenge/
• Read about our artisans and Elevyn's work at www.elevyn.com/blog/

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Xingping and Pudi
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What did Yangshuo look like in the past? On the homepage of our Yangshuo website, we published a photo of the road and bus station of Yangshuo in 1985:

- http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/

But if you really want to explore what Yangshuo was, you might want to visit Xingping. It seems time has stand still in this little town, just 22 km north on the other side of the Lijiang riverbank. Once a day the town gets overcrowded with tourist who come to have a sneak preview of Xingping by river cruise. But the peace returns after the boats leave.

- http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/xingping.html

Xingping should be on the agenda of all travelers to Yangshuo. There's a few restaurants and hotels in town and it is certainly worth to visit.

However, for those who totally want to avoid the tourists, they have to go to Pudi (no, not Puyi or Lipu but Pudi). About 24 km east of Yangshuo town and hard to reach unless you take a boat, Pudi is another time machine. And to be honest, it's hard to get more off the beaten track in China while being so close to a main tourist attraction then Pudi:

- http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/pudi.html

No idea what Yangshuo looks like? Check this page for a video of Yangshuo:

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

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123Greetings.com
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