The last weeks were on and off busy. October started with the Moon Festival which turned out to be very spectacular. I have also spend some time in Penang for several reasons. One reason was, of course, the Chinese Nine Emperor Gods festival, an always impressive festival. I took also some time to cycle a bit around Penang. Not as much as I wanted but enough to tell you this: I want to do it a lot more intensive!

Back home I had to prepare myself for the upcoming team building event in Ipoh and Taiping with Kuala Sepetang and the Taiping Zoo on the program. It's a program I really like to do as especially Kuala Sepetang is always impressive. More further in this newsletter.

Last but not least, this week a very tragic accident happened not to far from here. In the vicinity of Kampar (near Ipoh) a bridge collapsed. The new build bridge was poorly build and the result is that at least 2 students who were part of a motivational camp died. My thoughts are with those who suffer from this accident. It shows again that whatever you do, the safety issues should always prefer over everything else.

• Historical photos and postcards of Penang, Ipoh, Taiping and Kuala Kangsar
• Cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
• The Crafts of the Orang Asli
• Halloween Special
• Moon Festival Pangkor
• Laksa and Balik Pulau
• Yangshuo China
• Kuala Sepetang/Matang
• 123Greetings.com

Happy reading!
Peter van der Lans
Sitiawan

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Historical photos and postcards of Penang, Ipoh, Taiping and Kuala Kangsar
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Mr. Brian Paton and Mr. John Gardiner did send us some photos of Taiping in the turbulent Merdeka period, but that was last year. Finally we were able to collect some more beautiful photos of Penang and Perak, Ipoh, Kuala Kangsar and Taiping from longer time back. The photos come from Mr. Farish Noor's private collection.

The photos and postcards give a glimpse of the old days of Malaya, as Malaysia was called before the independence.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/historical-photos-penang.html

Do you have photos to share about Penang, Perak and especially Pangkor and Lumut, please please please....

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Cooking classes in the Tropical Spice Garden
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In a previous newsletter I wrote: "Nazlina's Cooking Classes in the Tropical Spice Garden are beginning to become very popular." And yes, Nazlina is coming to the point that November and December may not have any space left for students to join her classes! So, if you are planning to come to Penang and would want to join one of Naz' classes, you better secure your place before the class is full.

- 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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The Crafts of the Orang Asli
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The original inhabitants of Malaysia are the Orang Asli. Although their numbers are few, about 0.5% of the Malaysian population belongs to the tribes of the Orang Asli, they have a rich culture which is expressed in their beautiful crafts work.

We were happy to be contacted by Elevyn, an organization that helps the Orang Asli to sell their products. If you are interested in crafts, you will not be disappointed.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/orang-asli.html

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Halloween Special
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I can keep repeating myself how good Sitesell is, how much it helped me to generate my websites which generate an income for me. With Halloween in a few days, Sitesell has decided to give out a special offer for new users...

And that is not the only thing. In October the release of Sitesell 2.0 saw the light. It's a massive update (to NO extra costs for the existing users) and NO additional price too.

If there was one moment to start building a business online (not necessarily a travel website business), then it is now. Here is why:

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

The offer expires at October 31, midnight!

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Moon Festival Pangkor
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I got a phone call from friends at Pangkor. Did I know there was a big Moon Festival at night at the Chinese school in Pangkor? No I didn't know but I was interested.

The students of the school had made some awesome lanterns (as the Moon Festival is also known as the Lantern Festival or Mid Autumn festival). The traditional snack for the festival is the Mooncake, a delicious pastry.

I came at the field when there was not much activity. That would change as soon as the officials arrived. With the officials, local born and bred Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Dato' Seri Dr Zambry B Abd. Kadir. while at first everyone seemed to had eyes for the Prime Minister, that was soon changed when the lion dances started. Dancing on high poles! I had never seen it and it was an art. A magnificent show. See the video on this page:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/moon-festival-pangkor.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/mooncake.html

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Laksa and Balik Pulau
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Trust me, I am not going to claim I am an expert on Malaysian food. That would be the ultimate insult to the Malaysians. Malaysians are food crazy. No offense. Malaysians know how to enjoy a meal. And they're willing to travel for it. And trust me in this, if there is one place on earth where you can find good food, it's Malaysia. But even in Malaysia you can find better and worse places.

Some days my friend Mr. Goh calls me for a breakfast somewhere. We take the car and drive a couple of km's, just for breakfast! Malaysians are like that. They know in detail which shop is good, which one to avoid.

While I was in Penang, our real estate agent, Mr. Yeoh, took me to the (in his view) best laksa stall in Penang. I am sorry, it was not the best laksa stall, it was the best laksa lemak. I had already eaten but Mr. Yeoh convinced me to try a bowl. I was quite full but the taste of this laksa lemak was fantastic. Place to be? The main junction in Balik Pulau where two shops rival each other with who's the best.

If you really want an adventure, and you are in Penang, take a bus, motorbike, taxi, bicycle and go to the south west of Penang. Not only you will find it here amazingly quiet and beautiful, especially compared to Georgetown and Batu Ferringhi, you can here also enjoy the best laksa lemak in Penang.

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/balik-pulau.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/malaysian-food-laksa.html

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Yangshuo China
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Readers of the newsletter know I come regularly in Yangshuo. My Yangshuo website does very well and that is not in the last place because of the quality guide I have in Yangshuo. Jessie Lu is not only an old friend (I know her since 2002) but she has developed into one the best guides in town. Even other guides in Yangshuo tell me that. But hey, that's me talking. Why should you believe what I say? Fair enough. It's why we always ask customers of Jessie to tell us what they think of her as a person, guide and about her tour. Earlier this week, we received an extensive recommendation from Jerry from the USA

- http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/yangshuothe-most-beautiful-place-in-china-jessie-luthe-best-guide-in-yangshuo.html

If that is not a recommendation that makes you want to join Jessie's tours, nothing will.

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Kuala Sepetang/Matang
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The mangrove forest around Kuala Sepetang and Matang is one of the most extensive preserved mangrove forests in Malaysia. It is also in use for commercial charcoal factories. Just north of Kuala Sepetang is Kuala Gula located, the bird sanctuary.

Kuala Sepetang is also included in our Team Building Ecology Camps that further include a visit to the Gua Tempurung Caves near Kampar and Ipoh and a visit to Lake Gardens and the Taiping Zoo in Taiping.



To me the highlight is always the mangrove forest, We go into the forest with small boats. Mr. Goh from Explore the Wilderness and I went last year with the two of us and a small local boat much deeper in the swamps, spending about 6 hours or so but this is not what we can do with the group we get next week. The program next week will be for Kuala Sepetang not only a visit to the swamps by boat but it also contains a visit to Mr. Chuah's charcoal factory. This is especially interesting because this way you can see and understand why the local economy needs the mangrove forest as much as the mangrove forest needs the local village.

Another part of the local industry is, of course, based on fishing. Some skippers fish only in the waters in the mangrove forest, others go further and fish in the Straits of Malacca. Our program includes a visit to the fish industry processing and, as you can expect, we have our lunch in Kuala Sepetang, which contains, of course, a lot of fish.

More about Kuala Sepetang and the activities we do there:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/ecology-camp-lumut.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/river-cruise.html
- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/charcoal-factory.html

and a report of one of the school groups we had:

- http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/ecology-camp.html 

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