Owner: Pangkor island adventures blog URL:http://pangkor.wordpress.com Join Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:13:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Pangkor island beach holiday destination for family and individual travelers, with loads of useful travel advice and information Site statistics:Click here
Is getting visas easy? 2007-08-13 20:56:13 I don’t know how it is with you but when I travel I need to organize my visas. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it’s not. Most of the time it’s not really difficult. You simply go to an embassy, fill in a form, leave passport and a few passport photos and you come back in a few days. I have done this over and over again.
However, sometimes it’s harder. I remember in Istanbul I had to do wait for my Iranian visa without knowing how long it would take (it turned out to be 5 days), my Pakistan visa was a piece of cake. I even got a 45 days visa instead of the normal 30 days.
However, when I was in Islamabad I needed a visa for China. Been there, done that, so I went to the Chinese Embassy and then… well… it was one of those experiences you love to talk about later. Here’s the complete story
Getting a visa is more difficult… sometimes 2007-08-13 06:11:37 As a long term traveler I have to organize my visas while I am traveling. This is sometimes easy, and sometimes not so easy. Here’s a story I wrote about my experience getting a Chinese visa in Islamabad Pakistan. It shows that wanting a visa and getting a visa can be two complete different things:
Read about how I got a Chinese visa in Islamabad Pakistan
Blog Directory
Read more:hellip
Moonfestival is coming up 2007-08-09 23:57:08 Early October is the period of one of the most important festivals for the Chinese people. Hopefully I will be in China with some friends to celebrate the important Moonfestival. The festival is the last important festival in the Chinese year. Here’s a selection of the most important Chinese Festivals, also celebrated, of course, in Malaysia and thus in Pangkor:
Chinese festivals
Bike travel in China 2007-08-09 23:52:31 Patrick, from Adventure travel tales and tips has publishes a page about cycling in China
.
As a backpacker, Patrick has been around the world. However, traveling by bicycle is a little different, so I was happy when Patrick asked me to write something about bike traveling.
It’s the kind of page that, I think fits perfectly in his website. Here it is:
Bicycling in China.
Diving in Malaysia 2007-08-09 23:47:13 Last week I wrote a new page about diving in Malaysia
. Diving
here around Pangkor may no longer be possible, at least there’s no dive school anymore, but in East Malaysia, diving is popular. I found a few good diving websites which I would like to present here:
Sabah Scuba Dive
and
Sipadan diving vacation
Both give great info about the diving situation in Sabah, Borneo. I have to admit, although I have been to Sabah, I haven’t been diving there, so I really should pack my bags and go there. Both websites give such a wealth of information, that I have to see for myself. Hopefully next year I will have some time to go there. Until then, I have to keep myself looking at the pictures and reading what Sabah has to offer. Give these sites a good look, because they are worth visiting!
The Kingdom of Fife in Scotland 2007-08-05 21:09:01 It doesn’t happen too often I am impressed with websites. My attention came on this website about Scotland
, maybe because I had lived in Manchester and I had the strong desire to visit Scotland. Since my childhood Scotland had an attraction for me. Maybe it was the pictures I remember of green misty hills and old castles, the romantic view (funny for those who know me, I am not very romantic at all!).
But the Scottish highlands had always intrigued me. One would expect when I lived in Manchester I would finally visit but it didn’t happen for many reasons. I would have loved to visit Edinburgh, Roslin (because of my interest in the history of Christianity, and no, I am not going to review my not so orthodox ideas here, is for another post). Of course I would have loved to see the Monster of Lochness but we didn’t go there. Too bad, but some day I may do it anyway.
Thus I was happy to read about Kingdom
of Fife in Scotland with a lot of excellent inside information. I l
Retire in Malaysia 2007-08-03 22:08:06 Malaysia is a beautiful country. I have been traveling all over Asia and I can honestly say, Malaysia is the nicest and most comfortable country to live. Sure, it may not be the most interesting country to travel. It does not have the spectacular monuments as the Great Wall, Angkor Wat, Tai Mahal or Borrubodur. As a travel destination there are more interesting countries to visit, which by the way doesn’t mean it is not worth to come here, on the contrary. But Malaysia to me, is an excellent country to live. People are good, weather is great (if you like tropical heat), food is fantastic. Malaysia is the kind of country that mixes the best of the west and the east together. And it’s cheap. Read more how to retire in Malaysia and keep in mind that retiring is not only for older people.
A good place to live is Lumut, or Seri Manjung. There’s even a small community of expats here. They rent or bought a house and live in comfort not too far from Kuala Lumpur and Penang. I Read more:Malaysia
Adventure travel in Malaysia 2007-08-02 21:24:13 Patrick van der Meer is a Dutchman who has extensively traveled around the globe. He has visited Malaysia
and he was willing to give us an insight in his experiences in Malaysia. You can read about Penang, Cameron Highlands and many other destinations he has visited. He has visited the orang utangs in Sabah and the longhouses in Serawak. Fascinating stories, read more here
Read more:Adventure
Diving in Malaysia 2007-08-01 05:52:20 One of the major tourist attractions in Malaysia
is diving. The east coast has plenty of excellent dive sites. Think over Redang, Perhentian, Tioman but the best dive sites you find in Sabah at Sipadan. Unfortunately the dive sites near Pangkor, at Sembilan islands are no longer accessible as we don’t have a dive school here anymore.
Diving
in Malaysia means diving in tropical waters, 3oC water, a pleasure to dive in and so much to see. I have set up a page with all the rough information you need to know if you are searching for dive info about Malaysia
Diving in Malaysia
River fishing in Lumut 2007-07-31 09:49:01 Visiting Lumut and Pangkor may be nice. Experiencing how local fishermen make their living is another thing. If you’re lucky you are able to see local fishermen doing their job. I was able to experience this recently. Here is my report , enjoy!
Read more:River
Pulau Pangkor Newsletter no. 37 2007-08-18 04:57:09 Usually I don’t do this but now it’s essential everybody reads the new Pulau
Pangkor Newsletter. Number 37 is just released and it contains some very important and essential information about the coming up Merdaka (Independence) day. It’s about the activities in Lumut, the Royal Selangor Yacht Club racing event in the waters of Pangkor and much more.
Subscribe now for the Pangkor Newsletter here . In case you want to read the back issues, click here
A story about cycling to Paris 2007-08-18 04:35:15 You know it by now if you have read my websites: cycling is a fantastic way of traveling, there can be no mistake. Earlier this week I was reading some of my diaries and found a nice little story
back about my cycling journey from Holland to Paris
. Obviously I had to rewrite it a bit. Here’s the link to that story:
Cycling to Paris
Tropical fruits 2007-08-18 04:32:21 I love fruits. I have always loved fruits, well, always is probably a big word. As long as I remember I loved bananas, oranges, grapefruits, apples, and many others. Now living in Asia it’s even easier, there’s so much excellent fruit here. Earlier this week my friend Sunny from the Tzien Fatt Mee Stall gave me some dragonfruit. I had not had that for a long time. That was also the moment I realized I had to add some fruits to my tropical fruits page. Wouldn’t it be a shame you come all the way from the other side of the world and skip all those excellent fruits? But where to find a nice overview? Obviously at the Pangkor website. Here is the link to the main tropical fruits to be found in Malaysia:
Tropical
fruits in Malaysia
Back to hard work, Sitesell helps 2007-08-27 19:22:34 My websitespulau-pangkor.com, bicycle-adventures.com and yangshuo-travel-guide.com are build with the help of Sitesell. Why? Very simple, I don’t want to be bothered with all kinds of tech stuff that cost me a lot of time and brings me no where. I need a good brainstorming tool, a good monetization information unit, tracking system for my pages, automatic blog and XML feeds AND decent help if I need it.
Sitesell has this all, so I can focus on what I like without being distracted to the tech stuff. Sitesell rocks. I admit, I love SBI, I love the community and I love the help I get there and I love to help others with what I know.
“Sitesell is also hard work? I don’t want it! I want a quick rich schedule, I want to get rich in 30 days”. Believe me, I get those emails every once in a while. People still believe in the scams out there on the net. People still want to be cheated. Sitesell is an honest system. It teaches building a business, a lifetime business that
Pangkor and Lumut jigsaw puzzles ONLINE! 2007-08-26 23:07:50 Since I was a child I have always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. In my childhood I used to do big ones, some of the very difficult. Later when I traveled to India I saw the monks working on their mandala’s, graphics made out of grains of sand which looked very similar to my childhood puzzle activities though a lot more sophisticated.
I have added a few Pangkor and Lumut related online puzzles at the Pulau Pangkor website. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them:
Pangkor and Lumut puzzles
Malay wedding, part 1 2007-08-23 20:19:25 Busy busy busy. Just come back from Penang. As usual I did that on bicycle though I start thinking 200 km cycling in one day becomes a little too much, phewww… I could hardly sleep. Woke up early this morning and checked the photos I made earlier this week at the first day of a Malaywedding
in Kedah, in a small village north of Penang. Here’s a sneak peak, next week more will follow including what will happen tomorrow, Saturday. As said, here’s a few pictures:
The happy couple
Part of the food at the main wedding table
Preparing the rice…
Next week a full report and many more photos. Can’t wait to see more about a Malay wedding? Here’s a great page about how a Malay wedding looks like
New CD’s of Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen 2007-09-22 10:35:48 Cycling, diving, hiking, all are favorite things of me. However, since I was a young kid I am much in love with music. I wouldn’t say I have heroes but if I had them, Springsteen
and Earle
could be close. Both have released new albums and both albums are impressive. Let’s start with Mr. Earle.
Some like to divide his work in two sections: before and after 9/11 as Steve
Earle’s later work is more political. John Walker’s Blues (Jerusalem) and Condi Condi (The Revolution Starts Here…) were two of the more controversial songs he wrote, at least in the eyes of the Americans. But whatever people have said, Earle is a true American, a patriot. He loves his country. And the new album shows again how much he loves his country. Washington Square Serenade is another ode to his homeland. Earle lives these days in the Greenwich Village in New York, the same area where Dylan’s Freewheelin’ cover was shot.
He has maybe left the south, Nashville TN but he h Read more:Bruce
Nyonya wedding in Penang 2007-09-18 19:27:56 After the Malay wedding
in Kedah and Pangkor I thought I had experienced the main 3 kinds of wedding ceremonies in Malaysia. True and not. Yes, I have written a few pages about typical Malaysian style weddings,
Chinese wedding
Indian Wedding
Malay Wedding - Kedah
Malay Wedding - Pangkor
And it was great, as a foreigner to witness such an event in a different culture then my own. Then I found Pearl’s website. She writes a lot about Penang
, the culture and her own personal history in that area. Pearl is a Nyonya and a Chinese. Her daughter recently got married and this was celebrated in the Nyonya tradition. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there but fortunately for me, she wrote an extensive page about the different tradition you can find only in certain parts of Malaysia. It’s really interesting to read what she has to say:
Nyonya Wedding ceremony
Enjoy!
Golf in Malacca and Johor 2007-09-17 02:11:07 South Malaysia has a few very good attractions for the visitors. Malacca
is one of the worlds most famous attractions in Malaysia. But apart of Malacca there’s more. Playing golf should be one of them as the golf courts in and around Malacca and the southern province of Johor
are of great quality. Here’s an overview of the golf courses in the south of Malaysia:
Golfing in south Malaysia, Malacca and Johor
The hidden beaches of Teluk Rubiah 2007-09-12 10:46:57 Last Sunday I took my bicycle and cycled to Teluk Rubiah. I needed some pictures of the golf course there. While I was going around at the golf court, I came close to the sea and as I was a bit sweating, I decided to have a swim. No, it was not at the regular beach of Teluk Batik but at one of the hidden beaches behind the golf course. There are two ways to reach these two little beaches: 1. by boat, 2. by foot on a jungle walk. I did the second.
I climbed over a few rock formations and had then the above view. Going down was easy. In fact this beach is only a few minutes from the Teluk Rubiah golf course but no one will ever visit it as there’s no way to come there. Well… there is a few jungle paths and locals use it to go fishing. But most still come by boat if they come at all.
It’s tempting to go again tomorrow… only 30 minutes by bicycle and a few minutes on foot… it’ll be a nice cool down after a day work inside on the computer…
Mor
Play golf in North Malaysia 2007-09-08 09:32:32 No hassle, no worries, you can have a perfect golf holiday in Malaysia
. Here’s part 1 of the extensive list of golf courses in North
Malaysia….
On the website this map is clickable. I hope you will enjoy the information.
Play golf in North Malaysia
NEW Traditional rice cooking 2007-09-06 08:09:00 Traditional rice cooking
in a rocket! Whaa… never expected a rocket could be turned into a magic rice cooker. At the Malay wedding 2 weeks back I saw this for the first time. A rice cooker for 15 trays of rice! It was great. Check it out!
Rocket rice cooking for the masses
Read also http://www.pulau-pangkor.com, http://www.bicycle-adventures.com and http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com
Read more:Traditional
Cycling in Iran 2007-09-05 21:57:06 Most people never believe me when I tell that Iran is one of my favorite travel destinations. And no, I wouldn’t want to live there but the country is beautiful and the people are very friendly and hospitable. I have been traveling by bicycle for almost two months in Iran. From the north west, at the Turkish border to the south east border with Pakistan. Few places I have traveled showed me more hospitality then Iran.
I know the western media tell a very different story about Iran. But I found the way Iranian people very nice, friendly, very educated and open minded. And yes, it’s not what you read in the press, so I write about it. As said, during my journey overland from Holland to Asia, this part is still one of my absolute favorites. Read more about hospitality in Iran.
Read more:Cycling
Traditional rice cooking in Kedah Malaysia 2007-09-05 10:24:54 A few weeks back I was guest at a Malay wedding in Guar Chempedak, a small town in Kedah
, not far from Penang. One of the amazing things I saw there was what the men called a: rocket rice cooker.
Here’s the full story
Read more:Malaysia
, Traditional
, cooking
Do you need a guide??? 2007-09-05 08:17:00 During the years I spend on the road I always hesitated to take a guide. Sometimes it was a financial thing that kept me away from a guide, sometimes I felt it wasn’t necessary. By the time I arrived in Yangshuo, my first visit was in 1996, I think, I did take a guide to go around. Even 11 years later I am grateful I did that. My guide then showed me things in the area I am sure I would never have found.
Some of the surrounding villages of Yangshuo are not only hard to find, without a guide you will have troubles to get in touch with the local farmers, have a meal with them or simply join them on the rice fields.
For Yangshuo there’s plenty of “guides” available. I guess at the time I was lucky. In the years after 1996 I have visited Yangshuo frequent, I even lived and teach English in an international school. I learned most of the guides are nice but have little knowledge. Many speak English, but as much as needed. Thus, when I was working on my Yangshuo web
People who impressed me… 2007-09-28 07:52:39 What’s your most favorite bike journey? Where did you travel to? Anyone interesting you met? I met a few quite interesting people. Traveling is all about meeting people, the sites you visit are the bonus. No, before you disagree with me, please hear this. I met people who thought the Taj Mahal (of all places) was a lousy and not worth to visit place. Notably one of the most beautiful buildings ever made!
So I started asking a few questions. The story was that these people got a taxi driver who had been driving them around pulling them from shop to shop and at last had given them 10 minutes before closing time a short visit to the Taj Mahal. That experience had changed their view on Agra and the Taj Mahal completely, understandably. It also proves it’s people that make a place great or not.
I met during my cycling journeys quite a few people. Here’s a selection of people I met who for different reasons impressed me: The people who impressed me
del.icio.us Tags: bic Read more:hellip
Your bicycle adventures stories 2007-09-27 08:59:01 Being on the road for many years gave me the opportunity to tell you about my adventures on the road. They are not finished as traveling goes on. Next week to Penang (Malaysia) and Thailand for a short visit.
I am sure you too have stories to tell. Stories from the road. I say: “the road”, I mean “the road”, any road. What are your adventures? Are you willing to share them? Yes? Great! Go to this page and ad your own bicycle
journey, complete with photos.
Click here to enter your own bicycle story on the bicycle-adventures.com website
del.icio.us Tags: bicycle adventures , bicycle stories , cycling
One Arm, One Leg 2007-09-27 01:47:52 Have you ever met people who were a great inspiration to you? I am sure you have. I did meet some in my life too. One of them was a Chinese man. I met him in Dali, Yunnan in China. He had traveled the distance Dalian, north of Beijing to Dali at least three times. That was in 1996.
For me he was the ultimate proof that whatever you do in life, it’s a mindset. You are able to do anything, even if you have handicaps and little money. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Read his story here
Traveling that distance is one thing, do it on a bicycle another. But traveling by bicycle when you have only one arm and one leg, well, that is a story to tell. Here’s this man’s story, he lives now in Yangshuo, south China. He makes his living by cycling around and some calligraphy. Contrary to some beliefs, this man is not a fraud, you may say he’s a tourist attraction, but if so, he’s a genuine attraction.
del.icio.us Tags: bicycle adventures , bicycle stori
The Snake Temple in Penang 2007-09-26 03:52:43 One of the oldest temples in Malaysia, and probably world wide is the SnakeTemple
in Penang
.The temple is located south of Georgetown city, about 30 minutes by bus or taxi. It’s worth a visit. Although the original temple of 1850 is completely renovated and most of the original temple even doesn’t exist anymore, it’s a very spiritual place. For non believers there’s always the attraction of the snakes.
An extensive explanation of the Snake Temple can be found here. It’s a worthy visit, trust me.
Recommend Site To A Friend
