Living in north Malaysia one can not avoid going to Penang. I have been on and of cycling to Penang dozens of time by now. Sometimes local Malaysian look surprised when they hear I do that. In fact it's all not difficult. But is it a pleasure? Well, depending on from where you come, it's good to do.

Cycling to Penang from Pulau Pangkor

Pulau Pangkor is located about 190 km south of Penang. For most people 190 km is too much to cycle in one day. The good news is that there are a few towns in between Pangkor and Penang where you find hotels.

Leaving Pangkor, Sitiawan, where I live is nearby, there are two roads north to Taiping. One follows the road to Ayer Tawar and then Bruas, the second, much preferred by locals who drive a car, goes along the coast to Pantai Remis, 35 away from Pangkor, Here's a very nice and clean hotel. If you decide to take this road, there's a few slight hills on the way. The turtle breeding station near Segari is worth a stop. A few km after Pantai Remis you can leave this sometimes very busy road using the junction to Bruas. This road runs for about 10 km. At the end, you come at a T junction, you follow the direction to Trong and Taiping, 30 km further on. Going straight leads you also to Trong and Taiping.

Taiping is a really neat city. The Taiping zoo is a must visit, I think. The setting in the hills and the way the zoo has organized their animals is good done and it will give you a good day. The nearby Maxwell Hills and Lake Gardens are beautiful. After Taiping, you can cycle north, following road number 1. However, you do some nicer roads. Follow the direction to Kamunting and then to Gerik. You will follow the hills on your right hand. It's a pleasant and easy ride. After about 15 km you will follow the direction to Bagan Serai. This road is very quiet and swindles through the hills though is never busy.

At the junction with road 1, you can straight to Kuala Gula and Kuala Kurau. It goes through the flat lands and plantations. Kuala Kurau is 20 km from here.

In Kuala Kurau you have no choice, you have to go to Parit Buntar, there's hotels in town and follow road 1 to Penang. This is not a pleasant road to cycle. It's a busy road with lots of trucks and cars and follows many smaller towns before it comes to the junction to Bukit Mertajam. From here you have to follow the motorway. Be careful, cars and trucks are used to motorbikes here so it is not impossible to cycle here but certainly not a pleasure. From the bridge it's 9 km to the Butterworth ferry.

Cycling in China, Yangshuo near Guilin

This road is less traveled by tourist but it's worth to do so. As a cyclist myself, I have done this road a few times up and down, so to say. If you have already seen Langkawi and want to go into Thailand a different way, this is an excellent opportunity.

I will skip how to cycle to Betong, you can read it here. Betong is the Thai border town in south Thailand. The town is small and little used by foreigners but many Malaysians from Penang and other areas in north west Malaysia come here regularly for shopping.

The border is 7km away from the city center. A cyclist needs to know the road from Betong goes all the way up, never steep though. The border is easy and quick. After the border you follow simply the direction to Butterworth, the mainland city opposite of Georgetown, Penang. Pengkalan Hulu can be your first stop, there's hotels and banks and only 7km from the border.

After Pengkalan Hulu the next major town will be Baling. Like Pengkalan Hulu there's hotels too and it's a pleasant overnight stay here. The town is surrounded by hills and there's some great walks to make in the surrounding. In fact, it's a much overlooked tourist area but worth a visit.

You will find some more serious climbing on the way to Baling. Although the road is not going very high there's a few short but steep parts. But as it usually goes, what goes, must come down too. After Baling, the road will continue to be quiet for many kilometers. In fact, until some kilometers before Kulim, it will be quiet though the road looks like a major motorway. After Kulim it will be busier but there's a motorbike lane so you will be safe. The part on the motorway from Kulim to Penang is not pleasant, neither beautiful. Alternatively you can go into Kulim and follow the directions to Butterworth on old roads, mostly following busy towns. But this too, is not really appealing. Both roads are busy with trucks, busses and cars.

The closer you come to Penang, the busier the road and the less there is to see. Cycling to Penang from Betong is about 100km.

Cycling to Penang from the north

Cycling to Penang from the north is not recommended as it follows mostly big busy roads and there's not much to hold your breath. A nicer option is to take the boat from Penang to Langkawi and then a boat to Satun.

Bukit Mertajam junction to Butterworth ferry
Going into Butterworth is not a pleasant experience. There's one nice road in but it is hard to find, and even locals do not know it as it follows small roads where cars can't come. If you want to use this road, please email me.

Cycling to Penang is not for everyone

Cycling to Penang with Johan, near Pantai Remis
Cycling to Penang is not for everyone. It's a statement I hear every once in a while. I disagree. Why would it be easier for me than for you? A good example cycling to Penang is absolute possible for everyone is my journey with Johan, a 9 years old boy from Penang. Johan and I cycled the distance from Pangkor to Penang in 4 days, without a problem. Johan was cycling on a child bicycle with no gears. If he can cycle this distance, everybody can do it.

Peter van der Lans is a Dutchman who lives these days in Sitiawan Malaysia. After years of traveling, he cycled from Holland to Malaysia, stayed a months in the Middle East, a year on the Indian Subcontinent and 2 years in China plus a year in the UK, he settled himself in Malaysia.

Sitiawan was the perfect place to write a website about Pulau Pangkor. Later he wrote http://www.bicycle-adventures.com, an ongoing project about his journeys on bicycles. A third website: http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com he recently build. In the years in China, he lived in Yangshuo and he thinks he can tell the story about this pretty little town in China.

Apple has always prided itself in developing systems and software that attract the unconventional segment of the masses. And therefore, it comes as no surprise that they have gone a long way in personalising the mobile phone ring tones for their iPhone; taking it beyond mere personalisation and giving the users complete authority with its usage and ownership. At a price, of course.

iTunes users now are the privileged ones to have been given an opportunity to customise original sound tracks and other universal tracks to be able to create their own mobile phone ring tones for their iPhone. This new opportunity has the iPhone equipped with the iTunes ring tone maker that allows the users to choose from over half million songs made available through the iTunes Store. Users can purchase any song for 99 cents from the library, that is marked with a bell indicating that it can be converted into a ring tone. Once the purchase is made, the track can be played at full length and the user has the creative freedom to choose any portion of the song, add special effects such as fade in and fade out. The final length of the desired ring tone must be of 30 seconds or less and the user is ready to download the ring tone on to his/her iPhone. The cost of purchasing this custom made ring tone is another 99 cents, thereby taking the total cost of a ring tone for the iPhone to $1.98. Apple is touting this as a cheaper option to the $2.49 for mobile ring tone purchases through other providers. The final step in the acquisition of this custom made ring tone is to sync the iPhone to the system.

Although, industry experts are continuously arguing about the cost effectiveness of this feature, users are clearly not too impressed. One of the common grouses of users is the inability to comprehend why should they be made to cough up money for a song they have already paid for before. The fact that a particular track is available in their library to purchase and convert into a custom ring tone clearly demonstrates that they have already paid for that track once and that's the reason it is sitting in their library. At $1.98 it is unarguably more affordable than other providers, but users are miffed about the fact that Apple's marketing gimmick requires interested users to pay 100% of the song price AGAIN for a 30 second sound clip. There is a lot being said about the legality of playing sound tracks on one's iPhone, and according to reports some views have been expressed to the effect of just manually turning on the iPod, scrolling to a song, and hitting play on it, every time the iPhone rings or vibrates to alert a call or a message! Just because it is legally right to do so and users are not willing to shell out an extra dollar to give the computer the authority to do it.

Quite understandably, research shows several articles on the web, discussing ways to work around it. Some people have suggested just purchasing the iToner for $15 and then converting multiple songs to ring tones, rather than paying a dollar each time a ring tone for the iPhone is desired. Various forums are dedicated to such activities and one of them suggests the probability of obtaining a cost free ring tone for the iPhone directly from the iTunes by just changing the extension of the file. Purchased ring tones within the iTune library have a .M4R extension and therefore any music file with the extension AAC needs to be manually changed to .M4R before it can show up in the library. Just jump to the last step and sync your iPhone and the job is done!

With these rumours doing the rounds, it will not be long before Apple comes up with another marketing strategy that not only combats this but also placates their irate customers.

To find out more and download free ringtones please visit free ringtones from miles and free ringtones tonight websites.

What is a fiber optic continuity tester?

Fiber continuity tester is also called fiber optic continuity checker. It is the simplest visual test of a fiber optic cable link.

To function properly, a fiber optic cable link must be "continuous", meaning no breakage, either within the fiber cable or in the fiber connectors, should exist. The simplest and least expensive way to check is to inject some visual light into one fiber end and check the light coming out from the other end.

To perform this task, two types of fiber testers are available: a fiber optic continuity tester or a laser visual fault locater.

Differences between a fiber continuity tester and a laser visual fault locator

The most important difference is their light source. A fiber continuity tester typically uses a red or green color high intensity LED while a laser visual fault locator uses red color semiconductor laser.

Visible lasers produce a more powerful light and can provide more information to the technician than a LED light. By coupling the fiber link to a visible laser, problems with connectors, breaks in the fiber near connectors or splices, and some bend radius violations can be located.

On the other hand, LED powered fiber continuity tester can only verify that light can travel through the fiber link and no more information is obtained. Fiber continuity tester simply yields a "no go" result. If the light isn't visible at the other end of the fiber link, then the fiber is unusable in its present state and requires further testing and repair.

Applications of a fiber continuity tester

Its best application is testing fiber on a reel before you pull it to make sure it hasn't been damaged during shipment. Look for visible signs of damage (like cracked or broken reels, kinks in the cable, etc.)

The other good application is to check fiber patch cables at patch panels. When connecting fiber cables at patch panels, use the fiber optic continuity tester to make sure each connection is the right two fibers!

And to make certain the proper fibers are connected to the transmitter and receiver, use the continuity tester in place of the transmitter and your eye instead of the receiver.

Understanding the features of a fiber continuity tester

1. Fiber mode compatibility

Some fiber continuity testers only support multimode fibers while the others support both single mode fibers and multimode fibers. So it's best to check the spec sheet from manufacturers to choose the type you need.

2. Fiber connectors supported

Most fiber continuity testers have adapters available for testing 2.5mm ferrule connectors such as ST, SC and FC, 1.25mm ferrule connectors such as LC, MU and special types such as SMA connectors.

3. Fiber distance

Most fiber continuity testers have enough light power to support 2km on multimode fibers.

Find even more detailed information about fiber optic continuity tester, fiber continuity tester, and fiber optic continuity on Fiber Optics For Sale Co web site.

You probably know that finding the best Internet service provider for your needs and your budget is very important in our modern age. You may find yourself wishing you that had more if your service is spotting and poor on the best of days. However, it may be difficult to determine the best Internet service provider in your area because there are so many different types of service out there. This means that you may have to make some phone calls and check out some special offers before you can sign up for the service.

The task of finding a great service provider may be made easier by deciding on what you need. Dial up service may work for you if you dont use your computer a lot, and dont spend a lot of time online. You can use dial up to check your email once a day, and perhaps to browse a few shopping sites, even if it is slow and fuzzy. You will have a wide variety of choices when it comes to dial up. Your search for the for the best Internet service provider will narrow down to reliability and the biggest amount of access numbers. After all, if you cant connect when you need to, then your Internet service is useless.

You will need high speed Internet if you spend more time online. You can choose between cable Internet that will come into your home via your cable line and DSL service that comes through your phone line. Both options cost about the same, but DSL is slower than cable. You can get DSL service from your phone company. However, your phone company might not be the best Internet service provider for you if you arent happy with their service.

Cable Internet may be the best Internet service provider for you and your family if you arent worried about budget. In this day and age, cable is the fastest service you can get in your home. It can also be bundled with a phone package from your cable company. You can save a lot of money each month if you choose this option. This might be the best Internet service provider available at the present.

However, you must be wary of signing any lengthy contracts because you may have a hard time getting out of a contract. You want to be able to switch providers quickly and easily if you are unhappy with the service you get. You will have to pay for the duration of the contract no matter what if you decide to switch while under contract. Since the best Internet service provider has confidence in their service, they wont insist on a lengthy contract.

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What kind of Internet connection do you have? Are you waiting ages for that page to load? I know how bad it is. But consider the times we are living in. Are we not supposed to simply fly through web pages like an Acura NSX or a 911 Turbo? However, if your Internet connection is really slow then you would be lucky to move at 5 miles per hour. All that really matters is the Internet service provider and the broadband connections available. How good is your current Internet provider? Do you pay lots of cash for a service working only half the time? There are still many people who do that. But you should no longer stand for it. You have another, a better option. You can have the fastest Internet speed at all times with all the great high speed cable services available.

Do you know about Internet broadband connection? Even though it has been quite a popular thing nowadays, there are still people who lack the necessity knowledge. There is one very important thing related to Internet - this is the connection speed. Generally, there are three different Internet connections you can have from home. You can choose which one to have depending on how much time you spend online and how much you are willing to pay for the service. There are many people spending most of their time surfing Cyber space, while others barely get online once a month. I guess the latter is quite hard to imagine, but you have to trust me on that. Such people exist!

My mother is a perfect example. She doesn't know what a broadband connection is and I don't think she even cares about it. I assume this has lots to do with the generation issue. How would my parents know anything about computers and the Internet as when there were kids, went to school and even attended the university there were no computers. Anyway, let's go on with the three different Internet connection options. First of them comes the dial-up which is the oldest and the slowest connection. Apart from that it comes with that awful noise everyone hates.

The second option is the popular DSL which is many times better than the dial-up as far as connection speed is concerned. Furthermore, you are twenty four hours a day connected to the Internet. The last option available is undoubtedly the best. It is the high speed broadband connection. It is the most time efficient as the internet speed is extremely fast. With broadband connection you don't have to wait to download media. Do you already have high speed cable broadband connection? If not, you have no idea what you are missing. Hop online immediately and check the greatest deals available.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning internet. Get more information by visiting Broadband Connection