So I just left from Malaysia where I spent a good portion of my time in Kuala Lumpur. I'm going to (somewhat freehand) collect a few of the things I experienced while there. A good portion of them involving tobacco and/or alcohol.
Firstly, and keeping in mind this isn't my first deployment, sailors love to drink every bit as much (if not more) as our stereotype says. Knowing this, I decided to only spend one day out with my shipmates actively drinking, and the rest of the time seeking deals on tobacco, pipes and cigars (nevermind the name drop).
The first thing I noticed in this endeavor is that pipes are RIDICULOUSLY overpriced here. There must be a high tax on "exotic woods" or something like that, because most of them were almost twice as much as their prices online from the States. I did, however, pick out a nice Dr. Plumb for about 250 Ringgit, which I'm sure was still over-priced as that equates to about 75-80 dollars. It was a nice pipe until I smoked it and the bit immediately turned brown. I'll do my best to clean it up with what I have, but will probably let it sit until I can get some proper cleaning gear.
Next, a lot of tobacco is priced pretty well. The only thing that cost me more than it would go for back home was my tin of Pete University Flake - and I bought it for about $11.50 (36 Ringgit). I was able to pick up some Peterson Holiday 2011 for about 15 dollars, MacBaren Navy Flake for about 9 dollars and a pouch of 7 Seas Gold and Royal for about 5 dollars each.
Cuban cigars are rolled REALLY TIGHTLY. I know they're supposedly no different from Dominican or other cigars, but a side-by-side comparison of a Cuban and Dominican Montecristo was pretty easy to tell apart visually. I got a few cigars from the Davidoff store in the Petronas (Twin) Towers and the Davidoffs were WAY over-priced. There's no way I'm spending 30 to 150 dollars for a 45 minute to hour long smoke when I can spend 15 to 25 dollars on a tin of good pipe tobacco that lasts just as long per smoke and contains quite a lot more tobacco.
Other than that, I got a pretty legitimate-looking Jobon lighter in China Town. 99% of the items there were fake, but it seems a lot of the lighters were "seconds" of some sort that an employee maybe brought to a friend who sold it in China Town for severely marked-down prices. For example, my lighter only fills if the butane can is slightly cocked to one side.
That's all I've got to say about that. There's a lot more, actually, but I feel this post was already veering quite verbose.
Firstly, and keeping in mind this isn't my first deployment, sailors love to drink every bit as much (if not more) as our stereotype says. Knowing this, I decided to only spend one day out with my shipmates actively drinking, and the rest of the time seeking deals on tobacco, pipes and cigars (nevermind the name drop).
The first thing I noticed in this endeavor is that pipes are RIDICULOUSLY overpriced here. There must be a high tax on "exotic woods" or something like that, because most of them were almost twice as much as their prices online from the States. I did, however, pick out a nice Dr. Plumb for about 250 Ringgit, which I'm sure was still over-priced as that equates to about 75-80 dollars. It was a nice pipe until I smoked it and the bit immediately turned brown. I'll do my best to clean it up with what I have, but will probably let it sit until I can get some proper cleaning gear.
Next, a lot of tobacco is priced pretty well. The only thing that cost me more than it would go for back home was my tin of Pete University Flake - and I bought it for about $11.50 (36 Ringgit). I was able to pick up some Peterson Holiday 2011 for about 15 dollars, MacBaren Navy Flake for about 9 dollars and a pouch of 7 Seas Gold and Royal for about 5 dollars each.
Cuban cigars are rolled REALLY TIGHTLY. I know they're supposedly no different from Dominican or other cigars, but a side-by-side comparison of a Cuban and Dominican Montecristo was pretty easy to tell apart visually. I got a few cigars from the Davidoff store in the Petronas (Twin) Towers and the Davidoffs were WAY over-priced. There's no way I'm spending 30 to 150 dollars for a 45 minute to hour long smoke when I can spend 15 to 25 dollars on a tin of good pipe tobacco that lasts just as long per smoke and contains quite a lot more tobacco.
Other than that, I got a pretty legitimate-looking Jobon lighter in China Town. 99% of the items there were fake, but it seems a lot of the lighters were "seconds" of some sort that an employee maybe brought to a friend who sold it in China Town for severely marked-down prices. For example, my lighter only fills if the butane can is slightly cocked to one side.
That's all I've got to say about that. There's a lot more, actually, but I feel this post was already veering quite verbose.
:
