The New Proton Inspira

The Proton Inspira today makes its debut. The Proton Inspira is based on the Mitsubishi Lancer 4door sedan. This finally ended months of speculation of how the successor to the Waja model would look like.

The Inspira is available in 3 variants - a 1.8-litre with a five-speed manual transmission, 1.8-litre with a INVECS-III six-speed continuously variable transmission (CVT) and 2.0-litre with CVT.

Pricing starts at RM79,888 for the base variant while the 2.0-litre version will cost not more than RM95,000.

Source: The Star

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Men's Innerwear ?

Pic by Alex Chia

Is this for real ?

Innerwear for men who want to be in touch with their feminine side are displayed in a shop in Semenyih, Selangor.

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A Very Expensive Fish To Eat

The Masher fish or colloquially called the empurau or kelah, is not only a favorite game fish for anglers, but also highly esteemed in restaurants in Malaysia.

According to a commercial fish breeder in Sarawak, he sells  an empurau (weighing 1kg-1.5kg) to restaurants at RM600 per kg. For sizes more than 2kg, it is RM750 a kg. The Restaurants in turn sells the cooked empurau at  RM880 per kg to is customers.

The Kelah inhabit both rivers and lakes, ascending to rapid streams with rocky bottoms for breeding. Like other types of carps, they are omnivorous, eating not only algae, crustaceans, insects, frogs, and other fish, but also fruits that fall from trees overhead.

The empurau was found in abundance a few decades ago in the upper reaches of the Rejang River in Sarawak when the river was still unpolluted by logging activities.  As the empurau population in the wild had dwindled drastically, the fish is now sold between RM400 and RM450 per kg. In the early 70s, the fish was sold between RM15 and RM25 per kg in Sarawak.

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The empurau, "忘不了 (unforgettable)" in Chinese, is known as the most expensive fish in the country as its prices can reach as high as RM1800 per kilogram in Kuala Lumpur.  How could the diners ever forget about it ?

A restaurant in Ipoh had also sold an empurau weighted 1kg at RM1300 before.

Generally, the prices of the fish in domestic restaurants are between RM500 to RM600 per kg. However, it still depends on the grade and size of the fish.

Restaurant owner He Weimin told Sin Chew Daily that a diner paid RM1300 for an empurau weighted 1kg at his restaurant before.

He said that a customer also told him that he had tasted the fish at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. The fish, weighted 1kg, cost him RM1800.

He said that he bought the fish directly from freshwater fish suppliers in Sarawak. Due to the increase in supply, the prices for the fish nowadays were relatively cheaper than before.

"There are wild and semi-wild empurau and there are also big and small empurau. The prices for the fish vary according to the grade and size of the fish.

"Empurau like a kind a of wild fruit that makes their meat tasty," he added.

Source: Sin Chew 

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Malaysia's Spider Man

People generally keep dogs, cats, fishes and birds as pets, but Zheng Hong Xin is keeping spiders as his pets!

When he first came in touch with the spiders, he felt frightened like any other people. However after some time, these spiders have become his "close friends" and he has even been nicknamed "Spiderman" by his friends.

He began to get interested in spiders several years ago after reading some reports about spiders from The National Geographic.

Until 2005 when he was studying in the university, he came to know from the Internet that spiders were available for sale. Since then he has ordered a small spider every month costing between RM50 and RM80 each.

Today, he has nearly a hundred spiders scattered all around his house and in his bedroom, and is more than willing to let these spiders share his living space.

These spiders are either placed in fish bowls or plastic boxes. Since they only come out at night and will remain indolent even if there are some visitors during the day time.

Easy to take care of

Zheng said it is a must to feed ordinary pets every day, but spiders are very easy to take care of as they only need to be fed once a week or even a month.

Spiders like to eat crickets or cockroaches. Some people feed their spiders with white mice.

While they are "eating," they will secrete a poisonous fluid to dissolve their prey in order to suck the liquid from their bodies, leaving only empty shells.

He said the normal soil had bugs in it and therefore he had to use the dregs of coconut shells as the habitat for his spiders. He said he only needed to sprinkle some water onto the dregs and the spiders would be able to absorb the water from it.

Even though spiders are easy to take care of, they are considered "dangerous pets" as they do not recognize their masters. In addition, it is advisable not to touch the spiders as they would bite.

Although Zheng has tried to touch and play with his spiders, he does not encourage other people to do so as it would be too risky.

He added that even if spiders were under intimidation, their poison was not lethal. A person bitten by a spider would suffer only from swellings on the skin save for those with excessive skin allergy.

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Source: Sin Chew

Property Bubble In Malaysia ?

This pic is for illustration only

In 2008, Giovanni Cozzi (a University of London’s department of economics PhD candidate) has warned that there could be a property bubble in certain parts of Kuala Lumpur because banks had been over-lending to the sector.

Last month, the Star reported that although the local housing market has not reached an unrealistically high like in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, prices of landed houses in some popular areas in the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor have appreciated by 10% to 30% over the past 6 to 8 months. Because of this, Bank Negara is keeping a close watch on the mortgage loan market to ensure that banks do not aggressively lend in this sector which will cause a bubble.

Under Budget 2010, the RPGT (Real Property Gains Tax) was reintroduced in January this year (albeit modestly) presumably to control property speculation. All property sold within the first 5 years of purchase will now attract a 5% tax.

Although Malaysian property prices are almost hitting the roof, housing developers, bankers and "real estate experts" are still telling us that there is no fear of the property bubble here. They say that the Malaysian housing market is sustainable and that the current buying trend is backed by sound economic fundamentals and genuine purchasers.

In an article in iProperty, Donald Han, the Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield Singapore said that a litmus test to see if a market is indeed in a bubble is whether the rental can support the price one is paying for the mortgage of the property.

What do you think ? is a property bubble forming in Malaysia ?

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A Mat Rempit Doing His Stunts

This is a Mat Rempit doing dangerous stunts on his underbone motorcycle (colloquially called the Kapcai). While there are plenty of reports about Mat Rempits being involved in gangs and street racing, some of them perform crazy stunts just for fun.

Last year, Malaysia's then Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that the Mat Rempit had become violent and brazen instead of just being a public nuisance. He said that the police have to come down hard on the Mat Rempit who have started to become involved in robberies, snatch thefts and are even attacking innocent road users.

Additionally some Mat Rempits do not have valid motorcycle licenses, do not pay road taxes, and ride stolen motorcycles.

Mat Rempits are normally single unemployed youths or those earning a living as dispatch riders, factory workers and the like who join gangs of Mat Rempits for a feeling of belonging.

According to a recent news report, a psychologist at a local university said that Mat Rempits had a higher level of hormones that led to aggressive behaviour.

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Scratch-And-Win Scams

This pic is for illustration only

A news report said that syndicates operating scratch-and-win contests in Malaysia are reaping an annual profit of RM2 billion. 

Scratch-and-win syndicates have been operating in Malaysia for the last 15 years.

Despite numerous media reports, many Malaysians continue to fall prey to this scam. The victims are not only naive university students, housewives and civil servants, but also businessmen and professionals.

The syndicates, who have hundreds of agents and companies operating using direct selling licences, are making thousands of Ringgit a day through the scam.

Many have fallen victim to scratch-and-win syndicates as they were swayed by promises of free cars, holidays trips and other items.

Salesmen for this scam were located in shopping complexes, bus terminals, LRT stations, hypermarkets and outside banks to make contact with potential victims.

Potential victims who "won prizes" would be told to go to the salesman's office to redeem their prizes. At the office, the victims would then be persuaded  into believing that they could win big prizes such as Honda Civics, Proton Wiras, 42-inch Plasma TVs, LCD TVs, motorcycles, refrigerators, video cameras and handphones by spending "a little money" to redeem these prizes.

Once the victims were convinced of their chances to win these lucrative prizes, they were then asked to fill up a form agreeing to pay additional sums of money to actually purchase some inferior goods at inflated prices.

According to rumours, the scratch-and-win syndicates in Malaysia are controlled by 4 different "organisations" operating from a northern state in Peninsular Malaysia. These taikors are apparently filthy rich and are well known in the Chinese community for their charitable contributions to schools, temples and civic organisations.

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What Are These Lizards Doing ?

Picture by Khoo Lye

What are these Biawaks (monitor lizards) doing ?

The Biawak is a very common reptile in the jungles and villages in South East Asia. Biawak curry and deep fried biawak are delicacies at some restaurants in Malaysia.

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