Razor / blade shopping in Malaysia

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I wasn't going to write this up, but I remember how useful I found @factormax 's report on Venice from a few years back (I found it through Google), and thought that maybe someone might find this useful some time in the future.

I was in Kuching, Malaysia, for work and got the impression that DE shaving was still pretty much the norm there, so I thought I'd try to do a little blade shopping. Kuching is on the island of Borneo, as opposed to 'Peninsular' Malaysia, but I believe that the shops are mainly the same.

My first port of call was 'Mr. DIY', a hardware and general houseware shop, which seemed to be present in literally every shopping mall in the city (and there are a LOT of shopping malls). There were loads of disposables, but the only DE was a Rimei three-piece bundled with a single blade for ~MYR5 (£1). I also tried a 7-11, but could only see disposables for sale.

My next stop was a discount store called SuperSave, where I found some Rapira Platinum Lux (agressive) Tech-style razors for £1 - an absolute bargain. There were also some "ALSHABAB" branded Gillette Click-style razors bundled with 20 stainless blades for ~50p. I've not tried the blades yet, but did try the razor 'for science'. The blade can slide a couple of mm left & right alarmingly, but is held in place securely fore & aft so it's possible to get a functional shave. I've used it twice, but probably won't use it again. Finally I picked up a tuck of "WETELL" stainless blades for ~25p, again untested so far. I think there was more stuff there, but can't clearly remember.
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I struck out at Everrise supermarket, Watson drugstore (both multiple branches) and Parkson Department Store. On my final day there, though, I found the elusive Super Nacets for just over £1/tuck at 'Ting & Ting' supermarket (I'm not sure whether this is a chain) which was sized like a big Tesco Metro, or a mid-sized Co-op. These were the only (DE) blades on offer, and there were no razors. I then took a walk to the Mydin Hypermart, which is where I struck gold - card upon card of blades. There were several Treet blades including a couple of carbon steel varieties, and I picked up 100 Platinums for £4. There were Supermax and Zorriks in both stainless and platinum, so I got some Supermax Plats for ~£2 (interestingly these were significantly cheaper than the stainless variety, which was the opposite for the Zorriks). The only disappointment was the Super Nacets, which at MYR116.50 (£23+) for the card were more than ten times more expensive than my Supermax Platinums (and more expensive than a single tuck at Ting & Ting).
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I don't remember if there were razors for sale or not - I was too distracted by all the blades! I've yet to try the Super Nacets, but I'm looking forward to them. I'm already a fan of the Treet Platinums. Of the Super-Max I'll just say that they're definitely worth the 2p a blade I paid for them.

Happy shaving.
 
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