It looks like a normal bottle of Absolut Vodka on the first glance. These are the 1 liter bottles, not the 750 ml ones.
Further inspection didn't reveal anything dubious about this bottle of vodka too. Imported by Maxximum Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
"It's got to be here somewhere", I thought and scrutinized the bottle. Here it is! The "Malaysian Duty Not Paid" stamp. I was told that there are multiple routes for the...ah, diverted liquor industry, with some coming in from Labuan, some coming in from Langkawi and some even from Singapore (!?!?). Labuan and Langkawi are duty free havens with RM 1 dollar cans of beer (A$ 0.35 cents) and bottles of branded distilled spirits for RM 30 (A$ 10). By the time it gets to the "duty free liquor specialists" in Kuching, the price is sold to the consumer at RM 55 for this bottle of 1 litre Absolut vodka. This is undercutting legitimate outlets by RM 20 - RM 40 and up market drinking establishments by up to RM 150. There are discounts for bulk purchases, 6 bottles of these will lower the cost to RM 50 per bottle. Bottles up to the duty free liquor industry! Ah, I meant bottoms up. ;)
P/S - My digicam CF Card reader seems to be broken so I had to go out and get an Apacer 8 in 1 card reader to get the photos in. Two girls sitting at a coffeeshop gave me wolf whistles both times I passed them. :( Now I know how females feel when they get sexually harrassed like that. I feel violated. I feel dirty and scared. I want to go home and take a long hot shower and curl up in a ball under my blankets...
Nah, actually I enjoyed the attention. ;)
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