I have shipped items from US using Comgateway around 4 to 5 times, experiences of shopping depicted in previous post in 2010(US Online Shopping using Comgateway DHL Delivery service) and 2009(Shipping Rate from the US to Malaysia)

There is a program in Comgeway called Prime Rewards, whereby after you made 3 shipments, you are upgraded to ‘Prime’ status whereby the rate per 0.5 kg is 11% lower for a period of 9 months, ‘Prime’ rate will continue for another 9 months if you make another 3 shipment  (below details amended from Comgateway website) ie:

‘Prime’ rate and priviledge

Description	Express	Standard
First 0.5kg	US$ 24.90	US$ 20.75
Every additional 0.5kg	US$ 3.50	US$ 2.90 (original $3.25 for Non-Prime)
Speed of Delivery (business days)	3 – 5	6 – 8

 

Services	Prime	Non Prime
International Shipping Rates	11% discount on subsequent 0.5kg shipping rates
BuyForMe Service Fee	7% of item cost	10% of item cost
Consolidation (max of 15 packages per shipment)	Free	Free for 1st 3 packages (every additional package US$1 thereafter)
Storage	Free for 60 days subsequent US$1/day/item	Free for 30 days subsequent US$1/day/item
Repack	US$5 for box cut downs and US$3 for box transferred to bag option	US$7 for box cut downs and US$5 for box transferred to bag option
Express delivery upgrade	Automatic express delivery upgrade	Not applicable

 

Comgateway estimated shipping charge for 12kg of items is US$ 95.50 (Comgateway cost calculator)

Borderlinx estimated shipping charge for 12kg of items is US$ 116 (Borderlinx cost calculator)

Based on above 2 screenshots, Comgateway seem to be the one charging cheaper rate, around $20 cheaper for 12kg of shipment. Nonetheless, my recent shipment of 12kg using Comgateway (pictured below) has substantial consolidation fee and repack fee due to it being 6 packages and some of it are in big boxes. So far i could not find the consolidation fee and repack fee for Borderlinx, anyone have idea?

As for duty charges, i think Borderlinx charge excessively and not even sure it cover the duty tax incurred in Malaysia custom. As per my comgateway shipment below, no taxes incurred during payment time in their website, tax is only quantified once reaching Malaysia custom to be around RM130 for my shipment. And sometimes my shipment won’t even incurred duty by Malaysia custom, so i wonder why should Borderlinx charge the taxes all inclusive at the initial stage.

My shipment above is for 12kg of items value over US$300 was charged by custom Malaysia for about RM130 duty tax. Comgateway DHL paid for the duty tax on my behalf as they provide door to door service without me having to collect the items from Subang airport. As per online research, there is some words on if the item value + shipping charge (converted to MYR) is less than RM500, then it would not be charged duty in custom. From past experience, i mostly shipped items+shipping totaled RM500 and less, therefore had not been charged duty before this, thus they might be some truth in that statement.

Anyone have personal experience of using Borderlinx or other services to ship items to Malaysia?

A resort built in a durian plantation in Negeri Sembilan, about an hour or so drive from Kuala Lumpur. There are 4 houses for rent, namely Berembun, Tembusu, Emas and Sora house and a swimming pool. They are currently building one more house and a bigger swimming pool. Priced RM250 – RM1100 per night varies from house to house and weekday/weekend. One thing to note is this place is not in GPS, basically have to drive further from a dead-end indicated in the GPS map.

Above are us preparing to start our road trip to The Dusun

Reached the Dusun

BBQ pit for Berembun house, just next to the pool as well

closer view of the pool

opposite view of the pool

Sora House, the newest and can accommodate maximum 5 adults and 1 child

Sora house

Inside of Sora

kitchen

With a narrow stairway to upstairs bedroom

Open air view to the forest

View from second floour

With a double bed and small sofa bed

Downstairs room

bathroom attached, open air concept as well

View from bedroom to living room

Emas house which is Malay house concept

kitchen next to main entrance

patio

downstairs bedroom

kitchen with amenities

 

common spices available: salt, pepper, sugar, turmeric etc

kitchenwares

plenty of bowls and plates

Emas house only have one bathroom, unlike Sora has one bathroom and one toilet

Upstairs of Emas

One double bed and one sofa bed

double bed

was waiting for the durian to mature and drop, but it didn’t 😛

View from room

There is a “curfew” for The Dusun for security reasons, i think 8pm, so make sure to come back before then else have to call the landlord to open the gate.

Making soya pudding

Making sweet potato which is bleh and not tasty enough

Recipe: Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls

1st attempt: 230g orange sweet potato; 50g glutinuous flour; 50g rice flour; 60g sugar syrup; 30g water

2nd attempt: 500g golden yellow sweet potato; 100g rice flour, 150g sugar syrup; 30g water

Note: Sugar syrup made from boiling 1 packet of rock cane sugar(230g) with 460g water

1st attempt is slightly sticky and soft within, second attempt doesn’t tasted glutinuously sticky due to only rice flour was used and more sweet potato taste.

I really like Petaling Street deep fried sweet potato balls, will try to buy white coloured sweet potato and try again.

fried banana is not bad, very sweet and nice

Went to a 30mins drive to Titi to have chinese food, the road is winding and not comfortable at all

duck cooked “gau2 chai2” style, RM20

brinjal, RM10

paku, RM8

lin2 yu2 fish

some clam dish, RM20

sharkfin soup, RM15

Meal is quite satisfying and nice

pick up some fruits which falls on the compound of “The Dusun”, after all “The Dusun” is a durian orchard

quite nice

our complementary breakfast for the first day

hiking to the waterfall guided by an Orang Asli, passing through construction of new house in “The Dusun”

still in progress

hiking to the waterfall

one the way to waterfall

met someone harvesting petai from jungle

passing by stream

finally

supposedly tongkat asli

cooking minced pork for pan mee

add in mushroom and wood ear

pan mee from scratch

this pork is very tender and nice

blanching vege

done

cooking dhal for dinner

soup style pan mee

three layer pork for dinner

ribs and roasted eggplant

cooking mussle-chien

tapioca flour

add egg

add chili and garlic

add mussel

done

ribs are dry

beef tongue is very tough and unpalatable

yummy dhal

to go with handmade naan

fish is so so

Our second day complimentary breakfast from Dusun

steamed pork for lunch

went to the same restaurant in Titi again for lunch

paku is nice

Fish in rice wine
Address:
The Dusun
Kampung Kolam Air
Pantai
71770 Seremban

Website: The Dusun

Post by other blogger:

so then she said

Fidgety Fingers

The Malay Mail

Out and About

Passionately Pretending

~We Gain & We Spent ~ (in Malay)

Made choc chips cookies from 3 recipes as below:

1) New York Times Chocolate Chips Cookie (recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod)

2) Anna Olsen’s Chocolate Chips Coookie (recipe from Apple A Day)

3) recipe from The Way the Cookie Crumbles (adapted from nearly every single chocolate chip cookie recipe that she ever read)

The clear winner for me from the above 3 is New York Times 36hours-rest-in-fridge recipe, this NYT version is harder and thicker whereas Anna Olsen’s is more crumbly and thin (resulting in bigger cookie in terms of diameter). The Way the Cookie Crumbles’ is my least favorite as it is most crumbly among 3 recipe and very cakey and not cookie-like in terms of texture.

Cookie dough has to be chilled in fridge for 24 to 36 hours before being baked, don’t mind the 36 hours waiting period at all, as it split out the workload into more manageable during weeknights. Although i made the cookie much smaller than directed, it still has the crispy edges and chewy center texture. I halved the recipe and reduced the brown sugar from 140g to 70g, it is still a tad sweet, sugar can be slightly reduced. All together halved recipe yields 32 cookie.

Below the halved recipe in metric measurement (Oops i actually forgot whether i used 70g brown + 115g caster or 70g caster + 115 g brown sugar, the below should be the correct one, but the cookie look so brown ?!)

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies (Yield: 32 cookies)

120g cake flour
120g bread flour
1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
140g unsalted butter
70g light brown sugar
115g granulated sugar
1 large eggs
1 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
190g bittersweet chocolate chips
Sea salt

My fridge is too cold, making the cookie dough very hard, almost ice-cream like hard. Have to warm it in room temp for 15 minutes or so before scooping it out onto baking tray.

mounts of cookie dough with sprinkles of seasealt

done

Colleague commented it tasted like Famous Amos’ which i find is quite similar, it is cookie hard without being too crumbly, slightly soft and chewy in the center as it is supposed to be.

Anna Olsen’s recipe

butter and sugars

add egg

yields 31 cookies, i find the cookie more soft and crumbly, could be due to high ratio of brown sugar over caster sugar.

last recipe from blogger Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Had to buy an expensive high protein flour from supermarket. Should have bought some from bakery shop to stock at home

Cookie dough

Made 19 cookies

a bit too much of sea salt on some, crumbly and cake-like in texture, my least favourite.

soup menu

salad menu

main course menu

bbq menu

dessert menu

salads

Bought 2 piece of MyDeal voucher for 4 course meal for 1(RM19.90 each), had to go on a weekday to redeem this deal due to fully reserved on weekend, really good food!

Kebab is ok, the garlic yogurt dip is slightly too oily

Really good lamb briyani, yummy!

This baklava is really good, have to stop myself eating the second piece considering the coalories. It is not overly sweet, tasted milky and nutty

Address: Laziz

No 18, 18-1, Jalan Solaris 5,

Mont Kiara, off Jalan Duta Kiara,

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Telephone: 03-620 36607

Website: Laziz

Address: Laziz

Vkeong

Apple Foodees

Mulan Maseirra

Bought a deal for 4 pax from Groupon for only RM99

welcome drinks of sourish drink

Their bread is freshly made and very nice, the cucumber yogurt on bottom left and hommus(chickpea blended with tahini) are both yummy as well

Kashk o Bademjam (mashed grilled eggplant) is piping hot and not bad

Refreshing sourish cucumber salad

chicken briyani, the rice is too dry

All the rice  turn out quite hard and dry, hard to swallow

Gheymeh Stew (beef stew) tasted tomatoey and slight sour with chickpea in it, just ok for me

lamb shank is big portion

baklava which is too sweet

pudding is quite good with orangy syrup

iranian tea

Address: Naab (wholly own by Unique Grand Resources Sdn Bhd)

No 13 & 15, Jalan Solaris 2,

Solaris Mont Kiara,

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Telephone: 03- 6203 7647

Post by other blogger:

Miss Sunshine

oh{FISH}iee

Joie De Vivre lass

You Had Your Lunch?