On Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:07:45 -0800 (PST), Bil
wrote:

On Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 12:19:26 AM UTC+8, Peter Hendra wrote:
On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:00:44 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:04:13 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

Hi Bruce,
Did you try Chulia Street?
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:30:38 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

The last time I was in Penang and talked to a chemical shop there the
owner said "I'll keep selling TBT as long as the Malaysian Navy uses
TBT based anti fouling".. So you are probably correct. unfortunately I
can't buy it.

Yup, that's the guy - known as the "Chemical man".

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Yes, Mr Ong of Langtrau Traders.

Now in his 80's and speaking perfect Oxford English (though I wouldn't
expect that you as an American would appreciate well spoken English),
he has had a very interesting life. His father died when he was 9
leaving his mother to scrape a living for the family unassisted. When
the Japanese occupied Malaya, they set up a medical school at Melaka
and he was chosen to attend. After his 3rd year the British returned
and the school was closed down, thus terminating his medical studies.
Returning to Penang his Doctor friends suggested that, as drugs and
medical supplies were hard to get hold of, he should think of buying
them in Singapore on the black market and smuggling them back to
Penang (the best city in the universe where the most beautiful women
are just that - women) where they would buy them off him.

Subsequently he somehow obtained a military uniform and a weekly pass
(forged or otherwise acquired) and made the weekly round trip by
train. At the time Singapore was a military area and was no go to just
anybody. He went on to found the largest chemical company in Malaysia
and when he reached his 60's retired, handed it over to his sons and
started selling all kinds of chemical supplies from that shop house.

He is an easy person to make any excuse to sit and have a cup of tea
with and just ask questions. The prices of his TBT and other useful
boaties' chemicals is ridiculously low.

Looks like Mr Ong, now 91 years old, will have to move his Liangtraco business to a new address in Penang.

See: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/m...n-lebuh-chulia

Bil

Re the article, the situation is likely that someone owns the property
in that area and has been renting/leasing it out for generations and
now there is some big money that is trying to make a ton of money by
building a whole neighborhood the rent for which will be much, much
higher.

Re Mr. Ong, the first time I went to find him I couldn't locate the
shop and stopped in at another that seemed to be in about the same
area as his shop was supposed to be. the people there pointed out his
shop on the other side of the road and when I was talking to him I
mentioned that and I got the impression that he owned, or his family
owned, both places and I suspect that Mr. Ong has been making a very
nice piece of change out of the shops all these years.

There used to be a lot of old geezers like him in Singapore. Sit out
front on a broken down chair wearing a singlet, shorts and sandals.
Drive home in a Mercedes 500 :-)

--
Cheers,

Bruce in Bangkok