Vicco Toothpaste

Vicco Vajradanti Herbal Toothpaste

Did you just go, Vicco what toothpaste? Yes, usually when I tell people that I mostly use Vicco Herbal Toothpaste to brush my teeth, the reply I get is "Vico the chocolate energy drink?". I say no, Vicco with 2 C's.

Yes it is a Herbal Toothpaste from India. And is available is stores in Malaysia. I am not sure now whether it can be 'classified' as a Ayurveda / Ayurvedic Toothpaste though. But it does have Herbal Toothpaste printed on it.

Interestingly the colour of the paste is brownish, probably due to the natural mixture of the paste having herbal contents. Its not the typically 'white' paste. But then again, why are the typical toothpaste white in color. Naturally or colored?

Vicco Toothpaste (not sure what they mean The Original??)

From their website :
"The pure extracts of 20 herbs and barks, tested over generations, have been blended into a potent combination that not only cleans teeth, but also protects and strengthens them.

Vicco Vajradanti offers this unique formula in a dental care paste that has natural astringent, antiseptic, and analgesic properties. These ingredients also stimulate and reinforce gums, while resisting plaque formation. It gives you strong gums, which makes your bite mighty, which no cosmetic toothpaste can ever give."

The Ingredients listed for my curious readers

Based on my experience it does give a fresh feel (cinnamon like) and most importantly I find it 'soft' on my gums. Some other conventional toothpaste sometimes leave my gums hurting, especially the one in the green tube. Another good thing that I've noted about the Vicco Toothpaste is that it reduces my occurrence of getting mouth ulcer. I know ulcers can be caused by many reasons, including stress I believe, but on average I do experience lesser ulcers.

Another 2 things to note is, probably compared to Colgate, it doesn't give me up to '24 hours' of fresh feel. Sure feels fresh after using Vicco, but not as long. But then again, I usually brush more then once in 24hours :) . Another thing is I noticed that my teeth doesn't 'turn' whitish using Vicco. But then again I am a heavy tea drinker. While mentioning tea, I just love Chotu's Masalla tea. But then how do the other toothpaste that claim to whiten teeth work? Usually I'd relate whitening to bleaching, but in this case I don't know.

Now that I'm writing about teeth color. I start to ask myself, are our teeth actually 'built' by God to be white like those white school uniform detergent ads? I came across this website The HK ToothClub and it mentions

"Since the enamel of permanent teeth is slightly transparent, the yellowish colour of dentine is shown through it. Therefore, permanent teeth will appear slightly yellowish. As we get older, the dentine increasingly grows thicker, and it is normal that our teeth become more yellowish."

So what's all the hype about having white teeth anyway? Ok too yellow or black teeth might be a turn off, but I'd rather stick with my natural colour. By the way, usually when I smile, I seldom bare my teeth, more of a closed lipped guy. Pun not intended!

Another interesting point the website explains is that deciduous teeth (deciduous means baby teeth right?) are not as transparent as our permanent teeth and that's why they look Milky White! Guess what they call 'baby' teeth in Malay; yes, Gigi Susu (Milky Teeth!).

Anyway back to Vicco, you can usually find this toothpaste in Indian Grocery stores, I usually get it from Little India in Penang.

Need help getting the toothpaste, yup go ahead and leave your contact email / number in the comments and I'll see how I can help.

Ok, enjoy brushing!

ps- I just realized while searching Vicco in Wikipedia is that Vicco is a city in Perry County, Kentucky, United States.

Ghajini in Penang

Yes, at last Ghajini is in Penang. We've been waiting for some time for Ghajini to come to Penang. It's not always Penangites get the opportunity to watch Hindi Movies in the Cinema.

However this few months have been filled with surprises. First with Shah Rukh Khan's rab ne bana di jodi. SRK does have the fan factor in Malaysia. I went to watch the movie on a weeekday at Cathay Prangin and the crowd was still significant, even compared to the other movies showing there! (not sure was it opening night or ?) . Anyway we really enjoyed the movie, and the tagline describes the movie best "There is an extraordinary love story in every ordinary jodi (couple)". I certainly agree. We all have our extraordinary story.

Somehow I've come to agree with my bro that Cathay Prangin does have it's pull itself. The seats are more plush and comfortable. Especially the Couple Seats. Compared to GSC Queensbay, I found Cathay Prangin Cinema Seats and experience better.

For GSC, the screen size also depends on which cinema hall you get. For Cathay I'm not really sure though.

A few weeks back I emailed Cathay to request and inquire whether they will be showing Ghajini or not after not being able to get thru the Penang line. Cathay's reply was prompt and professional. Below's their reply :

Dear Valued Customer,

Greetings from Cathay Cineplexes!

We apologise for the inconveniences caused while trying to gather information about Ghajini. We thank you for your feedback as this will help us to improve our quality of service to serve you better. Rest assured that our Head of Operations is aware and will look into the matter highlighted seriously.

Unfortunately the movie Ghajini will not be showing at Cathay Cineplex Prangin Mall. To check out our upcoming movies, kindly log on to http://www.cathaycineplexes.com.my/

Meanwhile. we hope that this will not deter you from patronizing our cinemas and we look forward to your next visit.

Thank you for taking the time to write in to us and for your continuous support.

Thanks and Regards
The Management
Cathay Cineplexes

Back to Ghajini, it is now showing in Lotus Five Star SSC Kompleks Bukit Jambul in Penang. You can check out their timings at www.cinema.com.my. I tried calling them today and got an update on the timing. Their number is 04-6401515

Overall I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't the best movie I've seen, but I would rate it good overall. Amir Khan's performance was stellar, and enjoy his 8 packs!

Indian Top / Kurti Ladies Dresses now in Malaysia

A new collection of latest Indian dresses is now available in Malaysia. Basically they are called Indian Tops, or Kurtis. Here's some pictures of them. If you would like to purchase any, you can contact Zaminib at 012-4117086, or fill up the query form by clicking Zaminib Enterprise or

by emailing zaminib @ yahoo . com The best thing, if you are really interested, you can try to schedule an appointment to look at the collection (Penang only).

Here are some of the many items available. There are many more tops / kurtis which you can see upon appointment . Feel free to contact Zaminib Ent.

Item # 013:

Item #012 :

Item #011 :

Item #000 :

Item #009 :

Item #007 :



Item #006:


Item #005:

Item #004 :


Item #003 :

Item #002 :

What Malaysians Want

My question which might become a theory - Can we make certain assumptions on what are people thinking of, how is the current general mindset and what's interesting in a certain country or region by looking at what they search for?
Today I came across Yahoo's Top Searches for 2008.
According to the link Yahoo's Top Searches for 2008 for Malaysia are as below.

• Anwar Ibrahim
• Pakatan Rakyat
• RPK
• Lee Chong Wei
• Siti Nurhaliza
• Selamat Pagi Cinta
• Vanessa Hudgens
• Resepi Kuih
• Josef Fritzl
• Pontianak

The first 2 are very related to Politics, with the 3rd item (RPK) also closely related to the same scene. This could mainly be due to the recent elections and still heated politics going on.
The 4th, Lee Chong Wei is interesting. He is a badminton player. Eventhough badminton is a favourite Malaysian sport, I am surprised to see a specific player searched upon so highly. Is there a huge female following who search for Lee Chong Wei??
5th is Siti Nurhaliza, I'd be in the assumption her search rate would have dropped compared to 2007.I can't seem to be able to find a similar summary for Year 2007. Still getting 5th spot in 2008 after marriage and low visibility is impressive for the least.
Selamat Pagi Cinta is a Malay Movie, this one I can't comment much since the last Malay movie I saw was Cicak Man 1, which by the way was pretty good.

Vanessa Hudgens - She is one of the stars in Disney's High School Musical. Recently gone thru some major publicity I believe.

Coming in on 8th is Resepi Kuih. Looks like Malaysians are true to their love for food. I too love Malay kuih, especially for evening drinks (minum petang).

Josef Fritzl is 9th, this one I'd rather not comment much.

And last is Pontianak, a Malay version of a Vampire. There's a movie related to this and this could be possibly why people search for Pontianak. Good thing we can say Malaysians are more interested in Vanessa Hudgens pictures than that of a Pontianak.

So to summarize, Malaysians have a wide appetite, from politics to actress to movies and food.

Now compare this to what per Yahoo, Singaporeans searched for most in 2008


• Mas Selamat Kastari
• Lo Hwei Yen
• Edison Chen
• F1 Singapore
• Beijing Olympics
• SGX
• Dawn Yang
• Xiaxue
• COE
• Beach.Ball.Babes


Now look at what USA searched for most

1Britney Spears
2WWE
3Barack Obama
4Miley Cyrus
5RuneScape
6Jessica Alba
7Naruto
8Lindsay Lohan
9Angelina Jolie
10American Idol


Go figure!

Penang Bridge - Implementation of Tidal Gate Flow System

In the Star Paper (Thursday December 11, 2008, ), I just read that Penang Bridge will implement a Tidal Gate Flow System. This should be good news for the bridge commuters. The current conditions are not smooth is the least I can say.

The efforts to limit the usage time of heavy vehicles during peak hours was a good effort to start with. But traffic is still bad.

Going back to the Tidal Wave Gate, if I understand this correctly, it is a controlled entry from 2 or more entry points into the main span (double lane) of the bridge.

Just imagine 2 large waves colliding, it will create a huge destruction! And it's nothing to do with Tsunami. :)

The Star Article on Penang Bridge (click picture for a clearer view)

However if a small wave 'collides' into a large wave, the smaller wave 'integrates' into the larger waive with lesser impact. I'm not sure how correct is my understanding. Actually in Dec 2007 I wrote to PPSB to f/back about the issue whether there a way too many toll booths providing entry into a 2 lane traffic. Either the bottle neck has to be reduced or regulated.

My Suggestion to PPSB (click picture for a clearer view)

PPSB / PLUS Reply (click picture for a clearer view)

Good job to the authorities on for taking initiatives on trying to fix a long issue. (pun intended :) )
Deep down it feels good that the suggestions given were taken into consideration, regardless if it's related to my suggestion of not. It still feels good.

Another feedback I gave previously and got a reply from PPSB was putting a larger indicator on the 'Tambah Nilai' counter, as it is not visible from far, and in heavy traffic, once you're in the wrong lane, it's hard to change lanes to get into the tambah nilai conunter. Notice now there is an LCD Digital Display for the Tambah Nilai thought still not large enough for my liking.

Let's hope this improves the traffic. Probably in the first few days, there will be havoc from users not familiar with the system, and those trying their best to be Queue Cutters!

UPDATED 23 December 08 - As I mentioned above, knowing Penangites, there will be havoc the first few days. Looks like the authorities gave up after the first day. :p

A snippet from TheStar

"BUTTERWORTH: The Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) has ordered a trial run of the “tidal flow” system on the Penang Bridge to stop because its implementation does not help overcome congestion on the bridge."


Drive Carefully.