RM650 tiny rental room in KL sparks outrage online
In a TikTok post by @serembanpage showed single bed squeezed tightly between two walls with barely any walking space except for a narrow strip along the left where two water bottles are placed on the tiled floor.
At the far end of the room is a large vertical window covered by a black curtain tied in the middle, letting in partial daylight and revealing a view of high-rise buildings and rooftops outside.
'Rental room in KL. Fall off the bed and you would be stuck to the wall. Nice view.
'How much do you guys think the rent is? The answer is RM650 a month.'
ALSO READ: M'sian shocked by RM13k rent for 292 sq-ft HK apartment
The post has since gone viral, sparking hundreds of comments.
Some criticised the landlord directly. @Jajarr wrote, 'How could the owner rent out a room this size with that kind of cutthroat price?'
@ArBrkenar's bluntly said, 'Better sleep under a flyover.'
Others questioned the value compared to alternative options. @peeteed88 suggested, 'Try surveying hotels. Monthly rates are cheaper and come with daily housekeeping.'
@BangMojie agreed, saying, 'Hotels are better — you can get one for RM450 a month.'
@Aiman joked said 'RM650 for this? Might as well buy a car and sleep in it. At least the monthly payment makes it yours.'
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So this is the one thing I like to hear the most because it is proof that my hard work actually brings results and has influenced some of my China audience to come to Malaysia,' he says. But for Ang, this is just the first step in his single-handed determination to help grow and expand the Malaysian durian industry and turn it into an international powerhouse. Getting started Ang grew up in Alor Setar, Kedah. His father owned a souvenir shop, and the enterprising Ang learnt the ropes early when he started selling freeze-dried durian to local souvenir shops when he was in university. But otherwise, he had no real knowledge of durian. Six years ago, Ang got his start in influencing when he started posting funny videos on TikTok in 2019 and quickly gained over 500,000 followers. But soon he felt that what he was doing held no meaning. 'Since I was small, I have been involved in the tourism industry. 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The durian messenger Since 2023, Ang estimates that he has visited well over 300 durian farms across Malaysia as well as in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Each visit is inevitably a hunt for new content, but inadvertently, Ang has also learnt so much about durian himself and has been able to teach his followers from China everything he has sussed out about Malaysian durian and help change preconceived notions they have formed about it. These preconceptions were partially initiated by the fact that in China, Thai durians have held court for over 10 years and many Chinese are used to these durians as opposed to Malaysian durian, which is more expensive and lesser-known. 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But I found that sometimes what I promised to my customers couldn't be fulfilled. 'So this forced me to change a lot of factories – in these three years I've used three factories. But luckily, I found a new partner factory that can really support me this year, so since then, everything has gotten better,' he says. Ang's store mostly sells premium durian from single-origin old farms that Ang himself has visited or dealt with. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star With MyBolehBoleh, Ang says he was driven to open a physical outlet because so many of his followers from China kept asking him where to go to eat good durian on their trips to Malaysia. This coincided with a surge in China tourists to Malaysia in 2023, a nearly 600% increase from 2022. 'A lot of my followers from China who travel to Malaysia will always ask me, 'Where can I eat durian in Malaysia?' And I always recommended that they go to SS2 in Petaling Jaya. 'Then I thought, if I had so many followers that wanted to eat durian, why don't I own my own store and ask my followers to come here? So the first intention was to own this store and ensure customers get good Malaysian durian,' he says. Ang's followers travel from all over China and Malaysia to try the durian at his shop and meet him too, as he's something of a celebrity. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star At MyBolehBoleh, Ang readily confesses that his durian is priced higher than many other stores. This is because he works directly with a network of farms and picks more established single-origin farms that would typically have higher-quality yields. 'We guarantee that our durian is from old farms – in fact, for many of these durian, our staff drive to the farm to collect it directly. And the second thing is we will open the durian in front of you, and if you find that it's not tasty, we can just change it for you. Because we charge more, we have the profit margin to do this extra service for customers. 'For me, I don't want to lower the prices and serve substandard durian. I am happy selling a few hundred kilos of durian a day while giving customers a better experience,' he says. The future Unlike many influential figures, Ang isn't just here to make money and rest on his laurels. He really, really cares about the future of Malaysian durian. Aside from organising the newly minted KL Durian Festival, he also hopes to establish a durian cultural centre in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. 'I find that a lot of tourists come to Malaysia and just eat durian. But I think that durian has a bigger story to tell than the mere act of consumption. So I want to collaborate with government agencies and have a space to showcase Malaysian durian culture so people can learn about durian trees, fruiting season and the farmers behind the fruits,' he says. If you think that's all Ang has in mind, you would be oh-so wrong. Because Edison Ang is truly an unstoppable durian juggernaut. His five-year timeline? He wants to establish a durian university! In the future, Ang hopes to establish a durian university where people can train to become professional durian tasters. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star 'I think it will be very hard to improve the durian industry if we don't have enough skilled farmers and workers trained at a proper university. Like now, the grading of the fruit is not consistent. The farmer might say it's grade A, but someone else will say it's grade B. It's a perennial issue. 'And the second thing is I think a durian university can train durian tasters. Like sommeliers for wine or baristas for coffee, we should have something in place to establish durian experts too,' says Ang, smiling.
