Renting a Vehicle for Holiday? To Rent or Not to Rent?

I’ve been asked what are the things to consider when want to rent a car for holiday. Well, actually there are numerous of things to look out for and I didn’t have a short answer for this question. Finally, I figure that there are few most fundamental elements to consider on before going into a car rental deal.

1. Can you drive in that country?
Yes. The most fundamental question is whether you can drive in that country (where you tend to rent the car). Check whether your driving license is valid for driving in that country. Different countries have different rules. Some countries need a valid international license before you can actually drive there. Some doesn’t, they will need the driver to have a translation done on their driving license to local language or English. So check this out with the car rental operator or authorities.

Once you pass through the driving license part, next you’ll need to look at your capabilities of driving in that country. First check on the driving direction of the country. Next are the road conditions. It is very important we know about the road conditions before we even decide to rent or not to rent. For example driving on snow, driving on deserted roads, driving long distant, etc. Whether it is safe for foreigner to drive? Can you drive safely? These are the question you should ask.

Driving age. Different country and car rental operator has different rules on the valid driving age. Check with the local authorities on the driving age limit (if any). And check with the car rental operator what’s their rules on driving age. Sometimes, their barred rental to young or senior driver, or sometimes, they required additional insurance or surcharges.

After you pass through all these and still stick to the decision to rent a car and drive on your own. Next you should look at your budget.

2. Budget. Budget. Budget.
Hiring a car can be very expensive you are not careful with it. I wouldn’t discuss very lengthy on the items to watch out when considering a car rental deal. I’ll cover more basic elements when come to car rental.

Ask yourself what is your budget in renting a car. This will help you in determine the model of car to rent. To choose the model of the car, look at your need (e.g group size, luggage space, what’s the purpose of the car- carrying goods/ going to off beaten track/ normal traveling) and then look at the models available and compare the rate of rental.

Don’t forget to calculate your fuel cost into your budget planning. The price of gasoline varies in different country. Some country have fixed rate, some fluctuates. It is better to find out these information before you decide to drive on your own.

The model of the car and the cc of the car would mean different fuel consumptions. Another thing to consider is the year made of the car and how well the car is maintain. Sometimes, a beat up car has very high fuel (gasoline and gear oil) consumption.

And when you drive a car, you’ll need to calculate the parking fees and toll fees into your budget.

3. Itinerary
Why I put itinerary as one of the fundamental elements in deciding whether to rent a vehicle? Firstly, many car rental operators have minimum rental days. For example, you only want to stay in the city for 2 days and flying to another destination, most probably you’ll be paying high rental charges (usually the longer you rent, the cheaper the rate) or unable to get any rental. Another case is that you need to travel from destination A to destination B, so you would like to pickup the rental vehicle in destination A and return it in destination B. This usually come with a surcharge called relocation fee or inter-state drop off fee. Normally, you’ll get waiver on the fee if your rental is long (at least more than 3 to 4 days).

One should also find out the travel time from one location to another. Plan you driving time well, this will ensure you’ll have a safe and comfortable travel. Take note on the weather, road conditions, break time, map / navigator (or to consider get a GPS system). If you are planning to travel long distant, best to time your travel, avoid over long driving hours or rushing. It is also good to have additional driver(s), so that you can switch among drivers.

For me, these 1-2-3 steps are the most fundamental elements to consider about when deciding to rent or not to rent. I hope that these information is helpful. And if you need any advice about car rental, I welcome you to write to me. Hope my few years experience in the car rental industry will able to assist you.

P/S: In my coming blog, I’ll write about the general terms that one should watch out when choosing a car rental deal. Stay tune.

Susan Boyle Rocks

I want to admit that I’m outdated. Yet I want to say that Susan Boyle really rocks! Surfing on the net aimlessly, I came into this you tube clip on Britains Got Talent the first round Susan Boyle sang on the stage. A normal lady with an “aunty” look, what she wanna perform?

I hope that she’s not the lady version of William Hung. When she sang, I jaws dropped. She’s incredible! If I haven’t watched the clip, I would never believe that it is sang by a 47 woman like her. Angelic voice and the way she perform it is simply stunning. Wow!! I feel in love with her voice, her talent and courage to stand on the stage and show her talent. I salute you, Susan Boyle. Susan Boleh!

I dunno who to incorporate video into this blog (pai she la). Anyone interested to watch her performance, please click to this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

The Urban Tarzan

Day in and out, we are busily rushing with our routines. All we face with are works, traffics, computers and the gloomy news. Want to get away from the busy urban life, for a little escape? Longing to get closer to the nature and add some spice into your life with a little adrenaline rush?

Be an urban Tarzan. Test your agility and face your fears with series of aerial obstacle challenges in the air. And you can get this experience by participate the Skytrex Adventure in a forest reserve located only about 30 mins from town. Yup, the Skytrex Adventure Park inside the Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya, Shah Alam offers such thrills.

What’s unique about this park is that the agricultural park and farms are inside a tropical rainforest. You only need to pay RM 3 (adult) or RM 1 (children) to enter this park which covers 817 hectares of land. The Skytrex Adventure Park is 3km away from the entrance of the park. A shutter bus to the adventure park departs from the bicycle rental shop every 10 minutes before each booking slot.

The adventure park operates on weekend and public holiday. For weekdays, they cater to pre-booking made for group with a minimum of 25 pax. This adventure park open to anyone young and old, so long that you meet the health and fitness requirements. They have 3 different adventures challenges for one to try on. The challenges are – Little Adventure, Big Thrill and Extreme Challenges.

Little adventure is the easiest among the three challenges. It is specially designed for children, however, adults who want to join in the fun are welcome too. Big thrill have 23 challenges, ranging from easy to difficult. The challenge ends with a 100m long high speed flying fox. And for those who like bigger excitement the extreme challenge is the choice. A total of 21 extreme challenges with some platforms build at the height of 22m from ground. S person must reach at least 16 years old and reach the height of 1.5m to qualify for the challenge. They recommend the person to have upper body strength and experienced their Big Thrill. Rates range from RM 25 to RM 40 per person depending on the challenge you choose and the age group you fall into.

Below is my personal experience of Big Thrill Challenge.
I rode the Skytrex shuttle bus to the adventure park. The park is in the middle of a rain forest. I could see the trees are high into the air (unable to the summit of the trees). Also saw some platforms, cables for the challenges, some young kids enjoying the challenges excitedly gliding over the pond to the platform located at another side.

I started to feel some excitement within me after I got off the bus. Me and my group walk towards the reception area to checked in ourselves for the challenge. All of us were to hand in the health declaration and indemnity form. They provide lockers for us to keep anything we don’t want to bring for the challenge. So long the items you bring with are not dangling dangerously and the person is comfortable with, they will allow you to bring along. Oh… how can I missed out the chance to take some good shoots, so I bring my camera long, I hanged it on my neck safely. I also bought a pair of glove (optional item) at RM3 to prevent my hand from any injuries. If you don’t mind to use recycle ones, you can also try your luck at the glove recycling bin.

Once cleared from the registration, we headed towards the gear up platform to equip ourselves with the harness. They hand in the harness to us but sadly they didn’t have the official briefing on how to wear the harness. Most of us try to figure it out ourselves, but got it wrong and waited for the instructors there to help us re-wearing the harness or adjust it to perfection.

Afterwards, all are to head towards the training ground. A lady instructor introduced us to the harness we are wearing. She guided us to check on the equipment, explained on it’s functions and the correct way to use the gear. She then demonstrated to us the way to handle the challenge on the training ground. And it is compulsory for each of us to complete the circuit of the training to familiarize with the activity and ability to handle the equipment in compliance with the safety standard.

Though the training ground trial is short and the height is low, I have few moments of hesitations on doing the challenges. I climbed on the platform, done the walking on the plank up in the air, performed a fly to catch the net and did a crawl up the net like a spiderwoman and finally did another flying landing on the ground. Phew! That was fun and it certainly needs some good strength to go through the challenges.

Since I am the first few who completed and passed through the training, the instructor called us to start the big thrill track while the rest waited to pass through the training. A friend and I headed to the starting point of the challenge. However, there weren’t any staff or instructor at the starting point, we inform the instructor at the training ground and she called someone to assist us. Maybe, it is because lunch time that instructor came running with a lunchbox in his hand and kept telling us it’s ok to start and ran off to else where. We waited few minutes still there weren’t anyone. The first challenge is a climb up to the tree. I don’t know the exact height, it roughly as tall as 3 to 4 storey building. I thought maybe someone would have waited us in the second challenge point up there where we could see. So I decided to start the track.

Yikes! The 90 degrees stair up the wood platform up at the tree weren’t as easy as it seems to be. Half way up the stairs, I already feel my stamina running low, I shouted out to my friend, “I’m tired.” Friends who were waiting at the ground encouraged me to move on. How can I stop at the beginning? I took a deep breathe and push myself up. I used my hand to pull myself up and leg to push upwards. Finally, I arrived at the platform. I’m relieved to accomplish the first challenge. I waited for my friend to climbed up the platform. Next, I proceed with the next challenge. Walk on a net bridge to another platform. I couldn’t see where’s the next platform is as there are trees that block the view. After finished crossing the net, still nobody was sighted. A bit annoyed at the bad service yet I’m excited to challenge the next adventure. To cross a zig zag plank.

Whoa! It is not easy to balance myself on the narrow zig zag plank. I pulled harder at the carbina to balance myself. Though the track wasn’t long, but I feel it is endless. My friend was asking me something behind, but I couldn’t concentrate what she said and kept silent. Focusing on my steps.


After a hard struggle on the zig zag, I finally arrived at the platform! I put up a smile and asked my friend what she was saying. I rest at the platform for a few minutes while wait for my friend to join me.

I couldn’t remember the sequence of the nest few challenges. But all are equally exciting and fun at the same time. The only setback was nobody at our track until I completed about ½ of the challenge.

Air hopping with the help of the ropes.

I'm getting ready to swing over to the big net at the opposite platform.

Finally I swung to the other side. Catch on to the net and perform a spider climb to the platform.

On our track to the end of the challenge, we saw few chicken exit for those who unable to take on the challenge. There also some short-cut paths to skip through a challenge with a simple flying fox.

About 2 hours later, I finally complete the track with a high speed 100m “wild revenge” down to the finishing platform. I’m tired, thirsty, sweaty, ecstatic and satisfy to be able to arrived at the finish point. Both of us rush to the reception counter and brought ourselves a can of cold 100 plus (isotonic drink). Ah… so cooling and refreshing. This trip is worth while.

It would be better if there were more staff stationed at the platform giving us advice and encouragement. I chatted with one of the staff stationed near to the end of the track, he mentioned that it not suppose to be this way. But some staff actually went for lunch break without informing their superior. So my advice is don’t take session near to lunch hour to avoid encountering the same scenario like us. Another piece of advice is that don’t go on too large a group. Like our group was 26 pax. Some participant had actually waited a long time before it is their turn. And due to safety reason, each platform can only hold 3 people and one must wait until the participant in front of you completed a challenge before you start. So those at the back wasted quite some time waiting. Especially if the person in front is having hard time to initiate for complete the challenge. Well, my recommendation is organize small group of about 10 to 15 and not more than that. But please don’t tell the organizer because you read my blog so you organize small group. They won’t like the idea. Ideally, their group size is 15-20 pax.

We retried our items, can got back to the finish point and cheered for those at the back of the line. Finally after 6 hours at the adventure park, all participants at our group completed their track. All were smiling and laughing, sharing their own experience. All of us eagerly want to get out from the Bukit Cahaya park and have our lunch/dinner. Very very hungry after all it’s already 4.30pm. And we had our breakfast at 8 something in the morning. Yahoo! Finally we can have our meal. We climbed into our cars and started the hunt for good food!!