Driving Guide/Tips

Ok, so you have decided to travel in Ipoh (or Malaysia) by driving. Then now, you need a driving guide or some driving tips to travel smoothly in Ipoh, Malaysia. And that's what I'm going to let you know.

Driving license

First of all, you wanna drive in Malaysia? Then you'll need a driving license. If you don't have an international driving license, a local driving license from your original country is all that you need. With this local driving license, you can drive through out Malaysia legally for 3 months. After that, you'll need to take place for driving test to get a Malaysia driving license. And this topic should be out of concern for now. =)

Road condition

About road condition, there are free road and expressway/highway with toll. For suburban road, without a speed limit road sign, the default speed limit is 90km/hr. For highway, speed limit is between 90-110km/hr. In Malaysia, driving lane is on the left and driver seat is on the right hand side of the car.

Paying for toll

When you reach a toll at the expressway/highway, there are few types of payment lanes. For instance, cash ("Tunai" in Malay), Touch N Go and Smart Tag. Touch N GO is a prepaid card used for most of the transportation payment in Malaysia. And Smart Tag, is just using Touch N Go with a device where you don't need to stop by the toll and swipe the card for payment manually. With the special device, Touch N Go card is scanned automatically when your car pass by the toll. So, for most of you, who is foreigner, the "tunai" lane should be your choice.

Car parking

Typically, there are two types of car park meters in Ipoh. Firstly, individual car park meter, where it placed on each parking slot. You just need to insert coins and straight away the time started to countdown. Another newer type of car park meter is a central meter. When you park your car, you can notice the number on the parking slot with an arrow. You just need to follow the arrow (left or right) to the central car park meter. And then press the car park slot number on the touch screen, you will get to see the remaining parking time for that particular parking slot, and you can insert coins for parking now.

Start from 1st of September 2006, new parking payment system is adopted, which is the coupon system. Places where you can see a red signboard with a blue-white "P" logo, you need to pay for parking even though there is no car park meter around. The old individual car park meter will be removed step by step. But the new central car park meter will be reserved. So, when there is a central car park meter, you can choose either to use the meter or the coupon system.

There are 3 types of coupon: 1) the yellow coloured coupon is for half an hour parking (30 cents), 5 coupons per set (RM1.50); 2) the red coloured coupon is for an hour parking (60 cents), 5 coupons per set (RM3.00); 3) the blue coloured coupon is for a whole day parking (RM4), 5 coupons per set (RM20.00). You can buy these coupons at places act as agents, such as grocery store, handphone store, comic store, traditional medicinal meterials store, restaurant etc.

There are 5 columns that you have to scratch in order to use the parking coupon correctly.

First, you need to scratch for the year, month and day of the parking day. Next, you need to scratch the columns of hour and minute, which represent the time you started to park your car.

After this, remember to put the coupon on the dashboard, where it can be easily spotted by the authorities. And you're done now!

What time should you pay for parking? You should make sure to pay for public parking from Monday to Saturday, 8am until 6pm. Sunday and public holidays are free parking.

On some occasions, for example when you go for bean sprout chicken at the Low Wong Restaurant at night, it should be free parking, but there will be some Indian guys around, sort of taking care of the car parking. They will ask for some money, and it is advisable to pay 20 cents to RM1. Although their activity is illegal but just to get yourself out of trouble such as get some scratches on your car etc.

Petrol Station

All petrol stations are self service, except few at those small villages. You need to pay at the counter before you can pump up your car with petrol. The standard pricing through out the peninsular of Malaysia for RON petrol 97 is 192 cents per liter, RON petrol 92 is 188 cents per liter and diesel is 158.1 cents per liter.

Road sign

Finally, it's about the road sign. All of the road signs are in Malay language. So, some examples are shown below for your reference:

AWAS	Caution
BERHENTI	Stop
BERI LALUAN	Give Way
GUNAKAN GEAR RENDAH	Use Low Gear
IKUT KIRI KECUALI MEMOTONG	Keep Left Unless Overtaking
JALAN	Road
JALAN SEHALA	One Way
KAWASAN KEMALANGAN	Accident Area
KAWASAN REHAT	Rest Area
KECEMASAN	Emergency
KENDERAAN BERAT SILA IKUT KIRI	Heavy Vehicle, Please Keep Left
KURANGKAN LAJU	Reduce Speed
LEBUH RAYA	Expressway/Highway
PEMBINAAN DI HADAPAN	Construction Ahead
PERLAHAN	Slow Down
SIMPANG KE	Junction to
SUSUR KELUAR KE	Exit to
TEROWONG	Tunnel
ZON HAD LAJU DI HADAPAN	Speed Limit Zone Ahead

Road signs are in different color schemes for different meanings/purposes. Green color for expressway/highway usage. Blue color for federal/state/municipal road usage. Orange color for road contructions/safety usage.

Other alerts

Talking on handphone (mobile phone) while you are driving is illegal in Malaysia. However, it is legal if you use a handfree.

Just for your information (although it is not about driving), there is no specific rule that you need to follow when you want to go for cycling, except the basic traffic rules. Neither license nor safety wears required.