So the biggest part of my trip would have had to of been my third day in. I didn’t want to be tied to traveling with my grandparents for my entire time in Singapore, so I’d decided to rent a car. That way I could get around, see some sights, and drop in on the relatives when it was time to visit.
The only problem was that it didn’t pan out quite like this. On my second day renting the car, I got into a crash. Like an idiot I completely forgot they drive on the left when pulling out of the driveway. I checked one way, didn’t think to check the other, and before I’d even properly pulled out I’d run into another car. Fortunately the crash wasn’t worse, it was only dented really. Still it wasn’t too nice having some man shouting at me in Madarin which I couldn’t understand (even thought I got the gist of what he was saying), while I was trying to get his details.
Here’s the kicker though. I’d bought excess insurance for the rental before I left on my brothers insistence (he works for Avis) and if I hadn’t I would have been facing a repair bill of about $700 from my own pocket. So I’m thanking my lucky stars I got that.
Basically the deal was that the car’s insurance, like any insurance, had a threshold to discourage you making claims. So unless the damage was worth over $700 I would have had to pay all of it. Which is a bit of a con, because how much damage can you do to one small car? Anyway, the excess insurance ended up covering this extra cost, so I got away with paying basically just the cost of the excess insurance which was a lifesaver because that would have been the end of my holiday otherwise. If anyone’s interested, I got the excess insurance really cheap from the site rentalcover. I’d really recommend getting excess insurance every time now, based on what I went through.
After that I decided I wouldn’t use a car for the rest of the trip. Singapore’s a pretty small country, and the public transport was enough to get me around (frankly I didn’t want to get back behind the wheel of a car after that, I was so rattled).
