Uber Challenge | One Week with uberX PriceCut

So Uber introduced PriceCut with uberX last month, the base fare got even lower than before!

You can read more about it here.

Few weeks back, I told you guys that I took up the Uber Challenge where
I was given RM300 credit to ride with Uber for a week.

To be honest, I was a little suspicious of the entire mechanism and wasn't entirely convinced that 

the credit given was sufficient for me looking at the amount I travel.

So after 205.38km and 29 trips in a week, I spent RM292.78.

I still have RM7 left! It was quite unbelievable for me as the first trip I took was all the way to Sungai Petani!

Before I jumped into my one week experience with uberX,
I thought it would be helpful if I talk a little bit of what I do for a living.

I hardly share my personal stuff here because... I don't know, I don't see a need to. Anyway,

I was a reporter with a local newspaper. I said "was" because I resigned and am no longer with the company.

As a reporter, I had to travel to places for assignments mostly in town area.

One of the biggest headaches I have would be looking for a space to park my car.

Dear all Penangites, I'm sure you understand this. 

So after I bersusah payah found a parking space, I had to follow the stupidest system ever -

scratching parking coupons. All these things that may seem tiny but they ended up taking a lot of time,

which sometimes I ended up being late to my assignments and missing what our dear chief minister said.

Now that you have a clearer picture of my daily routine, here are some of the highlights of my experience.

I'm not going to talk about all 29 trips that I took cause it's boring!

The challenge started on a Saturday, a day before Thaipusam so there was jam everywhere.

The day before, I planned an interview in Sungai Petani, and genius me didn't know that the place is all the way in
Kedah. I failed my Geography(actually I'm ignorant), don't judge. So anyway,

I tried my luck to look for a Uber car from my home in Jelutong to SP, and surprise surprise,
there was actually a car willing to travel all the way there!

What's even more surprising? The one-way trip was RM48.26 only!! 

If you can't imagine how much cheap that is, in Penang, RM50 can only get you from town to airport by taxi.

However, there is no Uber in Kedah at the moment but a ride with Rapid is only RM4 and RM1.20 for ferry that brings you from the Butterworth terminal to Weld Quay, super cheap and convenient.

It was Thaipusam the next day and I was assigned to write about the festival at the Waterfall Temple.

The roads were blocked and everywhere was congested. Lucky lucky me cause I have my Uber driver and he used short-cuts cutting through the road blocks and dropped me right at the entrance of the temple *tear of joy*

My morning was blissful without having to look for parking, park very far away and yes, no need to scratch parking coupons and not having to take the risk of getting summons for illegal parking.

From left: Mikael Ong from NST, Air Asia's Communications Sarah Chong, 

Johnshen from Pocketnews and my now ex-colleague Sayuti.

Went to the airport on Monday to cover AirAsia's launch of inaugural direct flight from Ho Chi Minh.

Skipped the hassle to look for parking at the airport and no need to pay RM7 for parking fee.

 I slept in the car all the way until I got home hehe.

Did a survey on Chinese New Year decorations prices in George Town on Tuesday.

I asked my driver to drop me at Carnarvon Street and I took my time to walk

down to Kimberly street for the survey. I had a really fun time doing that

especially not having to worry that I didn't scratch enough parking coupons

and having to walk all the way back to my car if I were to drive.

Furthermore, walking is considered working out (to me) so yay to healthier me!

Over the week, I've met so many drivers from different backgrounds and professions

and I really enjoyed talking to them although most of the time I ended up talking about myself.

The rides also allowed me to get many things done including making calls(work, not gossiping) 

and replying messages. Most importantly, I could take a nap during my ride which I needed very much.

And here's something that made me laughed out loud:

It was two days after the Uber Challenge and also my last day of work, I was assigned to cover

the Chinese orchestra competition at Gurney Plaza. It was a Sunday, the shopping mall was

crowded, hence hard to find parking and the parking fee is like triple the amount during the weekdays.

So after I requested a driver, I thought the girl I saw on the screen was familiar,

guess who?

She's the one on the right, my high school best friend Lee Min! 

 It was such a funny encounter, she was surprised to see me and a selfie was a must
as we haven't seen each other since babe Eunice's wedding last May. Ahh life!

So, in a nutshell, uberX Price Cut helps you to 

- Save time to look for parking

- Save money from paying for parking

- Save data and battery from looking at Waze

- Save you from the risk of banging into cars or things while looking at Waze

- Get more sleep

- Get time to reply messages

- The opportunity to bump into your friends and reconnect with them

Thank you Uber for such great experience!

If you haven't already, download Uber for iPhone here and Android here 

For new users, key in my promo code SILLYPG for a free ride worth RM20,

To know about Uber, visit their website

https://www.uber.com/