How to travel smart
10 things you should know about Malaysia
Planning your family trip

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Your holiday fun starts with a smooth flight. We have a few tips to help you travels smart.

Depending on your complete itinerary, try to travel with the minimal amount of baggage. If you can travel light, the ease of going through the airport, traveling with your baggage will be make your travels much more enjoyable. Yes, packing light is a skill but worth the effort. Anything bulkier than your backpack or carry-on should be left out if you want to try this out. Think how long your holiday trip is and the number of times you will change your clothes. Simplify. Take only what you need, and plan to dress comfortably. Dress down, since you are unlikely to attend a Cannes Film Festival awards night.

Arrive early. The golden rule is to get to the airport two hours early for domestic check-in and two and one-half hours for international flights. When you are at the airport ahead of time, you can double-check your bag, make calls to friends and family, and relax before boarding.

Know airport and airline rules, which can vary from facility to facility. Know which rules are in place at your point of departure, and read and understand pertinent information such as e-ticket and airport announcements.

Know where you are and where you need to go. Check the flight boards regularly, locate your gate, and do not hesitate to ask airport personnel if you need help locating something.
Keep your identification and boarding pass easily accessible at all times. You will need both from the time you check in until you board the plane. So you do not lose them, insert them in a book or magazine you are reading. Again, read your boarding pass before boarding the plane.
Keep your cool. If the “D” word (delay) happens because of a lengthy security check, tell yourself it is for your own good. Putting on an attitude and ridiculing airport management can annoy other passengers. Neither should you comment about bombs nor terrorists in an already tense situation, as those are very sensitive issues in airport security.

Be kind and polite to airline staff and fellow passengers. Keep in mind that the flight attendants are doing their best to make your flight as comfortable as possible. If you believe you complaint is legitimate, state it politely.

Occupy yourself. It can be painfully boring on a long-haul flight if all you do is sit and stare at nothing in particular. Get your brain cells working by reading a book or magazine.
Get up and stretch once in a while. Drink water or juice on the plane: The recycled air in the cabin can cause dehydration, so avoid drinks with too much caffeine like coffee and colas.

If you sleep on a long flight, try to wake up about an hour before arrival and wash your face in the bathroom. You will feel much more refreshed and presentable when you disembark.

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10 things you should know about Malaysia

1.Currency

The unit of currency is the Malaysian Ringgit indicated as RM, which is equivalent to 100 cents. Coins are issued in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 sen and RM1. Currency notes are in RM1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. Foreign currency and traveler's checks can be converted to Malaysian Ringgit at banks or authorized money changers throughout the country.

2. Airport Tax

An airport tax of RM5 and RM40 is charged upon departure for all domestic and international flight passengers respectively.

3. Telephone

Local calls can be made from public phones, whether coin or card operated. International calls can be made from phone booths with card phone facilities or at any Telecom offices. Most hotels are equipped with IDD services with a minimal service charge. - Useful Phone Directory

4. Tourist Police

Visitors who encounter unforeseen problems and difficulties can seek the Malaysian Tourist Police Unit for assistance. They often patrol tourist spots and will render assistance, as well as safeguard tourists' security.

5. Business Hours

The country runs on a normal eight hours a day system with Saturday as half day and Sunday as a day of rest. In the states of Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah, Friday is a day of rest with Thursday as half days. Department Stores and supermarkets are open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

6. Tipping

Tipping is not a way of life in Malaysia, but is fast becoming one.

7. What to Wear

Light, cool, and casual clothing is recommended all year round. For more formal occasions, men should wear jackets, ties, or long-sleeved batik shirts whereas women should wear dresses.

8. Water

It is generally safe to drink water straight from the tap, but it is safer to drink boiled water or bottled beverages.

9. Medical Services

Medical services are available in most towns at government hospitals and private clinics. Non-prescription drugs are available at pharmacies, as well as supermarkets, hotels, and shopping centers.

10. Local Touch

Food hawkers selling traditional and local delicacies make up the everyday scenes in big or small towns throughout the country. One can try "teh tarik", a smoothened, creamed tea, and "roti canai", a fluffy pancake prepared by a local person of Indian Muslim ancestry. Spicy Malay food, such as "nasi lemak" and various kinds of Chinese noodles are also popular. People from all walks of life frequent these food stalls.

As Malaysia is a multi-religious country, various Muslim mosques, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, and Christian churches can be found almost anywhere. Despite the many changes and developments in the cities and big towns, Malaysia has many "kampung" (villages), jungles, beaches, and rice fields. Many houses in the "kampung" are built on stilts. Batik cotton fashion is popular in Malaysia . It can be used for casual wear, as well as formal functions.

NOTE: Drug traffickers are sentenced to death by Malaysian Law.

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How to plan your family trip with kids

1. Attitude is everything: expect problems, go with the flow and everything will work out great. Travel is hard and traveling with kids is even harder. But if you treat your trip like an adventure, annoyances, missteps and mishaps simply become small obstacles for your hearty band of explorers to overcome. Would Indiana Jones get stressed out because the restaurant doesn't have chicken fingers? This applies just as much for parents as for children. If dogs can sense fear, you better believe your seven-year-old can. If you get stressed when you can't find your hotel, your kids will get stressed too. When you think of it as "exploring the neighborhood," everyone will feel better.

2. Things to bring:
Don't forget the drugs. It's always a good idea to travel with some children's medicine (or whatever you prefer) so that you don't have to worry about tracking down a drug store in a strange neighborhood at 11 P.M. Depending on how much space you have, you might want to bring small containers of cough syrup or Claritin as well. Finally, some parents swear by it and some parents detest it, but Benadryl can go a long way. Especially with long flights, giving you child something to help them sleep can make everyone a lot happier.
And definitely don't forget the baby wipes. Even if your kid was out of diapers, baby wipes are invaluable when traveling. As one reader wrote, "You can clean hands, faces, toilet seats, almost anything with them. On a hot day you can even wipe your face & neck with them to cool down a bit."
Other useful items. Kids get dirty, especially when they're traveling. Bring a small container of special travel detergent (the Tide from your garage won't work) so you can use your hotel sink to remove the damage from your child's meatball mishap. Ziplock bags have thousands of uses and take up hardly any space. Bring a variety of sizes if you can. Finally, a small, sturdy nightlight can help turn a scary hotel room into a cozy den.

3. Leave at the right time. If you kids nap, use their schedules to your advantage. For example, if you've got a long car ride, see if you can't leave an hour or so before their nap time. Most kids can entertain themselves for a little while so that buys you some time right there. Once they fall asleep around their normal nap time, you just bought yourself an hour or two of bliss on the way to your destination. This can work for flights as well. If you want to push your luck with this strategy, consider a red-eye flight. You can try to entertain a kid for 6 hours on a daytime flight or you can have them sleep on a flight that leaves at 11 PM. Be warned, however, this is a high-risk, high-return gambit. When executed to perfection, you get on the plane, give your kid his teddy bear and wake up 3,000 miles away. When things go awry, however, you are awake all night enduring glares from the people seated near you and the whole family is transformed into cranky zombies the next day.

4. Getting the most out of your flight.

Do a little pre-planning. I always try to pick good seats. Map out aisles, windows and think about where to place your family. Do you want everyone in the same row or would you really rather spread them out a little.You can get creative here.
Special meals. For the airlines that still serve food, most have Children's meals. They tend to include more kid friendly options and often come with toys or stickers.
Board separately. Lots of airlines have dropped special boarding for families with small children. If that's an option for you, consider using it, especially if there is only one grown-up. But for me, I like to split up the parents to minimize the amount of time you spend on the plane. Keep Mom or Grandpa or whoever in the boarding area until the gate agents physically force you onto the plane. This way your kids can run around and burn energy in the much roomier boarding area than in the 672 square inches they will attempt to occupy for the next four hours.

5. Choose your toys and books wisely. Toys with lots of small, moving parts are bound to end up as vacuum food. "One-trick" toys also take the express train for boredom town. Things like a good set of portable art supplies with crayons, markers and some paper can transform into hours of amusement (or at least distraction). One school of thought is to bring your kids' favorites. If you daughter can play at home with her Barbie Girl for four hours, it's probably a pretty good bet it will entertain her in the car as well. Another school of thought suggests holding toys in reserve for travel. Save a couple of brand-new toys to be dramatically unveiled just when your child is about to meltdown.

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