sounds reli risky to take grab w/o knowing the terrains there...
any advice or tip in getting one safely?
Just came back from batam and i just want to share some experience. If u have read advices from forums you will know that you can only grab *a distance away outside of malls and popular areas. I tried this method and i still had difficulties grabbing due to the red zones where grab taxis cannot reach. On all grabs, i have to walk about 5 mins out of the red zone to meet the grab driver, he will either call u or message u to move to a certain location or simply tell u to cancel booking.
*the trick to get grab is for you to walk to the grab car first before u BOOK instead of booking first and letting the grab driver come to u. This will ensure a smooth pick up.
My advice(5 min before u want to move off)
1. Open grab app
2. Look at the grab cars nearest to u that are not moving(they are waiting for business) they are alot of grab cars not moving
3. U can either manually put ur pick up location just beside the grab car and press book and start walking there. Or. u can walk to the grab car and press book.
4. If ur hotel is Not near a popular area.example allium hotel. Just grab from ur hotel. If u stay at nagoya hill hotel i think u better off doing step 1 to 3.
5. I tried to grab from a hotel once which failed because its still in the red zone where its near a seafood area. So still do step 1 to 3.
Why u want to to do this is because we will never know where is their so called red zones. But the location where the grab cars are located on the grab app, should be free from the zones already.
Good luck and i hope u can grab smoothly like i did as grabing saves alot of money as it is only 90cents sgd everytime within nagogo hill area to seafood areas(choose grab car) . If its much further i think max is about 3 dollars.
Also i suggest NOT to grab when u just arrived at ferry. Just spend that 5 to 8 dollar to reach ur hotel safely as the local taxis are aggressive at the ferry and may even follow u behind because they know u are gonna find a grab.
Cheers