RE: beginner needs a pro advise...plz help
depends what you want nitro or electric. Also if you want 2wd or 4wd.
Seeing the Hobby shop is so far I'd probably stick electric in your case (I know in some parts of the globe nitro is not very easy to get)
Tamiya makes some good lower cost vehicles. other than them you probably would be looking at a bit more cash.
Also for batteries go to hobbyking.com. they ship from hongkong and have batteries and chargers insanely cheap(and there pretty good quality).