A long round trip to Muar.

31.8.2016.

As we crossed the long bridge over Muar river at Muar the morning of Tuesday, 30th. August, I remarked to my passangers, these waters have flowed down all the way from Kuala Pilah, my home town !

I had a prior appointment in PJ that afternoon, to see a therapist about my hurt back, but Dekna wanted me to drive her to the Muar Courts for a case, because Hanif had to attend a meeting in Bukit Jalil. She assured me I'd be able to make it to my therapist. She was needed, anyway, because I don't know the location of the address given, and she could use her smartphone to find the place.

True enough, Dekna completed her court work by 10.30 a.m.( a postponement of case, as expected) and after stopping at the famous "343" coffee shop in front of the Muar bus terminal for the famous local coffee, roti kiap, nasi lemak and fresh otak-otak, off we left for PJ. I estimated we'd be there by 1p.m., we'd have a nice lunch somewhere, and then I'd go for my therapy.

I never made it to the therapy.

It rained, heavily most of the way, when driving out of Seremban at 6.25 a.m., all the way to Muar. Turning north to PJ from Muar, it was still wet, and the car radio reported some flood-hit roads in KL and PJ. I thought "don't get caught in any flooded road". What caught me instead was a jammed fuel pump, right in heavy traffic on road PJU 1/45, when the address I was looking for was PJU 1/42.

The car just stopped moving while the engine stuttered, and then stalled. I signal to the SUV behind me to move on, that I was stuck. Immediately I thought it felt like the fuel feed was blocked. It was an old driver's guess, and in the end it was true.

In the mean time I just couldn't let my car sit there in the middle of the junction  blocking all traffic. It was 1 p.m. and there was a CIMB bank right there to add to the midday road chaos I'd just created.

On looking back now, how fortunate it was that I met  human kindness, one  that must be experienced to be truly appreciated. 

There we were, an irritated me, my displeased missus, my flabbergasted Federal Counsel daughter, and my 2-year old hyperactive grand-daughter, all stuck in the car, stuck in the middle of a PJ road, and darn well stuck in the middle of peak hour traffic !

Out of nowhere, a bespectacled, middleaged Chinese man came to my window, and suggested we push the the car to the side of the road. Have you tried to push a stalled car with dead power steering? And this is a 2.8 liter sedan with large 245x45x18 tyres ! And with one not so young though eager  pusher?  Again out of nowhere two Malay guys came, and after pushing the car back and forth, with me struggling with the steering, all three finally managed to get it close to the left curve, out of traffic flow. I got out and thanked all three, but as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared.

There was no way I was going to make the 4 pm appointment, so I called the therapist and told him about my predicament. PJU 1/45 and 1/42 seemed close enough, I said, so maybe I could just walk,   but my would-be therapist assured me it wasn't. For the next 3 hours I made frantic calls for help - from a friend who knows these things (cars etc.), to an unaswering AAM, my No.2 Son in Subang Jaya and one or two other calls. In the meantime, it was fortunate that where we were stuck, there was a goreng pisang stall, so we were able to have our goreng pisang lunch !

Sam was in Shah Alam, but I wasn't very helpful in telling him my exact location. Luckily his wife was with him, and she located my position on her smartphone.   Sam made the necessary contacts, and by about 4.30 pm my car was safely on the haulage lorry to the workshop Sam knows in Kelang, maybe 25  km away. I mention this because these people charge according to car size and distance. The driver asked for RM 280 ! Sam negotiated for RM 250, and Dekna mercifully had the cash to pay for me.

I need to mention another pleasant incident that adds to my appreciation for human kindness. While waiting by the car for the haulage lorry to come, a Chinese guy who parked his car close by came over, maybe because he saw my engine hood up, or maybe because he saw that his was  the same type of car. The thing was, he approached Sam and I, and inquired what the problem was. He then made a call to his regular workshop, which he said was close by, to ask for assistance. Unfortunately, his mechanic was engaged and couldn't help right away. I thanked  the man anyway, and realised how much I've underestimated common decency, and hope to be a better man for it after all this.

As I said earlier, my first guess about the fuel pump was correct. But Ah Huat of M.B.T. Automative Specialist at Bandar Botanic, Klang wasn't guessing. He used his digital diagnosis monitor and made a manual fuel-feeder jet check to confirm this. The required part had to be ordered, and was to be delivered before 8 p.m. (it was 6.30 p.m. then). Fortunately the part came before that, and I was able to start for home at about 7.45 p.m.

This was supposed to be a trip to a therapist in PJ. It became a long round trip to Muar. And it wasn't cheap. Excluding the petrol and the Smart-tag, the goreng pisang and thosai at the restaurant near Ah Huat's workshop, I was poorer by RM 1,020 in the end. But I was richer for the human kindness part of the story.

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