Car Broke Down...

Whew... what a day! My car broke down just now. Thank God I'm able to make it home in good time. But I was exhausted from it.

My car stopped moving halfway through the Kerinchi Link because I was out of gas, almost at the peak of the single lane flyover, going down to the Federal Highway heading towards Klang. To add to the problem, I left my mobile phone at home. So I had to put up the emergency triangle, locked the car, and with an empty gas bottle, took a 1-2 Km hike down the road all the way to the nearest gas station and make a phone call. Kinda dangerous, with all the speeding cars and all.

I managed to walk to the Shell gas station at Jalan Gasing, and called up my fiance to pick me up from the St Francis Xavier Church. She brought her landlady along, because she wasn't sure how to get there. And so, I took over the steering wheel, and drove back to where I left my car(after I filled up a bottle of few Ringgit of petrol). And to my dismay, I saw that my car was gone. Two possibilities, the highway patrols towed my car away, or somebody stole it. Thankfully it was the former. I continued down the road, and find my car at the roadside of the Federal Highway. Probably the patrols towed it there to avoid congestion/collision. Though it's nice to see that our toll fees aren't for waste, it gave me a heart attack just because of their "effective" service. So I filled the tank with the bottle, and we all went home after that, and I bought the landlady some ice-cream for her company.

On the side note: Twice, a good Samaritan stopped by with his bike and offered me a ride, but I declined. Now I have this advice to all you guys out there - If you get good-samaritans on bikes offering you a ride or any help of sorts when your car breaks down, do not take it. Yes, these guys would actually take you to the gas station, or have a look at your engine, and you may feel that this help is heaven-sent. But at the end of it all, they will demand so much money from you for their trouble, it is almost robbery after all. I heard this story from a Sprint personnel, where a dude's car broke down, two Indian guys on bikes stopped by, with this victim's permission opened up the hood to check it out, and after minutes of tinkering and absolutely no resolution at all, those guys rudely demanded RM 100 for simply having a look. Also, it seems that these people actually patrol the highways for situations like this, so that they can make a fast buck. Given the density of vehicles at these parts, chances are that they will come across at least 1-2 vehicular breakdowns a day. Man, I should quit my job right now and join the group.