Barely a week into school and I’m already into trouble. *smirk* On Wednesday afternoon, I went to The Spring after class to buy myself some treats. It was suppose to be a quick one: in and out under 5 minutes. So being a stingy person I am, I decided to take the risk to park on the yellow line (read illegal) instead of paying the RM1 parking fee or the free parking beside the complex which I didn’t know was still valid. So as if it was destined, there’s a JPJ summons at my windshield wiper after my 5-minute-errand.

I panicked, fearing it could take away my driving license. However, it was proven to be a minor offence once I checked my dusty driving textbook. At least there’s a use for it. According to the book, there’s no demerit points in the offence, just a hefty RM200 fine. Well, that’s one problem solved. Now, how am I going to go to the JPJ office in a place that I’m not familiar of? FYI the Kuching City JPJ office is located at Mile 12, on the way to Serian. Yes, that’s right. For some reason the government decided NOT to put it INSIDE the city, but far away in the countryside.

The next day, I pestered Joseph to accompany me. Initially we went to the nearby Central Police Station to try our luck. However, they don’t accept JPJ summon so it’s “field trip” time as I called it. Luckily Joseph’s sister was around the area to guide us to the JPJ office as both of us didn’t know the way there. Thus began our trip Harold-and-Kumar-style, minus (most of) the mayhem.

Surprisingly it’s a pretty straightforward trip though I can only remember the trip back (a straight 8 miles to Boulevard-Third Mile). A trip that was filled with dust and lorries. It was quite an “educational” trip as I finally knew where Kuching Sentral and Kuching City Mall are. New roads are being build and upgraded. The towns that we past through have spanking new shophouses. It’s different from I had seen years ago. Eye opening I could say.

We went through town after town. It wasn’t as remote as I hope it would be. Maybe Kuching is seriously developing. Anyway we got to the JPJ office which is located at the fringe of the countryside after 25 minutes drive. I paid my fine in about 10 minutes (almost no people in the summons area). Luckily the officers there were friendly (which eased me tremendously).

Fine paid and I was happy. So when I exited the JPJ compound I made a mistake of driving at the opposite direction of the road! Lucky again, Joseph spotted the mistake early and there was no traffic on the road at that time. Imagine what would happen if I was to be spotted by the JPJ officers, right beside their complex! Turned out that the road was a two-way in the old days. The old sign wasn’t rid off properly which caused the “near fatal” incident. Remember, it’s left-turn when exiting the JPJ complex, not right! There’s a U-turn further along the road which will take you the the main road.

So we head back to Kuching, straight all the way to Boulevard and exiting at the Third Mile roundabout. FYI we went to 12th Mile from Simpang Tiga which needed some turnings. Next time, if you got a summons from JPJ or license issues to deal with, just use the 4th Mile/Boulevard route and go STRAIGHT to 12th Mile. You’ll see a town sign with the huge 10th Mile words before reaching the destination. It’s the same route to reach Serian.

I paid RM80 for illegal parking offence, a far cry from the RM200 fine stated in the textbook. However the fine for speeding offence is still RM300, no change. Joseph’s relative got it so don’t take it with a pinch of salt.

Pardon me with the LONG post. This is a chapter in life not to be forgotten: my first “serious” traffic summons and the nice “educational field trip”. There are some helpful tips here too for the crucial just-in-case situations involving JPJ.