Will anyone insure me please?

2 January 2009

The plan for the day was as follows, quickly find an insurer, get the infamous ICP(International Circulation Permit) from the Malaysian Government Roads and Transportation department, and then go to the port to get the car out. It sounded pretty easy, so i set off while MC stayed at the hostel to rest from the cold she caught the other day.

I set off to the UniAsia insurance office, which was a short Monorail ride away. I had read online that another person travelling overland with his car had used them for the insurance. Well,at the office, every person that saw the carnet they looked a bit puzzled and passed it on to next. Finally, they decided that they couldn’t do anything for me. I was thrilled. They suggested a tiny insurance company next door, they thought that they might help me.

I went and checked it out, and there was one young lady that was working the counter and about a dozen of people waiting to be served. As nothing had changed in the 10 minutes I spent there, I decided to move on. My next idea was to go see the Malaysian Automobile Club (AAM). They issued carnets, so they must be familiar with the process, and might be able to point me in the right direction.

I was thrilled to hear that, in fact, they would be able to insure me, and issue the ICP at the same time as well. YAY! The bad news was, i wasn’t at the right office. I had to go across town. Oh well, at least i could get everything done there.

By the time I got to the main AAM office, it was already 12:15. I talked to the lady, she knew what I was going on about straight away, and I handed over my documents. She seemed puzzled that i didn’t have any registration papers for the car, and I insisted that the carnet was proof of registration itself, as they wouldn’t issue it if it wasn’t registered. She got on the phone, started chatting away, and then passed the receiver to me. The guy on the other side was the manager. He insisted that I needed registration papers, as I needed to prove that the car was in my name, and the carnet itself can apparently be issued to anyone, not just the owner. I was still trying to cling on to my logic, but the manager would have none of it. He did offer to call Peppina (the carnet officer in Australia) to confirm that the car was mine, but he wouldn’t be able to do that until 3 o’clock because he was away. That was in 2 and a half hours. I said that was fine, I was going to sit in the office until then. I had nothing better to do, as i planned to go straight to the port after that!

I feel like I’m going on a long boring rant here, but, in the end, I got what we needed, after a little help from the AAM people, but by then it was 5 o’clock, and it was way too late to start things rolling at the port. Oh well, it’ll have to wait until tommorow.

I went back home, had some dinner with MC, had a beer and went to bed!