Taxi drivers all over the world, but as i’m in Bangkok currently, WTF is wrong with them……
Now, any job that i have done, I have duties to do, and these get done <or not>, but they don’t get ignored, or i don’t point blank refuse to accept them.
Now, with taxi drivers, there seem to be four types <or maybe one type and it depends on the time of day/the amount of traffic/if they are on their period!>, the first type stops, you tell them where you want to go and they refuse and drive off, Now you may think, maybe you where going to far, to much traffic, well, no….We have tried short/middle and long distances at all times of the day, there doesn’t seem to be a correlation. I’m not really sure why they stop, as i’m 100% sure they had mai in their head all the time <mai=no>
The second type is the one that accepts the job <shock horror>, but really doesn’t understand where you are going in the first place <or they say they don’t>, but he drives off all confidant and then after a short time has to ask you about 50 times where exactly he needs to go, and we are never going to out of the way, obscure places. This type is just frustrating, but you get there in the end.
The third are the worst of all, they know where you are going, and they also know they are going to take you down an alternate route cause the way there is blocked/one way etc, a few times we have been taken on short detours, they don’t add much to the fare, say 10-20 baht, but they take time, normally through thick traffic, inevitably, as we know our way around, these guys get the exact fare as its on the meter, no tip, as they used that up taking as on their detour. And before you think it’s cause we are farang <non-Asian foreigner>, this has happened when we have Thai people in the taxi with us, i’m not sure it matters to the drivers. The thing is, if we get in a taxi with driver type four, he drives us, the shortest, fastest route, no fuss, no problems and he gets a tip…..It’s so easy, yet number three of the taxi driver classes is what we end up with 80% of the time….We don’t hold much with these guys, we seem them as lower than scum, another trick of theirs is the “no change” line, and so they give you whatever change they have and try to leave…No mate, not happening, i’ll go get change instead from one of the 100’s of 7/11’s about and you’ll wait while i do it….Of course, make sure the meter has already been switched off…..
We’ll learn these arseholes….Well, now we know the tricks, at least we’ll have some fun…