Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Day 1 -The power of taxi drivers

wow its been 1.5 years since my last travel blog in china. hopefully there'll be more weird and wonderful experiences to share from this trip. unfortunately no pics from the first day, but pics will be attached in later posts.

Took a taxi from bangkok airport to my hotel in the city. Driver didn't speak much english but at least the taxi co-ordinator was able to tell him where to take me.

As we made our way down the freeway that feeling of exhilaration came over me again, of being in a completely foreign environment where everything was different and re-freshing. Green lighted trucks, red flashing lights on highrises, lines of lit buddhist statues lining the freeway, all things fascinated me. And being asia theres that additional element of chaos and disorder that adds to the excitement - erratic drivers, the massive gas canister in the back of the taxi, underpaying the tollbooth operator and having to reverse 20 meters to fix your mistake!

We then drove off the main freeway and into a small side street. This is when exhilaration made way for concern. There was little light outside, piles of garbage along the roadside, shady looking men sittin in chairs, and stray dogs roaming about. It was at this point that i realized the power taxi drivers held. Usually being the first citizens of a foreign country you encounter, the tourist is at his/her most vulnerable, and completely at the mercy of the taxi driver. I thought, hmmm if this guy is dishonest and decides to drop me off right here i'm pretty much screwed. disorientated, no working sim card, yep i'm right stuffed. fortunately though we soon came back onto a main rd and arrived at the hotel.

There was a bit of confusion with the taxi fare. I gave enough money to cover the reading displayed on the meter but i hadn't realized i was meant to add the airport surcharge, and the two toll fees he paid. He kept repeating 'fifty', each time growing more and more irritated. i thought he wanted smaller change but he actually wanted another 50 baht. after we got that cleared up he just took the money, grumbled somethng under his breath and took up. not a good start to acquainting with the locals!

1 comment:

  1. Brings me back to Thailand all over again =) In our case, we were dropped off by the taxi driver at some random place far away from we were meant to be... & on a separate ocassion, did walk through a side street lined with a great number of hungry looking stray dogs close to midnight... I barely dared to breathe & had to muster up all the self control I had to stop myself from bolting down that street (apparently dogs like to chase running targets).

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