I am very sure that you meet all sorts of cabbies on the road. Cabbies of different shapes and sizes and of course, different colour. I'm rather surprised to see that the malay cabbies I meet are actually the ones who are more friendly and hold up to their good service. I seldom get these kind of good service from chinese cabbies. Not all, just some are friendly.
You meet cabbies who are friendly, 'dao', irritating, annoying, nice, arrogant, talkative and blah blah blah. The list can go on for as long as you want.
Let me see... I've met very weird cabbies indeed. These are some of the cab-experiences I had.
Cabbies who talk too much.
Some cabbies can never keep their mouth shut. They keep on talking and talking as if I was very interested. But out of politeness, I either smile or laugh a little as my form of reply, hoping that they get my hint. Obviously, some of them didn't get it. I had this cabby who talked to me about his son, who coincidentally was in NP also. He was telling me that his son is so hardworking and stuff. He sounded as if he was trying to advertise his son or something. Another cabby talked to me about demand and supply. Ok, I know I've learned about microeconomics and macroeconomics plus all that demand and supply thingy and I HATE IT! Stop talking to me about econs will ya?
On the contrary, cabbies who never talk at all.
I quite appreciate these cabbies but then it's kinda rude to ignore your passengers. Don't want to talk, fine. But not to the extent of ignoring. And please put on a smile at least. Let's see the next type.
Cabbies who get lost, or goes the wrong way.
There was once I boarded this Smart Cab. It was a lady driver. I was very late for work already. The moment I told her where I wanted to go (which was Orchard Road, Takashimaya), she called her friend and started a chit-chat session! So I was sitting behind and listening to her and her friend chat. She was driving at a less than normal speed which made me rather impatient. Never mind to that. The worse was she went the wrong way! From Bukit Panjang to Orchard, you can drive to BKE then PIE (City) then I get to town already. She took PIE to CHANGI AIRPORT!!! I was damn shocked man! Then I politely, but with impatience, asked her where she was going. She told her phone-friend to hold on, and apologised to me, saying she missed the PIE (City) and that she will deduct from the meter. Obviously she doesn't know her way around Orchard Road cos when I told her to alight me at Hotel Meritus Mandarin but she alighted me outside, by the roadside where its fenced up! The cab fare came up to $14++ inclusive of ERP. She had the cheek to charge me $12! I was so damn pissed and fucking late I couldn't bother about arguing anymore. In the end I threw the money to her and left. From then on, I never took another "smart" cab.
This cabby asked me to help him sms his friend, asking whether want to eat kfc. Of course sms with his own handphone la. I wouldn't bother if he asked me to use my phone to send to a person I don't know. This very nice uncle at first was just talking to me, and sms-ing his friend at the same time. Then he asked me to help him do the sms-ing cos he wanted to drive safely. I kindly agreed. Then when he said, "Eh.. U help me ask 'wan to eat kfc?' " I was like "huh?" You know what I mean?
Some cabbies never know how bad their driving skills are. Some cabbies drive their taxis until I feel like I'm at a theme park sitting on rollar coasters. You hit bumps everywhere. This reminded me of how my Dad used to drive. I haven't taken any driving lessons yet but I'm sure when you accelerate, you keep your foot steady on the acceleration. For my dad and some cabbies, they step and let go, step and let go. Can imagine? Can you already feel the bumpiness?
Cabbies who give discounts. I like these cabbies the best! Especially when I'm damn broke for the week. They are one of the loveliest people on this earth.
Cabbies who don't give discounts. Worse still, they get tips out of the cab fare. Example, your cab fare (inclusive of midnight charge) is $12.75, you give a 20-dollar bill. You should get back $7.25. But instead you get back $7. How unreasonable for these cabbies to 'swallow' the money like that? So what if it is just 25 cents? Also money ok?
I think that's about it la. Can't think of anything else. If you can think of other types, leave a comment to share la. Everybody can laugh over it together. Lol.
