Destinations Magazine

My Travel Bugs: Clueless Taxi Drivers

By Nico @atravellersday
taxi indonesia.jpg

I can speak the language so this shouldn’t be a problem. In fact I’ve got a pretty good idea in which direction we should be headed, because I just talked to my friend on the phone and he gave me some directions. I waive down a taxi and it looks like I’m lucky, the first one to pass me slows down and stops. Excellent, I’m going to be there in no time…

The driver asks me where I want to go and I tell him. He looks a bit confused though, so I check if he actually knows the address. It’s no problem id he doesn’t, I can just jump out and grab another taxi, because I don’t want to pay for the privilege of both of us getting lost together. It’s ok though, he assures me he know the address and he’s been there before; maybe the confusion was just my strange accent, I’ll let it go.

Indonesian Taxi Driver.jpg
Don’t recognize this neighborhood 

We set off, but in a different direction than I expected. Maybe he knows a shortcut that I don’t. I mean he’s told me that he definitely knows the address, so he’s got to know where he’s going surely. I switch off and twenty minutes we’re slowing down to stop. It seems he made good time, we’re about ten minutes faster than I expected, that shortcut saved me quite a bit of time, I’ll have to give him a tip as a thank you.

Indonesian taxi.jpg
No, I’m supposed to get out of the car when we reach the destination not you.

Hang on a minute, where the f@#k are we and why the hell do you need to ask for directions when you assured me that you knew exactly where we were going? So you don’t know where you were going then and you’ve been in this city for how long? Less than two weeks.

Please, if you don’t know where you’re going then just tell your passenger. It will save both you and them time. I’m fed up with taxi drivers pretending they know where they’re going when they don’t have a clue. Being a taxi driver is about more than being able to put a car in first gear. Be honest or try studying a map.


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