The man came out of the driver's seat, opened his car boot and looked at a lady with two luggages just in front of us.
The lady seems to be together with another two persons who were getting onto a taxi. But she's not following them.
The man thought she is taking his cab but she just stood there.
And so we walked toward the man.
Upon seeing us, he walked back to his seat. I loaded our luggages, closed the boot and went into the cab after my cousin.
As my cousin was stepping into the cab, I heard he said "Uncle, Bedok North Road."
Before I could make myself comfortable, the man "shouted" in a loud voice "Go where?"
My cousin was fuming by now and repeated "Bedok North Road."
The driver took off and sped like he is in F1 race. Cutting lanes and overtaking cars in a dangerous manner.
After we got off, my cousin commented, "Not happy such short distance, then don't accept the business."
Oh yah. I've heard that taxi drivers hate passengers from the airport who are going nearby areas. They prefers passengers going to city as they can make more per trip.
But then, they are not allowed to reject customers right? Whether it's true or not, we still meet taxi drivers who refuse to go to our destinations, don't we?
It's really a bad experience, especially coming back to one's own country. And more so after experiencing the good services in Bangkok.
Could it be due to the driver's education level that made him rather crude? Or he met an unreasonable passenger earlier? I doubt so.
If education level is the cause, then I would have expected worse service from Bangkok's taxi driver as they don't even understand basic English. This man is definitely more educated.
During my trip, I took a cab in Bangkok to my hotel from three BTS stations away. The taxi driver don't understand English and cannot speak the language. How I know? He didn't even demand for a fixed rate like what most other drivers do. I said the destination and indicated "meter" and he just nodded his head. He couldn't even ask me which is my hotel as he turned into the soi my hotel was located. He just drove and I just pointed to him to go on.
When we reached, I just said "OK OK."
The fare came up to 56 Baht. We gave him 70 Baht as we do not have 60 Baht.
Although he was expressionless during the whole journey (cos he couldn't communicate with us), he showed us one of thr moat genuine and appreciative smile when we told him to keep the change.
What a great difference in attitude. One is so appreciative of the business while the other acted as if we owed him a living.
What a third world service in a so called first world country.