Saturday, January 29, 2005

FastSlowFastSlowFastSlowFastSlow

There's a general trend, it seems, among taxi drivers. You know exactly what I'm talking about - it's the foot on the accelerator, off the accelerator, on, off, on, off mode of speed control. Apart from minor whiplash, it also causes a not undue amount of motion sickness.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Intro

Actually catching a taxi in KL is quite an experience. I have approximately 10 taxi company numbers stored in my phone, all of which I have called. The usual drill involves phoning the cab co, hanging on for 3-4 minutes and then being told "sorry no cab."

On a good day, the disembodied voice on the other end of the blower will spout a number in an uncomprehensible manner - the number supposedly being that of the cab (the number seldom actually matches).

I have personally waited as long as 2 hours to get a cab - but that was really an exceptional day. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I started phoning at about 2pm. I think succcess finally came around 4:30pm (so, actually, the wait was longer than 2 hours).

On Hari Raya, I simply could not get a cab. Full stop. There just weren't any.

Anyway, the trip this morning was one of the less strange ones I have taken (those who know me well could construe this staement in more than one way). Apart from the driver not actually having the slightest clue where he was - apparently it was the first time he had been to plaza Damas, or even Sri hartamas, for that matter.

There was, however, one quirk with this dude: He insisted on keeping his following distance to a sensible length. Now anyone who has been on the roads in KL will tell you that this is not the norm. In fact I found myself becoming quite frustrated.