It is a heavy burden nowadays to find a decent taxi driver who won’t charge you heaven and earth for a 15-minute ride through the normal rush hour in Kuala Lumpur – weekday or weekend. On second thoughts I should not use the word “decent” when referring to the notorious Malaysian taxi drivers. Quite an idiotic bunch, greedy pirates on wheels racing through busy streets, looking for an unfortunate prey who’s desperate enough to pay insane prices to get home or rushing to the office for an urgent meeting.
To those considering a trip to the city you may as well take the bus or LRT – you will save more and it beats trying to negotiate with the taxi driver who would grin sarcastically as you lose your temper. Yes avoid the road pirates, avoid them like the deadly plague. Less headaches for tourists and locals. Taxi drivers don’t discrimate much, when they know you need (desperately) a ride, they will painfully strangle you out of your cash. Though they do have a fetish for overcharging tourists from the middle east, so if you are not from this region – good!
Remember what I said, avoid the taxi, ignore them as the blink their lights or wave at you. Walk away, do not look back. Head to the nearest bus station. Or else you will regret the experience.
Zashnain
An avid blogger, twitterer and photojournalist, Zashnain Zainal suffers from an incurable addiction to social work, helping marginalised communities since 1989. Nowadays he travels from the plantations of Malaysia to the slums of Thailand. He can be found at zashnain.com and @bedlamfury
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