Worst Cabbing Experience
I believe the post title speaks louder than any words formed in the sentence I’m going to type in. Duh! By the way, this is an overdued post [the event happened in the past].
Since young, I’ve been quite "pampered" in the sense that I don’t travel alone. Or rather, during my adolescent years, before I moved to my new place of residence, my mum would bring us to everywhere we have to go.
So basically I wasn’t a very street smart kid. Or simply put, I became a road directory idiot!
To add to that, I can’t remember when was the first time I took a cab by myself. Travelling in a stranger’s car gives me the jitters, but the feeling’s enhanced even more with cabs. In the past, I would clung on to my seat uneasily, and it was as if every muscle in my body was clenching their fist tightly [this sounds lame!].
I would sit by the edge of the seat, and pray for the journey to be over quickly.
It wasn’t until a million times [of course not! It's an exaggeration to the Taxi Foundation funds I've been contributing to!] before I was more comfortable with travelling in a cab.
Today, I had the pleasure to relive that unforgettable clingy experience, much to my horror, of course. I was at Kallang, and it was pretty late, and the next day was a working day, so I took a cab home.
So one elderly cabbie turned in and stopped when we flagged for it. I’ve had this very ill omen when I saw how the cabbie hesitated to pick me up. Despite our wave to him to explain that it was okay not for him to pick me up but he stopped for a while, and then decided to take me. -.-"
I half-looked back, showing how I was not 100% willing to go off in the cab. But I was "armed" with Mummy’s dinner, so I had to leave early. He did not wind up his window since I boarded the cab. He left a little gap open at his side of the window when we were cruising on the roads.
That was alright, because I supposed anyone would want to have a little breath of fresh air after being cooped up in his cab [his business] for an awful long time - everyday!
So ke kept yawning loudly, with an intermitten melodied yawn now and then. So it was something like "hor..orrh..ooo……yawn yawn yawn…" Ah, heck it. You get the picture? I wished I had taped his "singing" down. Haha…
Halfway through, I could almost sense that he was trying to make conversation, and no, he wasn’t trying to hitch me up or something. "You bought your durians for how much?"
"Ah? You can smell ah? $3 lor," I replied in Singlish, sounding somewhat uninterested.
After a cool 5 minutes or so, he went, "Normally we know what the passengers bring with them, because we can smell it."
So he can double up as a sniffing dog [no offence, to dogs or cabbies!]?
-.-"
I was in cold sweat. No, I meant that figuratively, as I couldn’t take his responses. I had to knit my brows many a time when he spoke.
I forgot to mention how he was either a bit hard on his hearing, or I was a tad too soft. I almost had to scream my lungs [exaggeration] to articulate where I wanted to go. He kept "huh-ing" when I reiterated my answers a few times. -.-"
There was a part when he lamented how he didn’t really like picking up drunk people, because all they do was sleep, and he would be so bored. -.-"
And he apologised [maybe he realised I don't really fancy having small talk with strangers] and tried to speak to me once more, mainly because he wanted to keep himself awake and keep his concentration up.
I had to converse with him, for my own safety. There were myriad times when he cut the other drivers’ lanes and they glared back at him, and he had to raise his hand up in apology. If I were the other drivers, I would have taken his "raised hand" to be something that screamed "nanny nanny boo boo, I’ve cut your lanes, so what?" That’s why I shouldn’t be put on the roads. Heh.
I clung on to my seat in horror. It was the most horrendous cabbing experience. I kept looking out for his license plate number, so I could text someone about it in case anything untoward happened to me. I even had notions of how I should have recorded several of our one-sided conversations!
Vivid imagination, I must say, but when we finally reached, I heaved a sigh of relief, and passed him a $50 note. It was to my expectation that he would ask if I’ve a smaller note. I told him that $12 was all that I have. Actually I had $14 [checked] and some coins. But the fare was $16. He went up to the cab driver in front, and asked if he had change. My cabbie had $31 with him, and was $3 short. And I was reluctant to pay $19 [my $50 minus his $31] for such a bad experience, so I didn’t intiate to pay him $3 extra.
The fellow cabbie didn’t have the change. So my cabbie came back to his cab, and drove me around, when he finally found his change at the 24-hour eatery near my house, he came back, and paid me the balance, and when he was gone, I’ve had evil plans by taking away my $50 note and running away. But it was dumb, because he took my note to exchange for smaller notes. -.-" I’m just kidding on the runaway part. Dark humour, get it?
For a weary, extremely tired white-haired guy, he was indeed quite "active" when he went around looking for cash and leaving me in his cab. Perhaps also ’cause such a awful long distance should cost much more than $12. And I even thought I could use that as an excuse to pay him $12 instead. Evil me. Bleah. So, no luck with that. Hehe.
Finally came home after much detouring, and I was glad that he was a nice taxi driver after all, since he drove me back to the spot which I requested [initially] to be alighted, and when the meter jumped as he continued his drive to look for money, he confirmed with me that it was $16 and not anything more. Actually I think it was $16.40 or something like that.
