There are ways and means of doing things. Smacking women around is not one of those ways, regardless of the situation.
I find most taxi drivers here to be the scum of the earth. I saw an accident last night where a taxi hit an old lady on a scooter and sent her flying across the road for about 20 feet. He calmly got out, walked to the front of his car, inspected the damage, got back in and drove off.
Bastards.[/quote]
Is there not deep oceans and concrete shoe’s to take care off skum like this?
I take a long time to close the door if I am not sure about getting into a taxi. If they start the meter before I close it, then it’s on them because technically, I’m not in the car if I have one foot on the road.
Great story Sandman. I hope that taxi driver got what he deserved.
If it’s gibbering you want, next time try sucking your thumb. Not with waiflike innocence, but with all the intensity of faux-fellatio. After a coupla-three in-out in-outs, drizzle forth a wee gob of sticky sweet saliva and let it drool lazily over your lower lip.
You’ll have all the gibbering you can handle.
As for the OP, next time, pay the guy. I remember some street guy asking some patio girls for a donation to his cause and instead of politely turning him down, or actually giving him the coin, they threw dirt from a nearby potted plant at him. He came back with a brick and sent the entire patio scattering. When he returned a 2nd time with a broken whiskey bottle, I’ll bet those girls had wished they’d 1/4 bucked up.
Now, do those girls deserve a smack upside the head? If a guy deserves violent behaviour for being an ass, why not some stunned cunts?
I was going to ignore it but curiousity got the better of me… what the heck does “swirling the ice around the glass pipe” mean?
[quote=“sandman”] He couldn’t have weighed more than 120 pounds, either – a real skinny wee runt of a man. I managed to catch his eye and made a “swirling the ice around the glass pipe” motion with my hands. You can ask anyone there – he actually started to gibber. First time I’ve actually ever heard anyone really gibber.
I really think he might have been “on” something, I really do. 
[/quote]
Little skinny guy - paranoia - he’s been on “something” for a decade or so.
I was going to ignore it but curiousity got the better of me… what the heck does “swirling the ice around the glass pipe” mean?[/quote]
I had the same thought. At first I was thinking along the lines of warming Cognac in a big glass, but then I adjusted the motion and it would appear to be some kind of Scottish wanking gesture. You see, a real Scotsman probably doesn’t add ice to his whiskey, and anyone that does, well they’d be a wanker. Just a thought.
HG
But what’s with the “pipe”? Or is that a scots’ term that led HGC to think, “wanking”?
Taxis are dangerous for unescorted females. More than two-thirds of taxi drivers have criminal records (what else can ex-cons do?) and there have been many cases of unescorted women killed by drivers. The driver may also be a thug sizing up your home for a crime – try and avoid being dropped off directly in front of your house.
If you can, establish a relationship with a taxi company. Their drivers are usually a cut above.
[quote=“orioncity”]Taxis are dangerous for unescorted females. More than two-thirds of taxi drivers have criminal records (what else can ex-cons do?) and there have been many cases of unescorted women killed by drivers. The driver may also be a thug sizing up your home for a crime – try and avoid being dropped off directly in front of your house.
If you can, establish a relationship with a taxi company. Their drivers are usually a cut above.[/quote]
Source? Oh that’s right, Michael Turton’s website cough.
Actually Llary, that fact has been established before via govt. figures. I forget the source now, but I have seen stats to back this up. I recall the numbers came up about 10 years ago when it became a matter of note that a disproportionate number of kidnappings and robberies were committed with a taxi involved somewhere as a getaway vehicle etc., and there was some discussion then about vetting the applicants for licenses. Of course nothing came of that.
Oh, and something like 80% of the drivers that have been incarcerated were in for violent crimes.
[quote]
Look at it from the taxi driver’s point of view. He has to sit around all night waiting for people to pick up. It’s his job. Some person hails his taxi, so he stops to get a fare. Then the person jumps out and goes to a store to pick up some stuff. The taxi driver waits around, waiting for the person to get back in so he can take her to her home. But surprisingly, the person says, “No, I’m just going walk, changed my mind, ta ta!” The taxi driver is like, “I’ve just wasted 15 minutes of my professional time waiting around for you, and you blow me off because you are too flighty. The very least you could do is compensate me for my wasted time, on a busy night when I could have been picking up dozens of other customers.” Customer refuses to compensates taxi driver for wasting his time. Taxi driver gets mad and demands his compensation.
Message: don’t try and stiff people. Pay people what you owe them. 70 Nt is nothing to you, but to a real working person, it’s actually quite a bit of money.[/quote]
So, you are claiming that this assault was justified??? Bullshit. If this is the case, I have justification for summary execution of a HELL of a lot of people in Miaoli county 
.
[quote=“Quentin”]No, it doesn’t justify the violence.
But let’s say a customer walks into your restaurant, orders some food, takes a bite, then walks out without paying.[/quote]
That’s exactly what happens in Miaoli county quite often with English students .
[quote]
That reminds me of last Saturday on the corner of Jianguo and Heping. Broad daylight, lunchtime, busy. Taxi swerves across from the outside to the inside lane at the last second with no signal, to make a right at the intersection, sideswipes an old woman on a scooter who was trying to go straight ahead in a totally legal fashion. Taxi driver stops, examines his car for damage, makes to get back in, ignoring the woman on the ground. Other drivers and pedestrians immediately grab him bodily. The hit woman is on her feet now, shaken and dazed but apparently unhurt. Taxi driver, still held by the arms by three or four people, starts lunging at the woman, bracing himself against his captors and lashing out with both feet, but he’s not close enough. His fare, realizing no doubt that her driver is a psycho, gets out of the cab and makes to walk off. Taxi driver makes a break for her, does his flying kick thing again, but catches her square in the back and sends her flying. By this time there are a whole bunch of people holding him and they’ve got him on the ground, guys sitting on him, the whole bit, while he’s raving, practically frothing at the mouth.
He couldn’t have weighed more than 120 pounds, either – a real skinny wee runt of a man. I managed to catch his eye and made a “swirling the ice around the glass pipe” motion with my hands. You can ask anyone there – he actually started to gibber. First time I’ve actually ever heard anyone really gibber.
I really think he might have been “on” something, I really do. 
[/quote]
I sincerely hope that this happens where I can see it sometime. The taxi driver would have gotten to be VERY good friends with his plastic surgeon .
I was going to ignore it but curiousity got the better of me… what the heck does “swirling the ice around the glass pipe” mean?[/quote]
I had the same thought. At first I was thinking along the lines of warming Cognac in a big glass, but then I adjusted the motion and it would appear to be some kind of Scottish wanking gesture. You see, a real Scotsman probably doesn’t add ice to his whiskey, and anyone that does, well they’d be a wanker. Just a thought.
HG[/quote]
I’m guessing that Sandy was asking if he wanted to buy some speed.
Some of the things you guys have witnessed sound just CRAZY! I’ve been here over a decade but I just never see any real whacked out stuff go on, let alone any real bad accidents. I guess that is a good thing, but it does sound entertaining.
Years ago, I had a cab follow me and my buddie in around Shr-Da Rd after I smacked gently the back of his car as he cut us off walking across Roosevelt Rd on a pedestrian crossing. He followed up behind us and so I approached his window and after discussing the slapping the car and cutting us off situation to no conclusion, I asked him ‘if he wanted to fuck with us’. He responded by trying to speak English back and said ‘you wanna fuck me?’. My friend and I burst out laughing and slowly sauntered off. Cabbie was pissed, so we got the hell out of the neighborhood because as some of you have pointed out, they do get on their little radios and call for ‘friends’.
By the way, at what point are you obliged to pay the NT$70? Does the cab have to start moving? What?
Once you are into the car and he gets the meter on, I would say.
In China, they usually wait starting the meter until the car has actually started moving.
I’ve had the meter on the minute I opened the door… and my ass isn’t yet in the seat :s
Notice quite a number of new taxi cab companies formed in the past month or so.
Wasn’t there someone murdered over the weekend by a taxi driver?
A little bit of road rage ending with a stabbing - the taxi driver had just been relaesed from jail because he assualted a passenger. He just got a new taxi and a new licence and he was back on the street in no time.
[quote=“Dangermouse”]Wasn’t there someone murdered over the weekend by a taxi driver?
A little bit of road rage ending with a stabbing - the taxi driver had just been relaesed from jail because he assualted a passenger. He just got a new taxi and a new licence and he was back on the street in no time.[/quote]Yes. The story I got from the news (and we all know what that’s worth) was that he and another car had a standoff in a narrow lane. Neither he nor the other guy was willing to back up, and words were exchanged. The cabbie then got a cane knife or machete out and hacked the other driver to death. Have a nice day and all that. 
I didn’t get the just released part, thanks for the background info.