Taxi Drivers

I’m almost certain that this has been discussed, so mods grant me a break for bringing it up again.

So, let’s talk about your funniest, weirdest,most annoying, or memorable taxi ride.

For me there’s two.

  1. Recently I’ve noticed that if the taxi driver has on a station that has Taiyu, I’m instantly car sick. I don’t know why but that’s been the case.

2)I’ve been taking cabs more often and had a great conversation today. Taxi driver asked if I was lonely because I moved here by myself. Told him, yes, and that I pray often to get thru those periods. He noticed that I smoked. He said to me that “Taiwanese pray with incense for friendship. But I must pray with cigarettes. One puff and then place into the pray bowl.” Great moment with a taxi driver as he proceeded to pull out his pictures of his daughter who is in Beijing(and very beautiful with no boyfriend. Of course the driver prays for this everyday to end.).

Share your great or worst or memorable moment in a cab…

I was in a cab with a very talkative driver. The conversation was all in Chinese - he didn’t speak any English.

He asked me where I was from, and I said San Francisco. Then he asked me if I’ve ever been to California. I said, yes, San Francisco is in California. He was flabbergasted - he thought they were different states. Then he said “Governor Arnold!” Then he asked me what I did. I said “Editing.” He said, “Really? Editing? As in porno movies? Wow! You come to Taiwan to do pornos?” I said, “No, no, no! I edit teaching materials.” He said “You should do pornos.”

We reached the destination, and as I was counting out the change, I realized I didn’t have enough coins to pay the fare, but I did have a $500 note. I told him, and he said “That’s OK. Just give me the change you have in your hand.” (It was about 15 dollars shy of the amount due.)

Interesting ride.

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Another one was a hike we did last year up Guanyinshan. We took a cab to the trailhead. Then the cab driver decided he wanted to join us on the hike. And he did! (He didn’t charge us fo it.) He enjoys hiking but didn’t know about the trail we were planning to hike.

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Then there ws the Jesus Cabbie. He was driving a crappy cab with terrible suspension. His CD player was playing some of the cheesiest Christian pop music, and he kept asking us if we had accepted Jesus into our lives. Fortuntely it was a short ride.

One time I was getting out of the taxi on the way home from the airport, and the taxi driver offered to help me carry my very heavy suitcase up to my 5th floor apartment. I refused his generous offer, and he started off. As I was headed up the stairs, he ran back in (having taken a minute to park, apparently) and insisted on helping me up to the 5th floor, then as I thanked him he did the omitofo thing, and left. :rainbow:

Another time, a taxi driver got a bit lost en route, and upon arrival, offered to charge me only half fare, since he’d failed to take me via a direct and economical route.

Well, interesting reading … my last experience was less funny or interesting, it was smelly … I’m a non smoker and as I got in the cab and before I new what was wrong with this one it was to late to change to another one … it’s as jumping into an ashtray, or maybe he had burned to much ghostmoney in his taxi to keep out bad guanxi?

I used to work up on Yang Ming Shan, and had to taxi up there often, many times late at night.

Once when I went to pay, I realized that my wallet was back in my apartment. The driver not only was going to let me pay him the next day, but was also going to lend me lunch money.

I borrowed the fare from a co-worker, so the guy wouldn’t have to come back up to collect.


When I thought a driver was doing to give me trouble I’d get dropped in a very dark abandoned construction site. I’d smile and say my friends were meeting me.

I’ve had quite a few drivers be nothing but as friendly and helpful as they could be, to the point of getting on their cel phones to find an English speaking buddy, to giving me free Chinese lessons, to only accepting half pay because they didn’t understand where I wanted to go, to parking and finding me in order to bring me my cel phone and wallet.

I’ve only had a couple of semi- bad experiences, one was a bit of an overcharge, and one was an old guy who kicked me out of his cab for some reason. I think he was mad because he didn’t understand where I wanted to go and he couln’t read the business card I gave him. OH well.

I hope this thread grows because so far the stories are funny and cool :bravo:

Chris said

Were you hailing a cab outside a AV store. hehehehe :wink:

During this year’s lent I made it a habit to do my rosary prayers when I walked my dog. So, as I am going out my building’s door, a cab going a bit too fast hits Chocky as he springs out the door. No harm done. Chocky got slightly hit and was shaken. But I was furious because I know the driver saw us emerging from the building and had time to slow down. So, he did stop when he saw the look on my face of “OMG!! You hit my dog”. So, I tapped on his window, he rolled it down, and in broken Chinese I start telling him he hit my dog. Asking him why he wasn’t driving slower…I was really pissed. He just looked at me like “duh?” For some strange reason, I grabbed his taxi license from the dashboard and went looking for my dog who was walking around confused. The driver was now realizing the situation and was apologetic but I was livid because all I could think about is how a lot of taxi drivers just drive without regards to speed and other people on the road.
So, the man is trying to get his license back from me, I get my dog and go into my house with the license. His fare just stood there with a shocked look on her face. Upstairs I’m fuming, and cussing and holding the license in front of my crucifix saying “Lord bless this man”(remember it’s lent and I’m trying to practice the meaning of lent :s :wink: ) I go back downstairs where the driver was waiting because he couldn’t drive without his card. He gets out his cab apologizes a lot and then blames the whole thing on his mouth cancer :noway: He had surgery on his jaw for probably chewing bing lang and keep pointing to it saying that was the reason. I didn’t say anything but just asked him to drive slower for the day and gave him back his card.
I wonder his excuse would fly in the US should I get pulled over? :laughing:

A couple years back, I was in the South of Taiwan, got in a cab and immediately smelled the distinct ‘beetle nut’ odour. The smell was stronger than normal, since not only was the driver chewing profusively, but he had an overflowing paper cup of leftover beetle nuts & thick residue stuck in the center cup-holder between the seats.

And it was definitely overflowing, dripping into a small puddle under the seats. I was with a friend at the time, and we both eyed that overflowing liquid with anxiety. Since, whenever we climbed a hill, the puddle mixture flowed backwards and we had to lift our feet to avoid it. Yummy. In any case, my friend and I were laughing when we left that cab, happy to avoid any sticky encounters.