Unusual airport taxi/transport experiences

[p--and--t]

Before travelling to Cape Town I read online (lonely planet and others) under no circumstances catch public transport after dusk and even during the day be extremely careful.

First night in Cape Town at hotel got concierge to organise a taxi for us to go to V&A waterfront for dinner. Less than 30 secs after setting off in the cab realised it stank of alcohol and the driver was veering all over the place and speeding. A white knuckle ride that thankfully did not result in an accident.

Later after dinner and getting quite late wandering around, came around the corner of a hotel and there is a bus station and the first sign I see is for our suburb (amongst others). After the taxi ride and feeling brave, we boarded the bus that pulled up.

A large and quite imposing African driver asks "where to" and we say the name of our hotel. "Sit behind me" he says. The spotlessly clean newish bus that looks better than many in AU cities meanders thru various streets and then along the foreshore and then pulls up seemingly randomly not at a bus stop in a darkish area. The driver turns round and says "you two get off here."

Must have seen the shocked look on our faces when he then continues "cross the road and walk up that street and your hotel is not far on the right, it's getting late and it will be at least another 30mins if you stay on the bus until we get your stop the other side, have a good night "

Take all the the doom and gloom posts and recommendations on the internet with a grain of salt.

 

[Cossie]

Hama to Aleppo in Syria, very small taxi, we picked it up at a taxi station, the driver tried to get two more passengers into the back seat just after leaving the statIon and was annoyed when we said no, us and our bags barely fitted. Road was very good, the speedo needle was bouncing of the stopper at max, I was in the front and the seat belt was broken, very scary to say the least. He was then very pee’d off when I wouldn’t give him extra.

 

[stm1sydney]

Squeezed into a share taxi from Kokand to Margilan (Qum Tepa Sunday Market) in 2019, about one hour trip, 15,000 som each, driver constantly answering/making calls on his phone, changing CDs, chain smoking etc. The speedo was broken - we were not really going more than 200kmh - but pretty fast nevetheless!

 

[jokes128]

My unhappy transport experience was in BKK more than a decade ago(before I know how to use Google Map on my phone).

Used the airport taxi in official way(buy and got ticket etc) going to our hotel near Siam Paragon. Got onto taxi and as soon as the driver left the terminal, he covered the meter and told me a fixed amount for the trip(I think it was 700-800 baht at the time the usual fare on meter would have been closer to 300 baht). I declined and insisted on using the meter twice. The driver gave in and uncovered the meter and continued.

Then I came to realise the driver had used a convoluted route. Not that I know the way to the hotel, but I knew that from the airport we are coming into the city centre from the east. I saw the high rise buildings of the CBD on the right side of me on the freeway(instead of in front of me if we were using the correct route). So I asked the taxi driver are we on the right route, but the taxi driver speaks little English and just kept saying "it's OK, it's OK". Soon after I found ourselves on the south east side of the high rise buildings and finally we sort of did a quarter of a circle on the freeway(from east to south) and entered the high rise buildings area from the south.

As we move into the high rise buildings(now in front of us), there was a big traffic jam(it was like midday, not peak hour traffic) and the taxi travelled at a snail's pace, and with the meter still running on "waiting time" without moving much physical distance. Finally closer to our hotel(where I recognised where I was at that time), the driver said there was little chance of traffic moving and that it would take a long time to get to hotel on road but the meter will keep running, and asked if we would like to get off now with our luggage and walk to the hotel instead(we were about 500m away at that spot)(so his English was not as bad as I thought). I took that up because the meter was running quickly with the traffic jam and we didn't have much luggage. This ended up at about 500 baht(but not even arrive at the hotel) instead of the usual 300 baht or slightly less.

I think the driver wanted to avoid the scenario where I arrived at the hotel and complained to concierge about the route the taxi driver took. But I wanted to avoid a hefty waiting time bill in the traffic jam to get to hotel(and then the hotel concierge and the taxi driver might agree on something in their language and told me everything was right), so I just bit the bullet and paid the fare.

 

[LCC]

Many years ago we pre organised a pick up from Rome airport to a b&b we had booked in central Rome (our first visit to this wonderful city). The driver was duly waiting for us at the airport and we piled into his car with our luggage and proceeded towards Rome. As we were supposedly approaching our destination the driver took a turn down a narrow laneway that seemed to lead into a disused block of land. It looked nothing more than a deserted building site and he stopped the car. I looked at Mr. LCC and he looked at me, our lives flashed before our eyes..... then the driver got out of the car and beckoned us to follow because he wanted to show us something. Okaaay, so we tentatively followed him towards a high wall and he peered through a gap in the wall. He then moved aside so we could look and there was a lovely view of St. Paul's Cathedral from the hole in the wall!

After admiring the said view, we jumped back into the car and the driver then made another stop outside a coffee shop, herded us inside and bought us each a quick espresso to stand and drink at the bar before depositing us safely at our accommodation. What a memorable start to our trip to Rome, although our hearts were pounding a little when we detoured down that alleyway

 

[Daver6]

I really don't have an interesting story to tell like some of the posts here. However, recently on arrival in SIN I took a taxi from the airport to my hotel. I was just impressed by the number of phones this bloke had setup, each with the camera taped over.