The Tenth Taxi
The “Jungle Vine” column by Robert Lorimor
After I finished shooting the Radio City and its Elvis show story the other night, I exited the Patpong Entertainment Zone and realized it was past midnight and it was too late to take the skytrain or subway home. No problem, I thought, I can take one of the nine taxis waiting in a que.
I jumped into the first one and politely told the driver my destination.
“That will be 100 baht,” the driver said.
I cringed because 100 baht is about two times too much. Besides, this is a metered taxi and it is illegal for metered taxis to not use their meter. It is not uncommon to find these lazy taxi drivers outside of tourist hotels and venues touting their unmetered rate. Their unmetered rate is never cheaper than the metered rate.
“Meter, please,” I kindly replied.
“100 baht,” the driver said again.
“Meter,” I said firmly.
“100 baht.”
I got out of taxi and tried the next one in the que and I got the same “100 baht” treatment from the driver. I got out of his taxi as well.
I then continued down the que and quickly tried more taxis. I changed my questioning tactics after about the fifth taxi.
“Meter?” I said.
“Where are you going?” they answered—which is also a wrong answer.
I finally took the tenth taxi which stopped for me when I waved him down. Its driver was the “9 out of 10 honest and hard working taxi driver” I normally find through out this great city. I gave him an extra tip when I got home.
The Jungle Vine
- If you got something to add to the Jungle Vine, contact us and let us know.
- The Boss Band has been added to our Artist page. If you got a band and want to have it added to the Artist page, one only needs to send us your band’s details.
- Robin Hood on Sukhumvit Soi 33/1 gave away 35,000 baht in their lucky draw last Monday. Next Monday’s Lucky Draw has been reset to 5,000 baht.
- Jeff T of Tokyo Joe’s is reporting that Coco York has officially been confirmed for the Bangkok Segment of the World Blues Festival to be held at their club from May 11-14, 2005.
- Since the Songkran holidays, Paul of Noriega’s is reporting that everything is back to normal at their venue. There were no water and electic accidents to report.
- Radio City manager and MC, Kevin Wood, whose club is famous in Bangkok for its Elvis and Tom Jones show, has his own radio show on FM 107, Monday to Friday from 1 pm to 4 pm.
- The Unitied Nations Crime Convention at the Imperial Queen Park Hotel took a field trip to the Lad Yao prison and listened to a 16 piece jazz band. This story was reported by Reuters.
- Johnny, the human jukebox at O’Reilly’s Irish Pub & Restaurant, 62/1-4 Silom and Robin Hood, Sukhimvit Soi 33/1, is reporting his most requested songs are “This Love” by Maroon 5, “Is this the way to Amarillo?” by Tony Christie and “Just say you love me” by Malachi.