Choosing a cab is like, choosing your food at dinner. Choose wisely and you may end up with complete satisfaction and sweet memories, and crap choices leave you with upset stomache and a case of diarrhea.The reason I said this, because at times your fate really lies in the hand of a cab driver, hence, making this decision-making process a very important one. Good driver is hard to come by, and the bad ones seem to be everywhere. Bad cab drivers are the worst, they make Hitler seem mild.
The bad ones are rude and harsh. They speak in broken english, scold you for being ignorant and not being able to speak chinese, and drive like they're doing stunts in bad action movies.
The bad ones snort when you say 'thank you', grunt rudely when you pull out a fifty-dollar bill and comment on your outfit.
The good drivers, however, appear like Princess Diana in comparison. They smile and make jokes, they strike up a nice conversation, and they say 'thank you' back after you. These people make the world a better place.
Although it seems trivial, I actually think this is rather important. And makes me feel all the more grateful everytime I get the good ones.
Yesterday was one example. I went back by cab from Clarke Quay in the morning, and I was ready to pay when we arrived by the lift in my apartment's basement. I pulled out the only dollar bill I had at that moment, which was fifty bucks, and handed it over. He looked at me, all apologetic, saying he just began his shift and thus, absolutely had no change.
'So how?' I asked. We could go to 7/11 to exchange money but the store was on the opposite street and I was too tired to function. He looked at me for a few seconds, and pulled out a piece of paper, wrote down his account number and told me to just transfer the money to there.
I was slightly taken aback, because well, it is unusual, right? $14.20 doesn't seem that much, but he had no guarantee, technically that I would really pay him the fare later. Of course, aside fro my trustworthy look, but people say that looks can be deceiving, right? In my exhausted state, I was really grateful for this person. Because he trusted me enough, this means I could go straight upstairs and crash to bed.
Well, actually I still had to wipe off make-up, change into pajamas, and take off my lens, but you got the drift.
It's always nice when a complete stranger makes a kind gesture. Especially taxi drivers, since there are just too many of the bad ones out there, clustering the world.