Wednesday, September 24, 2008

An Endangered Vehicle - Taxi in KL?


Spoilt with public transport convenience in Hong Kong, I wasn't thrilled when faced with the challenge to find taxis during my recent trip to KL. Even from famous places such as major shopping malls and KL Sentral station, I had to wait for more than 40 minutes to get a taxi.

The queue gets longer and longer, and even when there's one taxi stopping by the stand, which was really rare, the driver generally refused to take you to your destination, due to the jam. Even when there are taxi pools, you'll probably have to bargain and agree on the price in advance, as most drivers won't take you based on the meter charges.

Although I haven't complained about it previously, by no means it is something new. I am from Indonesia, a country with not much less notorious taxi reputation in South East Asia. Stories of violent drivers who might just bring you to the pier and sell your kidneys or rob you blind were not even a surprise. Thank God the taxi experience got better in Indonesia. It is now mostly cases of drivers who pretend to be nice and offering endless polite apologies when caught going round and round, extending your 5 minutes journey to a 3 hours ride ^_^