Taxis

(Found this in my 'drafts' box. The joy of regular interruptions with the connection and/or electricity)

I actually wrote this last year during the rainy season and never got around to actually posting it. And it is still as valid as it was last year... Taxis haven't improved much. Though it is slightly easier to get a Parami Taxi (very decent with drivers who actually can drive. And Xenne loves to have these taxis). But the antique, striped-down to metal casing-and-wheels-kind of car is also still around much more then they should...

Let me tell you about the average Yangon taxi… Where do I begin? The other day, we came back from downtown. It had rained so here and there it was rather wet. I hadn’t given it much thought since the downpour had happened an hour or so before. We were halfway home when suddenly I feel a lot of yucky-icky wet-something over my feet. I look down and gaze straight at the street. Between my, unconsciously strategically positioned feet, there was a neat, round whole in the bottom of the car. I checked KK side and he too had the same extra aircon…. I was luckier than I though. Apparently there was no puddle on his side.

Taxis here range from decently luxurious (aircon and everything working) and we all prefer those if we get them. Unfortunately, there is never a taxi like that around when you need one. The majority though is of an altogether different kind. I’m by now so used to not having a handle to turn the window down that I automatically search for it in the ‘i-dump everything here place’ between the 2 front seats. You attach it to the little ‘pin’ that sticks out and you can actually lower your window or turn it up depending on your need. Sometimes this doesn’t help though. And then you just push down the window. The taxi driver can always literally pull the window back up later when he has time.

The seats range from ‘have been around since the first days of automotive travel to a little more recent, say 20 years ago. And as for the interior… I’ve been in taxis more than once where there was nothing left of the inside of the doors apart from the metal casing. You just lean out of the window and yank or the driver gets out and opens the door for you…. If doors don’t really budge when they should, I already give a big shove without even thinking about it…

The part that I like (or sometimes definitely not like) is when the most striped-down taxi wants double the price for a trip because I’m a westerner. I do know that the taxi drivers rent the car from the owner and that they have to pay all costs as long as they are driving the car. And a Junior driver (no matter if he is in his 60s or 20s) starts with the oldest car in the owners fleet until he has proven himself. But hey, I don’t have a money tree in the backyard either. Now it is even worse. It is rainy season and my my, prices have already gone up again… Which is especially nice when you have negotiated and get into the car, only to find that the driver hadn’t closed his windows when it last rained… I’ve had a few wet bums lately and I’m sure to have a few more before this season is over… But I am forward now to check the bottom of the car. Just in case we hit another puddle…