Nation’s Shame

As Part of my work commitment I am now traveling quiet frequently from Singapore to Malaysia and gotto stay in different hotels. So far the experience was not so exciting being in Kualalampur and the main reason being the Errant Taxi drivers.

Eye wash message (Drivers never cared this)

I always use the Taxis or Office shuttles to commute from hotel to office to hotel back and every time I get unique experience. Some of the taxi drivers are quiet generous and honest when they charge. Believe it or not, last week I happen to stay in a hotel close to the office and I paid taxi charge from 3 Ringgits to 15 Ringgits at different times. When I try to wait for the rite person, I am the looser (loosing money and time) ahhh !!!

This week was the ultimate experience. The hotel I stay is quiet far and I had 2 incidents nudging me to quit the country as soon.

Incident 1:

I need to go to hotel from office. None of the call taxis are ready to go there and so I have to take a round tour. So, I called a taxi that goes to KL Central (which is like a center hub where any one would agree to go) thinking I can get another taxi to my hotel from there as they got prepaid taxi counter over there. Once I got in to the taxi, I just wanted to try my luck if the taxi driver agrees to go the hotel straight but he pretended that he don’t know English and so I kept simple English communication to make him understand that I need to go hotel. He refused with a plain ‘No’ insisting that he got the call only to KL Central. ‘Fine’, I said gesturing to go ahead to KLC. On the way the driver asked me ‘You want to go Jalan Ampang (the hotel place)’. I said ‘Yes’….’Can you ?’ I asked him with curiosity. He didn’t answer and kept thinking. I thought no point in askng him and I din bother to make any more attempts. We reached KL Central. When I was about to get down, the taxi driver sed ‘You want to go Jln. Ampng. ?’ … I was surprised ‘Why the hell he is asking now’… I have to get another taxi anyway so I told him ‘Yes’. He then left me in the hotel. Later realized that this guy wanted to make money by touring around the place with me. Such a prick who irritated me a lot with his so called smart behaviour (saala Kaamchor !!!)

Incident 2:

Yesterday again I wanted to go back to hotel from office. This time I got our office shuttle to reach KL central as I have no choice. Again from KL central I went further to Indian eat outs to have my dinner. Again I was waiting for a taxi for a long time. At last, I got one. The driver was a old Chinese. I asked him 'Jln. Ampang ?' and he said 'yes'. I felt lucky and got inside. All I saw in the vehicle is a motor and 4 wheels. It’s a total crap and the car is in a pathetic condition. ’25 Ringgits’ he said and I was shocked as the destination wont be worth of 5 Ringgits. I said ‘Its too much I give u 10 ringgits’. He was angry as if he is the only driverin whole country. ‘Give me 20 Ringgits .. most of the straight roads are closed and I have to go around’…since there was heavy down pour and I am extremely tired, I said ‘ok go on.. but, you give recipt right ?’ I asked back.. ‘Yes, no problem’, he replied and kept driving.. as I expected, there was no road closing.. infact he took the shortest route to reach soon…I thought doesn’t matter as I can claim this from my company with the recipt…. I askd for recipt and that so called smart cheat gave me a folded ‘House rent recipt’ thinking I wont notice. AS he folded the doubt sparked and I happened to chk to confirm he is fooling around. I asked him to give me the taxi recipt and he refused telling ‘This is all I got’….A***le !!! I got pissed off… argued with him with vain… I even threatened him that I will call police and he just din give a damn on that… I was helpless (I was cornered) ;) and got out with complete disappointment…. Thinking arguing anymore is like mud wrestling with pig…..

I then researched on the taxis in Malaysia and I found that it is one of the worst taxi lots country. The country is beautiful and the places are lovely but taxi drivers are the key locals who are turning the impression to other way (specially with the tourists and expats)… So friends, bear in mind if you happen to visit KL. Beware of Taxi touts and also be aware that you cant do anything about it as n number of complaints already registered and the govt. very well knows the situation and never bothered to change this pathetic 'Nation’s Shame' image.