TAXI DRIVERS IN SINGAPORE!

Ok this has been on my mind for some time now, I want to share with you some of my experiences with the taxi drivers here! Lately I have been having trouble getting a taxi in the midmorning to go into the city. The Woodlands neighborhood is out a ways and there are not many taxi drivers up here in this part of town until the afternoon. Usually I call for a taxi to come to the house and pick me up rather than walking down to the main road and flagging one down. Of course there's an additonal fee, but it's worth it to me not to have to stand in the hot sunshine with the sweat running down my back when I'm trying to go somewhere. Lately all the taxis are booked when I need one, so I end up walking down to 7-11 and trying to get one from there. Last week I waited 25 minutes and was late to my appointment! So frustrating! I can't wait to get back to the U.S. where I can jump in my own car and drive myself where I want to go, when I want to go! The taxi drivers are called "Uncle"- yes, every driver is "Uncle" but I can't bring myself to call them that. Wesley and Kasey call them Uncle all the time (and the cafeteria workers at school are called "Auntie" pronounced "onty") The drivers all carry big bottles of water with them because they are in their cars almost all day long. (Actually nearly everyone in Singapore carries bottles of water around because it's so stinking hot and you don't want to get dehydrated. Many shopkeepers offer water when you enter their store.) I'm guessing that probably 90% of the taxis are stick-shift, and probably half of the drivers or more do not know how to drive a stick-shift, which means a lot of lurching in the car and a lot of nausea for me. At every red light, they pull up their emergency brake, then when the light turns green they take it off. Every time! This week I took a taxi home from the grocery store and had put my groceries in the trunk. After I got out of the car he forgot to open the trunk and started to drive off! I had to chase him down and bang on the trunk to get him to stop! Most of the taxi drivers don't talk much except to find out where you want to go, and which route you want to take to get there (like I really know which route, are you kidding?) I always just say "the quickest route". I have gotten used to listening to Chinese songs on the radio and talk radio shows in Mandarin. Amazing how I can just tune it out. Catch a few Zzzz's while someone else fights the traffic for me! Now there is an "oldies" radio station in Singapore that plays a lot of 70's and 80's music - think Carpenters, Air Supply and Michael Jackson. Every now and then I get a chatty driver who asks a lot of questions. It always starts with "where you from?" and for some odd reason they always assume I'm from Australia! Go figure! When I say the United States and more specifically Dallas, Texas, the response is something like "Who shot JR?" or "Home of George Bush" or "Everything's big in Texas, lah?" The American community here is full of Texans, mostly from the Houston area and mostly employed by oil and gas companies like Exxon Mobil. And while I'm thinking about it, not that it has anything to do with anything, but for some reason a lot of the older Chinese men here have at least one long fingernail, sometimes more than one, but usually I notice at least one when they have their hands on the steering wheel. I'm guessing that must be the nose-picking finger? And on more than one occasion I will be speaking to an older Chinese man who has ONE very long whisker growing out of his cheek! Just one, like an antennae or something! Someone told me they think it's a sign of intelligence maybe? I think it's a sign of forgetfulness-HELLO, YOU FORGOT TO SHAVE THAT SAME HAIR AGAIN TODAY!!! It is very distracting, to say the least! I'm trying to have a conversation but find my eyes keep darting over to the long gray hair that is just begging to be yanked. I have learned that if I'm "in town" and need to get back to the Woodlands where I live, I need to start finding a taxi around 3:30pm or else I could get stuck downtown for a long time. I found out the hard way that 4:00pm is what they call "shift change", meaning the taxi drivers only want to go to their neck of the woods and not up to the north side of the island where I live. If I approach the taxi and ask them to take me to the Woodlands they yell "SHIFT CHANGE" and speed off like I have offended them... Oh, and if it's raining outside, like it is almost every single day at least once, the taxi queus (lines) are insanely long and you can forget about getting home on time. It's sometimes quicker to step out of the queue and call for a taxi to come pick me up - but again, a service charge is added to the fare. Depending on the time of day, a round trip to town and back home for me costs about $35 Sing dollars. So if I do that a few times a week, it sure adds up! I try to plan my outings to get as much done as possible in as few trips as possible, or wait until Shelby travels and I have the car, or take the MRT which I will save for another discussion later. The nice thing about taxis, obviously, is letting someone else do the driving which is great since I never know where I'm going, plus I don't have to park! Also when we have a big group going out, or when the family is headed to the airport with all our luggage, we call ahead for a "Maxi Taxi" which seats 12 passengers. Now that's the way to go! We can have adult beverages at dinner and not worry with who has to drive home. :)