In Syria a decade ago, I developed a working method to track down the few good guys around. Those can be good to have when you plan an excursion the following day. Syria is one of the countries when the honoured members of the Transport Clique are at their worst-so there it is a to be or not to be. For this method to work smoothly, a map is needed. Also you need the nearest taxis to be close to your place. The closer the better. Around the corner being perfect. Armed with that map in your hand, go to that close by taxistand. Look a bit lost and ask to be taken to your place. If the driver point you in the right direction, telling you it is only a short walk with no need for a ride-you know you have found one of the better. If the driver tells you: ohhh, My Friend-a loooong way to go-its going to cost you your life savings-plus some extra. Then you should hear some alarm bells ringing loudly. Now you have several choices. You can choose the fast and easy option of just leaving. Preferably after having told the gangster a thing or two. Or you can do as i did on a couple of occasions when I had time and was ridden by my inside devil. I let him take me on his ride. Sometimes literally around town. Two things are important-pretend to be totally ignorant-and follow the trip on your map. And when he finally finish his vile sightseeing trip outside your place, show him the map. Tell him to hell-with no money pocketed from you. And when he start to make noise-he will-suggest taking a trip to the nearest police to discuss the issue further there. He then-with murder in his eyes-will back off. And you can go celebrate with a beer, having beaten them in their own game.
Show me one long term traveller with not a single hilarious encounter with this tribe. Either he suffers severely from bad memory, he has pushed the experiences out of his mind. Or he is not a long term traveller at all.
In India i had the fortune of falling prey to one who pulled the "far away" card out of his sleeve. I was going to the Jewish part of Kochi, a city in Kerala. It was only that it wasn't that far....my lonely planet had my current location and my destination on it-and even if he had to double the distance because of one way lanes, blocked roads or other obstacles;the total trip could not be more than 2 kilometers. OK-I decided to let him go for it. Having my map-and my GPS at hand. But i didn't need any of those to register the sun shifted from left to behind, to right to front-and then over again. My GPS told me the same story-driving in circles. And driving back and forth on parallel streets-making sure not to drive twice in the same place. I wondered how far he was going to go before he called it a day. I never got an answer to that....because....he ran out off fuel. It felt like a Divine action. Frantically he tried to restart his vehicle, but-nope. The engine was not prepared to do any more before being fed. Seeing on my navigationset i was a lot closer to my destination, a short walking distance, i found the time had come for the tear filled goodbye with my driver. Showing him on the map and on the screen that i clearly knew what he was up to...i refused paying a single rupee. He was not happy-but he also was half a meter shorter than he had been when the trip started. His last try was to ask for a donation towards a bottle of petrol....i was his first customer of the day, he explained. No-i am not your customer at all-my friend. Have a nice day! Was my reply-and closing of the case.
In India-in a town whose name is forgotten, I was approached by a driver offering his services. I was going from the trainstation to a hotel quite a bit away. What price concerns he first tried the old "up to you" trick. Either hoping for a tourist with no idea about local prices. Or ready for a fight if that tourist actually only was going to pay a normal rate at the end of the trip. I didn't swallow that. I wanted a price. Now he wanted 30 rupees-less than half a dollar for the job. Hmmm, i thought. Normally he wouldn't even start the vehicle for that sum. Obviously a commission ghost. I accepted the price-telling EXACTLY where i wanted to go-and i only pay if you go there DIRECTLY. He willingly agreed, only to stop at a totally different place ten minutes later. Stating my place had burned down. To my question about why he didn't tell that before-he had no answer. DRIVE ME TO MY PLACE-NOWWW!!! I almost yelled. He refused, stating this place was better for me. My place was full of rats, and bugs and-dishonest people (!).The latter being rather hillarious, coming from that mouth. "But i thought you said the place was burned down??" New silence. Knowing I was only a few hundred meters from my destination i picked my luggage and started bailing out. "Nononono-wait" the now distressed driver almost shouted. And drove me to my place. His price at arrival increased tenfold. New payback time. I reminded him about the price we settled on-suggested by him, not me. Also that this place was the agreed on destination. I paid him exactly the original price-and tried to leave. The driver now physically tried to drag me into the hotel, in a last desperate effort to extract a commission from the hotel-which would translate into a higher room price for me. I brushed him away, stating "I said I wanted to go here. Whether or not i want to stay here is my business, not yours!" Then walked off down the street. Seeing he followed me in his tuktuk. For a while we played cat and mouse. Me going up a street, changing street. Going in and out of shops. My faithfull driver always there. Before he finally left. Then I returned to the hotel, checking in. Later in the evening i met the driver again. He was drinking tea. Hello my FRIEND-I cheerfully greeted from a distance. If eye glimpses could kill, I would have died there and then.
So was I nasty towards these drivers. In a way-yes. But not really. All I actually did was keeping them to their own deals-and playing their own game. This is a kind of people which worldwide are vultures to the extreme towards travellers. My experience is that the worst people in all countries are taxi tribe members. Being kind and giving second chances in situations like these only results in giving their way of cheating and lying more momentum. If they learned that behaviour often will smack them in their face, they would rethink. So taxidrivers of all kinds out there-treat me good and you will get your deserved pay. Treat me the way the mentioned drivers did-and you will suffer! After years of travel with almost daily fights with this occupation my level of bulshittolerance is zero. Amen
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