Passenger Tales

My day started badly when I woke up at around 3:00 am to the sound of my neighbor’s voice talking loudly on his cellphone. I was really irritated because I had a hard time going back to sleep. He was on the phone for sometime. The least he could have done was to lower his voice since I’m sure he knows that his neighbors were asleep at that hour. Or went somewhere else in their house where he won’t be heard by the neighbors. Anyway, I was finally able to go back to sleep when he wound up his conversation.

When I woke up at 6:00 am I did not feel rested and was still very sleepy. I even attempted to catch a few winks fully dressed for office while waiting for my mom to finish dressing since we were going to our respective offices together. Our travel to the office started rather well. Traffic was not so heavy going to Rotonda and when arrived there were two taxis waiting for passengers. Getting a taxi in Rotonda is usually very hard nowadays especially on Monday mornings. The journey started well enough. My mom told the driver where the destination was and off we went. The problem started when the driver told us that he will take an alternative route in order to avoid traffic. Ok that is not a problem. I asked him where the alternate route exited because I wanted to make sure that I can get off at San Miguel Avenue. He said at the Mercury Store in Crossing. I told him that it would be better to exit at Shaw thru Sheridan because I was getting off at San Miguel Avenue. He argued that the traffic was heavy and he was conserving his fuel. Why didn’t we tell him when we got in that it would be double drop off. My mom said that everytime we take a taxi it always takes the Shaw route and pass by San Miguel Avenue where I get off. He remained stubborn and said that I can always walk back from Mercury in Crossing. Hello! Who was paying here? I told the driver I would be late if I had to walk back from Crossing. My mom got angry and told the driver to just let us out of the taxi. The driver agreed and said we didn’t have to pay. My mom told him of course we were not going to pay since we were not even half way to our destination. In fairness the driver was not very bastos but just very stubborn. We were going to pay him whatever the meter would read when my mom would get off. Sure it would have been nice to avoid traffic but not if I had to get off farther than from where I usually get off. And what’s with the double dropping thing? I’m along the way if he just takes the Shaw route. He’s not even required to make an out of the way turn. Good thing I was able to get another ride quickly. My mom and I separated since there was only one seat available in the jeepney. Since as an officer she did not need to bundy she pushed me to go first.

Taxi drivers here in Manila can be so arrogant, complain a lot, and dishonest either by cheating you on your change, taking you to your destination in a roundabout way so that you’ll pay higher or only agreeing to letting you ride if you add something to the fare from the meter. I’m not saying that all of them are like that. I have encountered decent taxi drivers but they are few and far between. Maybe the high price of gasoline and the heavy traffic is cutting a big piece of their income but they should also realize that not all who ride the taxi are rich people. A lot of us are also employees with not so great salaries and we also have the same problems with the high price of gasoline, high cost of living, heavy traffic, etc. If we all just help each other and try not to get the better of each other then our country will certainly be a better place to live.