I was riding a taxi while in Cebu along the port area. In one of the buildings there I saw a very big tarpaulin advertising Zumba. It caught my attention because a few days before I just finished posting an article regarding the Zumba craze. I guess Cebu is also riding the wave and enjoying dancing and becoming fit the Zumba way.
On my first day at KDI School, I and two companions decided to go out and eat. From the dormitory, it seemed like a very long walk to the nearest international fast food chain in the area, which was Burger King. After ordering and eating, we felt that it would be too far to walk back to the dormitory so we decided to take a cab, since we were armed with the instruction guide on how to get to KDI School. When we got into the cab, we showed the driver the instruction guide. Unfortunately, we did not take into account that the point of reference of the guide was from the airport which was not on the same direction as Burger King. With the language barrier, we and the driver could not understand each other. So we were resigned to getting out and try walking when suddenly the driver brought out his mobile phone and started to call the number listed on the guide. He talked to the person who answered the call and got the directions so that we were able to go back to the dormitory safely. Coming from a developing economy where cab drivers could barely afford to use mobile phones to call their family, we were pleasantly surprised and awed at the fact Korean cab drivers used their mobile phones for the benefit of their passengers without extra charge.
I came from Cebu yesterday via Cebu Pacific that is why I landed at NAIA Terminal 3. It was my first time to use Terminal 3 as a take off and landing point. Of all the NAIA Terminals and some of the airports I’ve been to around the Philippines, Terminal 3 is the most similar to international airports in other countries like Seoul, Singapore, Kyoto and Bangkok. The layout of the check-in counters and the immigration counters and the fact that even non-passengers can enter up to the airport lobby. It is a shame that Terminal 3 is not yet fully utilized. It is newer and the lay-out is much more suitable for international passengers than old NAIA. Maybe the government can transfer the international flights to Terminal 3 and rebuild and refurbish old NAIA so that its facilities will be at par with the modern international airports like Singapore and Incheon.
As I made my way out of the airport, I checked the airport signs to see where I can get a taxi. When I went outside, I walked towards the area where I can see signs for airport taxis. I also noticed that there was a shuttle taking passengers from the airport to nearby destinations like Terminal 2 and MRT in Pasay (I think). There were two kinds of airport taxis, the flat rate taxis and the metered taxis. The flat rate airport taxis white-colored SUVs while the metered taxis are yellow-colored sedans. Flat rate taxis are more expensive but they can seat more people or accommodate larger baggages. If your traveling light and alone or up to four passengers, then the metered taxis would be a better choice. Since I was alone and traveling light, I opted for the metered taxi. These airport metered taxis are twice more expensive than the regular taxis because you are paying the trip from and back to the airport. These special taxis are not supposed to pick up passengers along the way. As I have mentioned in my previous post, the flag down rate for the 1st 500 meters is P70 and for every succeeding 300 meters thereafter is P4.00. The dispatcher gives out slips of paper, one for the passenger and another for the transport company. It includes the passenger’s name, destination and the plate number of the taxi. Included also are the telephone numbers where you can report any act of abuse and/or discourtesy. You can call the Office OIC, CPMD & Terminal 3 at telephone numbers 8777888 loc. 8090/8089 or 4252265/4252271. You can also send comments or suggestions thru text via 0917-8395242. I would like to say in advance that I have not tried using these numbers so I cannot say if they work or not. These are just the numbers indicated in the transport dispatch slips. I also wrote down the LTFRB hotline cellphone number listed at the back of the vehicles 09214487777. Again, I have been lucky not to have needed these numbers so I cannot attest to their veracity. The driver of the taxi I rode in was courteous and careful in driving so I was lucky. However, passengers should still remain vigilant because I know that there are still airport taxi drivers who take advantage of their passengers.
Last Monday, I hitched a ride on a taxi with some officemates. We did not have our usual service because our “driver” was on sick leave. The taxi driver told us that he almost did not want to take us to our destination, which is Pasig, because he had a bad experience there one afternoon, around 4:00pm. His passenger pointed a knife as long as his elbow at him and took all his hard-earned money. This happened along Mercedes Avenue. When the passenger got off, the driver saw a police car cruise by but he did not report it even if the hold-upper could have been caught because he was afraid that the criminal would take note of his taxi and seek revenge once he gets out of prison. The driver was very pragmatic saying that driving a taxi was his means of living so it would be easy for the hold-upper to track him down in the future if the driver will have him arrested. The driver also said that nowadays, you cannot easily spot a criminal. He told us that the guy who held him up was nicely dressed. Sometimes, these guys could have women allies who will ride the taxi and asked to be dropped off at a certain point wherein the one to do the crime is waiting. There was even one incident wherein a man, a pregnant woman and little boy got into a taxi and then proceeded to rob the driver. Can you believe it? If you were the driver, you wouldn’t suspect that robbing a taxi would be a family enterprise. I guess if there are criminal taxi drivers preying on the passengers, then there are also criminal passengers preying on the drivers. It is really sad that these things are happening in our country. I guess extreme poverty is driving our people to desperate ends.
Yesterday, after walking around the area near KDI, we decided to take a taxi back to our dormitory because our legs were already aching from the long walk. When we told the driver to take us to KDI, he could not understand us. Since we could not speak Korean, I had my friend show the driver the instruction given to us about taking the taxi from the airport to the school. Unfortunately, my friend only brought the English instructions, which the driver could not also understand. We tried to give him directions since the way was just very simple. What the driver did was call up the number indicated in the paper we showed him. He talked to Mr. Yoo, the program coordinator, who gave him instructions to take us back to the dormitory. I was very surprised at the way the driver made the call without charging us extra for that extra service. It seems that it’s the way they are here in Korea, service over and above what is expected. It was like that even yesterday when we arrived at the airport. The person who was supposed to pick us up did not arrive yet and we were asking the person behind the tourist information desk about the possible entrances and exits in the airport in case the person picking us up was waiting somewhere else. The girl at the counter asked us what the cellphone number of the person was so that she could call him. Since we did not know, we were unable to give it to her.
I guess Korea is very friendly to tourist. The problem is the language barrier. It would be best to have a basic knowledge of the Korean language because a lot of Koreans, particularly the shopkeepers, restaurant owners, bus and taxi drivers only speak Korean. We’re really having a hard time going around Seoul because of this but of course we didn’t let it stop us 
Our motto is, “If there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The yellow metered airport taxis in NAIA were a pleasant surprise. When I arrived from Korea it was late Thursday night so no one was able to fetch me. I was worrying how I was going to get home since I knew airport taxis cost the earth and it’s very difficult to get out of NAIA on foot with very heavy luggage in order to get a cheaper taxi ride out of the airport. Without any more options, Ate Rita and I decided to inquire how much the rate of the yellow airport taxis were. I was used to flate rates by areas from airport taxis in the Domestic and Centennial Airports so I was surprised when the dispatcher told me that the taxis were metered and cost about twice as much as the regular taxis. I asked him to approximate how much from the airport to our place. When he mentioned not more than five hundred pesos I decided to try it out. The computation was P70 flag down rate for the first 500 meters then P4 for every succeeding 300 meters.
If I remember correctly, my total was less than P350 considering that the taxi stopped to refuel and by my count he should have deducted P12 from my bill. Hehehe…It was even cheaper than the flat rate of Basic taxi from our place to the airport which is P400. What was also nice about the airport taxi was that it issued an official receipt in case you need one for reimbursement purposes.
So for my friends abroad who are contemplating of coming home and they have nobody to fetch them, take the yellow metered airport taxis in NAIA. It’s much safer because there is somebody who keeps track of the taxis and the destination of the passengers and it’s cheaper than the airport taxis with flat rates for specific areas.
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.
One of the scariest taxi rides I can remember happened in Davao almost eight years ago. I was in Davao that time with my officemate Bob (hi bob!) We were conducting a Survey on Productivity Awareness. I was staying with my grandmother whose house was in the suburbs while Bob was staying at the satellite office in the central district, since it had a place for visitors from the central office. On our second night in the city, I met with Kate, a high school friend who I haven’t seen for some years. We went to the mall for dinner. We stayed until the mall closed since we had a lot of catching up to do then we went to her home where we continued with our conversation. It was around nine o’clock when I finally decided to go home since I was not quite familiar with the place so I was afraid of going home very late. I took a taxi and since I was so busy saying goodbye to Kate, it was only when the taxi was underway that I saw the red eyes of the driver. It was really red like he was on drugs or a very bad case of sore eyes. I could not get off because we were already along the highway going to the suburbs. I was very afraid especially when he would peer at the mirror every so often and I would see his red eyes looking at me. Thinking back, maybe the reason he was peering every now and then was to check the traffic behind us At that time all sorts of wild thoughts were racing through my mind like was this my last taxi ride ever? Was I going to be an addition to the statistics on victims of crime? What about all the things I haven’t done yet? I was still so young and I had my whole life ahead of me. Hehe. All through out the ride I was silently reciting the Memorare until I got home without incident. I was so greatful to arrive at my grandma’s house without incident, thanks to my guardian angel
