posted by Savanah on Jun 9
Taking a taxi from the airport to one of the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Hotels turned out to be expensive. I was unaware of the city’s population of the Taxi Shark Also known as a Black taxi or, counterfeit taxi or cloning. Being not a worldly traveller, I guess it was written all over my face when I stepped outside the airport terminal; all excited, drooling at the mouth and doing the classic Mary Tyler Moore ‘spinning around and tossing my hat into the air’. That would’ve given it away to any Shark Taxi or really, any con-artist waiting at the airport terminals for people just like me.
I was just standing at the terminal curb, getting my bearings and this taxi just pulls up right in front of me and the taxi driver steps out looking all friendly and happy asking me what hotel am I going to as he takes my bags and puts them in the trunk of the taxi. I thought, ‘how fortunate,’ I didn’t need to worry about how to get to my hotel, that I had this nice friendly taxi driver who will make sure I will make it to my destination in one piece.
Boy was that a wrong assumption. I was never so scared for my life as he careened in and out of traffic, taking me through some very dicey alleyways and and tight fits. I wanted to get out, but he never once stopped. Not once! That’s how scary the ride was, he either went through red lights or went across traffic to turn right instead of stopping at a light. I’ve heard about bad taxi rides, but I never imagined that they could be death wish scary. He did finally stop at the front entrance of my hotel and told me the taxi ride will cost me $350.00 Ringgits, approximately $100.00 U.S. dollars. Besides being in shock about almost losing my life, I was now in shock at the sticker price. I paid the man and as the hotel bell-hop took my luggage out the the taxi’s trunk.
I found, by the bell hop, that I was just scammed by a Shark Taxi. He told me he could tell because the taxi didn’t have a ‘For Hire’ sign in his window and there was no placard on the passenger side of the car showing the drivers registration number. I thanked the bell hop for his information and wobbled up to the check-in counter.
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