Monday, June 21, 2010

Hot weather is no excuse

During the past year, I've had my fair share of taxi drivers who have tried to rip me off by outright lying or giving lame excuses. Today I heard one of the lamest excuses of all: it's hot. At first I thought the drivers said 1.50, so I gave him 1.50. He looked bewildered and started to protest. He then said the fare was 2.50 JD's, which I knew couldn't be right. I looked at the meter which read 1. 67. I asked why and he said something about it being hot. He said this with an attitude which didn't score any brownie points with me. Gretchen and I got out of the taxi and went on our merry way towards our front door. At this point, the taxi driver was shouting profanities at us, which I gladly returned, apologizing to the man next to me on the sidewalk.
It felt pretty good walking away, knowing that I hadn't been successfully ripped off. Ahh, the life of a seasoned expat is good.

4 comments:

  1. haha :) good for you! everyday when go to pick up our car, I get a cab. it takes 5 minutes max. some routes are quicker than others, but sometimes the drivers try to make a nice detour... what they don't know is that I never look at the meter and always give the same, long route or short route!! i need to learn some arabic swear words, just in case...

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  2. you have changed the layout of your blog, no? i like it

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  3. Heather,

    I would be careful with shouting profanities back to an already upset native Jordanian taxi driver - you never know what his response will be. Better to just walk away without upsetting him further, and risk some form of retaliation.

    Love,

    Your ever protective mom

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  4. Thanks for your over protective advice Mom. I can always count on you for embarassing pieces of wisdom. ;-)

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