Feras’s Blog

Adventures of a Taxi Driver

// June 4th, 2007 // Information, me

Taxi drivers deal with all sorts of people all the time, so they have really nice stories to tell. Whenever I ride a taxi, I like to ask the taxi driver to tell me his most interesting story.

Last week my car suddenly started to overheat, so I took a taxi to the university. I stopped a taxi, and when he opened the window I almost fainted from the smell !! But I asked him to take me anyways because he was egyption, and I thought he might have a few interesting stories to tell.

He told me like 5 stories, but I’ll only write one for now. He said:

” Last summer the weather was really hot (as usual), and this lady was waiting for a taxi, but none of them would pick her up. So I thought I would be nice enough to take her were she wanted for the least price possible. So I stopped and picked her up and asked were she wanted to go, and she said that she wanted to go to Nadheem (a poor neighborhood in Riyadh). I told her I would take her for 20 Riyals. She said she only had 10 Riyals. I said the weather is hot, so I’ll take you for 10 Riyals, get in…

When I got to her house, she just left and said she didn’t have any money!! Then she quickly closed the door to her house behind her. So, I started knocking the door like crazy, and screaming “

وين العشرة بتاعتي؟! عاوز العشرة بتاعتي

” (where’s my ten?! I want my ten!).

As I was knocking the door opened and there she was, so I asked for my money, or someone to talk to like her son or husband. She entered the house and locked the door, and I screamed for my money again, then she came out the kitchen door and told me she didn’t have the money. I saw a blanket on the ground so I told her that if she wouldn’t pay me, then I would take the blanket. When she refused to pay I took the blanket and left.

After leaving I gave the blanket to a laundry, which charged me 10 Riyals to clean the blanket. Then I sold it to a pakistani worker for 40 Riyals. So, I got my ten and an extra 20 Riyals as well!!”

Most Pakistani Taxi drivers tell me stories of fights they have. Try asking taxi drivers for stories the next time you take a ride with them…