Taxi From The Top Floor

[ThaiPauly]

Just got back from Macau.

We always go to the top floor to get a taxi into town to save queing and paying the surcharge.

The other day we got up there and there was a plethora of drivers clamouring to take us, but my wife chose this sweet little old man in an orange cab who was just sitting in his car.

We told him where we wanted to go and off we went.

Towards the end of the motorway section for some inexplicable reason he took the wrong turn!!

My wife asked him why he was going to Sukhumvit this way?

He said he did not know the way

He took us all the way down the Ramkampahang Road, and at the end wanted to make a left back towards the airport. my Wife had to give him directions

We are not at all happy as it was by now rush hour.

What should have been a 40 minute trip took one and a half hours.

The metre price was showing 280 baht by the time we got to the condo in Ekami where we were staying one night before going home to CM

I gave him 200 which is the price we normally pay for that trip, he never said anything.

It's quite unbelieveable that a Bangkok Taxi Driver cannot find Ekami from the airport...unebeliveable!!

maybe he was on something , he said he worked long hours

I just thought I would post this as a freindly warning

[thailife69]

What is the warning?

Don't pick an orange taxi with an old driver!

Most drivers I find take Rama 9, left into Ramkhamhaeng Rd into Sukhumvit 71 and then cutting through to Ekkamai along one of the side sois.

I always wonder if it would be quicker to continue along Rama 9 to Sukhumvit 63. But then you have the bottle neck of traffic at Ekkamai Market.

Getting there I usually take Ekkamai to Sukhumvit Rd to the Express way just after Sukhumvit 71 as it can take 15 minutes just to to get to Rama 9 along Sukhumvit 63.

You'd really think the traffic police could do a better job.

[ThaiPauly]

My warning is that although you know where you are going, just don't always assume the taxi driver does !!!!

[samran]

a fair few taxi drivers don't like going downtown, and hence spend all their time in the burbs and wouldn't have a clue where most things are downtown.

Funny though, the cabbie does usually say to me that he doesn't know where to go and says he'll take me if I show the way..

[londonthai]

happened to me many times, that despite giving an exact location and instructions how to go, they go the wrong way - often, just to make an extra money

[Thongkorn]

Many Falang have got a Taxi from the top floor usually one way though. and they never pay when they reach the bottom , and they have never never been assisted.