Oh! Cabbie...

[Warning: This is a rant]

Every once in a while, I encounter a cabbie whom I will not hesitate to label as being extremely annoying. Not only because he drives like a maniac, but,  also because he tends to disregard what I say when I told him where to go as well as the directions on how to get there.

This usually happens when I take a taxi from the office to go back home – essentially, if all’s well, traffic permitting, I should be home in less than 10 minutes.

And I should know this. It is my home, I go there every day, and I jolly well know my direction. To add on to that, I often only give directions in Thai and usually, 4 in 5 cab drivers understood me perfectly well.

Yet, on some odd occasion, some annoying cabbie finds it very noble of him to argue with me by not following my instructions. When I told him to U-turn, he insisted on going straight till I had to raise my voice, as if I am scolding a little kid. Then when I told him to keep right, he insisted on going left and turning in a soi away from where I was supposed to be. (And no, it is not a short-cut). And I had to repeat myself several times telling him over and over again to just keeping fucking right and turn right where I want him to, and not because he was certain that he was going the right direction.

Why he thinks he knows the direction better than I do and refused to listen to me is beyond me. After all, I have only been going home to the same place and actually know the path like the back of my hand for the past 5 years! I should know the direction, right?

Well, I guess not because it gets worse as instead of just listening to me and get me to where I should be, some of these morons actually get upset as I insisted on MY direction. The taxi driver in question would then actually start grumbling and scolding me in Thai because apparently that is not the place I want to go. 

Seriously, WTF is wrong with these people? I don’t understand their mentality. Most of all, I don’t understand why they get upset when I should be the one having all the right to get upset because they are taking me to someplace else where I did not want to go.

Sometimes I really just want to get the hell out of the cab and not pay them a single cent – a risk I’m not willing to take for fear of my life as they could easily run me down out of anger. (you do not want to make any Thai mad!)

Thai cabbies baffle me sometimes. Why can’t they just listen, not rile me up and save me the ranting spree?