Saturday, August 24, 2013

A cheating taxi driver, Bangkok

There are times I have heard about those cheating taxi drivers in many cities.  My first encounter is in Amsterdam.  It cost me HK$500 from the airport to an airport hotel for a transit night stay and the journey time is just 3 minutes within less than one kilometre.  So as I arrived at the hotel, I asked the front desk to verify if that's the fare from the airport to the hotel.  Turned out it's a 2.5 times higher.  So at this recent visit in Bangkok, I had a 2nd time encounter with a cheating driver.  Noticed the meter count ran unusually fast (3 times faster).  When it got at the first toll way in entering the city area, it showed 35.4 kilometres (double the actual distance). Then when it got near to the hotel in Sathorn, it showed 66.4 kilometres but it was then slower back to normal.  Supposed it shouldn't be over 35 kilometres if you are getting to areas like Siam/Sathorn/Sukhumvit.  The interesting part is that the taxi driver kept asking for the paper that the airport taxi counter put his driver's licence details on record.  I then claimed that I dropped it at the airport.  He repeatedly asked for that.  So when I got to the hotel, I told the front desk to check on his meter.  So the funny thing is that the driver made an excuse that his meter was fixed the night before and didn't know it wasn't fixed.  One lie over another.  Anyway, in order not say that I took advantage of the situation, I simply offered to the fare that I usually pay for the ride to Sathorn area, which is THB320 (including the THB50 Airport transportation charge).  Later on, I told the front desk to report it to the police as we shouldn't let him cheat more future victims.

Saturday, August 03, 2013

和成豐 Hua Seng Hong, Central World, Bangkok

Missed the headquarter of this shop for some acquainted friends.  Some left for good.  Some weren't in contact somehow.  Not in any need for a FB search, nor care for opening an account being searched for.  Rather put some memory in a frame, like a photo of the time and the light particle being frozen without any subsequently intruded.  Life is in moments.  To keep every moment intact, then to keep moving forward to create moments.  That's how I tried this new branch of Hua Seng Hong in Central World.  Still love their fried rice with preserved olive (photo 2) and their house signature dish stir fried rice noodle (photo 3) and their stir fried fish maw (photo 4).