KL Photo Album Above
TUK-TUK drivers on Phuket may overcharge, but at least you know that you are being ripped off. On the other hand, the taxi drivers of Kuala Lumpur are thoroughly cunning and deceitful.
There are probably taxi drivers in the Malaysian capital who are honest and never cheat. But the bad ones excel at being evil, giving the whole taxi industry there a bad name.
My experience on a recent visa run involved calling a taxi to take me from the hotel to the bus terminal. We agreed a fee of 30 ringgit, based on a trip a couple of days earlier going the other way.
The taxi driver, however, dropped me at the rail terminal, probably less than one third the distance, all the time happy to pretend that it was the bus terminal.
I should have known better, having been told the experience of a friend whose shopping trip to KL was spoiled by a taxi-driving malcontent. She was so upset that she wrote a letter of complaint to Tourism Malaysia.
''I had waxed lyrical about the Malaysian people, food, shopping, nightlife etc and so my friends were keen to visit the city,'' she wrote.
''We had a lovely time right up until the last couple of hours, when the following event took place:
''We left Suria twin towers shopping mall in order to take a taxi to the airport. There are stands outside the mall advising shoppers to avoid 'taxi touts' and to proceed to the taxi stand - which we duly did.
''We spoke with the taxi driver and he agreed to take us to the budget airport for our AirAsia flight. In the taxi, the driver said that he would take us instead to the train station.
''We said that we wanted to take a taxi, and that he should stop and let us out if he did not want the fare. He said that was fine and we proceeded on our way.
''At the exit for the airport, we questioned the driver about the terminal - we again said we needed to go to the budget terminal for our AirAsia flight to Phuket. The driver insisted he was taking us to the correct terminal.
''Once at the airport, the driver demanded 321 ringgit ''plus 30 ringgit for the return journey.'' We expressed our shock, quoting the price we had paid from the airport to KL (93 ringgit).
''Obviously, we were happy to pay a little more, but not three times as much. The driver started to become abusive and refused to release the trunk, where our baggage was stored.
''We explained that he would have to come into the airport with us to the ATM (as we did not have enough cash to pay such an extortionate fare).
''The driver refused to enter the airport, and took 150 ringgit from us and released our luggage.
''As he got back into his taxi, he shouted over to us that he had purposely brought us to the wrong terminal! He proceeded to drive away, leaving us stunned and upset.
''We then had to pay a further 50 ringgit to get to the correct terminal. Luckily for us, the AirAsia crew allowed us to check in, rather than charge us for new tickets and make us take the next flight (which would have been the following day).''
So there's the KL taxi driver for you. My experience only confirmed the warning that my friend had given me.
Our advice would be to note the taxi number and driver's name as soon as you board, and never trust a word they say.
The advice to my friend from Tourism Malaysia: catch the train or the bus.
An upside (literally) of the visa run was a hotel room that gave me a stunning view of the twin towers, a structure I'd never previously thought very imposing.
Now I'd rate it among the great sights of cities in Asia. See what you think of the Photo Album, and make a vista run soon.
Please tell us your taxi story, via the Comment box below
Nah. Taxis on Samui far worse. They carry machetes.
Posted by Andrew on March 29, 2009 19:00