F*** Cabbies!

I have talked and raved about how awesome the public transportation system is here.  The subways, the buses, and even the taxis are pretty good.  When I was living in Busan I always carried 20,000 Won (around $19) for emergency cab fare.  That cash would get me anywhere in the city that I could ever want to get to, in no time at all.  After the other night, however, I have come to the conclusion that I need to stay as far away from taxi cabs as I can.  It might just be the fact that I am in Seoul or that I had to get a ride after the subway closed, but no matter the reason it sucked. 

Tyrel, a friend of mine from back in the states, was on his way back to the US from Japan and stopped in Korea for a quick visit. Tyrel, you are an awesome human.  I was at work and Rachel was also a wonderful person and hopped the long train ride to go and pick him up.  After I got out of work, all of us decided that we needed large amounts of food.  Seeing as how none of us really gets the chance to eat western food too often, we elected for hiking out to the foreign section of town for fish and chips, burgers, and a couple of beers.  We ate too much (turns out it was 2 for 1 night on said fish and chips) and had a few very expensive beers.  I get out of work fairly late and the subways run only a little past midnight. This is where we ran into trouble. 

With the subways closed, we needed to get home by cab.  I have had trouble getting a taxi in this part of town before, and this night was no different.  It was bitter cold and we were several hours away on foot.  3 separate cabs drove up to us and asked where we wanted to go, shook their head, and then drove off.  One even went so far as to lock their door when we got close, only to unlock them when a local got close.      

       

After several failures, another cab drove up and asked where we wanted to go.  I told him where, he understood and then demanded (around) $40 to take the three of us.  Now I have made this trip by cab before and it does not cost $40, more like $8.  I looked back at Rachel and Tyrel, then my watch, then the cabbie (let’s call him Niko).  I rolled my eyes realizing that this was probably the best that we were going to get.  That’s when I got scared.  Now I knew that cabbies were a little dangerous, but Niko was insane.

Before I talk about that I wish to describe a particular moment that happened a few weeks back.  Rachel and I were walking home from the store and were standing at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change.  I began to notice that several cars had driven past us in the direction that we were walking.  The light was red, but they were still driving.  This wasn’t something small, such as one or two cars, but more like watching traffic slow down for a moment instead of stop.  We watched as car, car, moped, car, taxi, car, city bus, car, car, truck, city bus, taxi, car, car, drove through the clearly marked red light.  Rachel and I have come to the conclusion that traffic signals here are more of what you would call guidelines rather than actual rules.  Which brings me back to being in the cab with Niko. 

As no doubt some of my younger readers have already concluded, Niko was not what you would call a safe driver.  There was an old game called Crazy Taxi that I am now reminded of.  

Yeah, it was like that.  We were speeding through red lights, yellow lights, turns, curves, and in and out of lanes.  We wandered into a bus lane, and even made a new lane at one point as we squeezed through a small space to make a right hand turn that we really shouldn’t have, given the fact that there was a truck coming. Tyrel was gripping the seat.  Rachel was getting queasy.  And I was making peace with the universe.  The good thing was that we got back to our stop in record time. 

For some of you, who thought that haggling was an option at the beginning, consider that he would have just driven off like the many others before him.  I tried haggling at the end of the trip and he was starting to give me this “you better give me 40 or we are going to throw down” look.  Essentially I got robbed.  It was necessary, but I got robbed.  The moral of the story is this.  If you need to take a cab at night in Seoul, be aware that they can pretty much do whatever they want.  If they want to charge more money they will, and they can get away with it because there are no other options.  Oh, and f*** Cabbies.