Taxi Drivers
August 16th 2010 07:31
Taxi drivers
Living in Egypt there are some definite highs and lows and moments of feeling like an outsider or as a 'foreigner'. Today a friend and I decided to go to a beach area called Lagoona. Just to get to this place was a frustrating and annoying experience that seemed to last a lifetime and this is why.
First thing is that you need to drive to Lagoona and seeing as we both don't have cars we need to call a taxi. Now there are no yellow taxis where the car has a registered license and photo as we have in Australia or in other parts of the world, instead there are pick up trucks with dirty drivers that complain constantly about the money offered as there is no metre of course.
So the taxi driver comes this afternoon and as I soon as I see his face my intuition tells me I've got a dud one. I suppose almost two years of taking these taxis I can determine from a face just how my service in this car will be. As we begin to drive after I have got the dog in the back the driver constantly looks to the passenger side of the car, at me. He is driving as slow as a turtle and constantly asking 'alatool?', and I answer 'alatool' as usually when driving you should continue to go straight ahead unless someone tells you elsewhere right? Or am I wrong? Is it my mistake to not repeat alotool ten million times if we are going along a long straight road? We obviously weren't off to a good start.
We finally reached my friends house in Asala and I got out of the car to help her with her dogs to place them in the back of the pick up. I start to take down the latches to open the back and the wood that was not attached at all feel out of me. Struggling to keep it up with my arms while Jessica attached the dogs the driver continued to watch from the seat and do nothing to help me. Thanks Mr driver!
So we were finally on our way but now having two girls in the front of the two seated pickup I had to sit very close to the driver. The driver motioned for me to come, come and I stayed as far away but not being able to steer too far away with the room that was there. Therefore I was sitting very close to the gear stick. So we set off for Lagoona, but not very quickly as the driver decided he needed to keep between 2nd and 3rd gear with his hand constantly on the gear stick so he could indeed be near my body. I'm not too sure about everyone else but I thought driving was about keeping two hands on the wheel at all times, and only using your hand to change gears when necessary. Oh nope not in Egypt!
So I was starting to feel uncomfortable and noticing his hand placed where it was so I grabbed my bag and tried to place it between my body and his hand on the gear stick. Still he didn't get the point and just tried to manoeuvre around he bag to still constantly hang onto that gear stick. Eventually I just said stop and I got out of the car, as Jessica and I got into the back of the pickup to sit with the dogs. Because we actually felt safer with dogs then this man makes me question humanity. The worst thing was that he had no idea why we would want to do such a thing and he really didn't know what he had done wrong. A case of no brains, or no limits or a bad upbringing or no morals, I'm not sure which one but I was disgusted by his on purpose actions.
After some bumping in the back over the dirt roads we finally got to our destination, Lagoona. The peaceful, flat sparkling sea with the mountainous backdrop was finally achieved. What an effort I say to get to a beach! But what a paradise it is to forget all about the tough moments of living in a foreign country. Appreciation is a lesson learnt while travelling and I appreciate my home country more and more with every step of the way.
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