Taxi Horror Stories
Well, I have two taxi horror stories to relate. Once, in L.A., a shuttle
driver promised me that he would get me to my hotel in under 20 minutes
from LAX. During early rush-hour traffic, he realized that he wouldn't be
able to both keep his promise and obey conventional traffic
ordinances. He not only ran red lights, failed to stop for pedestrians in
the street (cause, you know, nobody walks in L.A., after all), but
he also jumped the median separating the north and south bound freeway
lanes and began to drive the wrong direction on the shoulder of freeway
next to us. Then, upon jumping back to our proper northbound lanes, he had
to immediately stomp on his brakes so he could then back-up on the freeway
to take the exit we had just passed. My God, I truly didn't think we
would make it alive. But, he did make it in under 20 minutes!
My second harrowing experienced occurred in Cannes-LaBocca, located right
next to Cannes,
France. I, along with 80 other college students from around the world, were
there attending the annual
film festival as part of Kodak's worldwide Emerging Film Makers
Programs. By the end of the
festival, of course, we were all very tired, very broke, and looking
somewhat forward to a leisurely
journey back to the States. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 1pm and
the charter bus (all 80 of us
had prepaid $50 each for this charter bus to take us to the airport on the
scheduled day) was to arrive
at 9am, to deliver us to the airport by 10am...plenty of time to make the
international flight to JFK.
Well, when at 10am came and went, and the Bus never showed, all 80 of us
began to panic and we all
began to call taxis in pairs to get us individually to the airport. To put
the crisis into context, Cannes-La Bocca and Cannes are very small touristy
districts...they only have maybe 15 taxis between the two towns. Plus, all
the cabs are the size of Rabbits...really, only two people with luggage
could fit
comfortably in one...Plus still, it is a 45 minute minute commute to the
airport from the hotel. So, my
friend Kevin and I decided to take our chances with the taxis.
After spending two hours waiting on pins
and needles for our turn to arrive, we finally were able to hail a cab. We
climb inside only to discover that the cabbies had preset the meter to
begin the fare at 450 francs (which at the time was roughly $80 in American
currency). The cabbies told us that they were currently having a 'taxi
shortage' thus, they were legally allowed to charge what ever basic fee
they wished. As it was now after 12pm (our flight, remember was due to
leave at 1pm), we weren't in any position to argue.
Upon reaching the airport, the total fare was over 900 francs! Kevin and I
only had between us just over 800 francs...and the cabbies wouldn't take
any American currency...Yet, he was unusually interested in the watch I was
wearing (which now read 12:45pm) I offered the watch in lieu of the
remaining 100 francs. He wavered somewhat, then finally accepted. So, the
end is happy, Kevin and I make it to the plane less than three minutes
before scheduled takeoff.
So, those are my stories! Thanks for the chance to unload!
Liza
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