It has been a very tiring day; a humid 32degC is not really the ideal weather that you’d like when you need to walk around doing some errands and going to government offices. Despite this however, there were a lot of things to be thankful for – catching the train right on time (and catching the right train for that matter), getting inside an office a minute just before they closed and really helpful taxi drivers.

Now, for someone who has been a victim with a lot of opportunity-nabbing taxi drivers, the drivers I met earlier were really quite a blessing for me.

Name it, I experienced it, with Metro Manila taxi drivers – dropping me and my humongous luggage off in the middle of the highway because my destination has too much traffic along its route (he couldn’t refuse me while I was in the airport cause then they’ll be ticketed by the airport guard; charging me with a fee that’s almost close to extortion; going around in circles just so I’ll have a bigger tab; Fixing their meters in such a way that you’ll be charged much higher than the legal rate; keeping your change and assuming your change is your tip to them (which sometimes is actually 30% or more than the bill); and if you try to haggle with their excessive proposed fee, you’ll get an earful of his woes and laments with how hard life is; und so weiter.

In fairness not all Metro Manila drivers do that. We went to San Juan before and both to and fro our destinations, we had no complaints whatsoever with the taxi drivers. So naturally we give them a tip. And the smile on their faces was just so genuine and beaming with unexpected treat that your instinct would be to want to give him more tip.

My experiences with Manila taxi drivers were more than enough for me to be wary of them. However, albeit I’ve complained a lot about them to friends, I never really had the heart to report them to the authorities, especially those who cheat on the meter. I know I am not fulfilling my duty as a responsible citizen but if you think about the possible consequences it’ll bring them, the most extreme of which is for them to loose their jobs, you would just prefer to fume in the corner and let your anger subside after an hour or so. So, what happened today then that made me go wishing for better service in Manila?

Back in Manila, I rode a taxi once wherein the driver had to make a stopover by the side of the road ( I was really stressed at that time because I was on my way to the airport and I didn’t have much free time anymore) so that he can pee. I also road a taxi once wherein we had to make a stopover in the gasoline station for the driver to refuel. On both times, the driver had the meter running. I didn’t mind really. Even when they were charging me on something that I shouldn’t shoulder anymore.

But what happened this morning then? The taxi driver wasn’t sure of the address I gave him. So what he did was park the car on the side of the road, stop the meter, and checked his navi for directions. Technically, he was still doing the job since he was really searching for the destination’s address yet he still didn’t charge me for it.

Second taxi then. I was in Makati once and I wasn’t really familiar with the place so I asked a group of taxi drivers for directions. One of them said it’s really far and I had to take the taxi. I was really fuming mad when I discovered later that my destination was just a block away from my initial location. To the curious, there were no phones with GPS then.

Fast forward to this afternoon. When I got out of the train station, I asked the guard for directions. He told me my destination was two blocks away. It was only six minutes to my destination’s closing time and what with the heat, I really was too weak already to run. So I haled a cab. The driver almost didn’t allow me to get in because, he reasons, my destination is just less than two blocks away. But in my kindergarten Japanese I explained to him that the office was about to close so I was in hurry and it was only then that he relented.

A world of difference right? Ahhh, if only the smattering of good taxi drivers in Manila can multiply and influence their fellow drivers Manila then would be much much tourist friendly.