Rain has strange effect on taxi meters
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On Wednesday evening a huge thunderstorm hit Bangkok and we were back to the days before taxi meters. I dined at a restaurant on Suriwongse Road with foreign friends staying at a hotel in Thonburi.
It cost them Bt65 to get to the restaurant. After our meal there must have been 20 or more patrons (all non-Thai) outside the restaurant trying to get a taxi in the pouring rain. The road was thick with taxies and I asked no less than 12 taxi drivers to take my friends back. All refused to use their meter and asked for between Bt120 and Bt200. Finally, out of pity for my friends, who were in danger of getting very wet, I put them into a taxi costing Bt120.
Imagine the impression made by the taxi drivers preying on all these tourists. Surely something can be done to control these twisters.
Hugh Walford
Bangkok
