I have very rarely had a bad experience with a taxi driver in my 10 years based in Bangkok. This post is for them!
Some expatriates I know give Bangkok cabbies a very poor wrap, but that’s probably got more to do with their own arrogance than anything that the drivers do or say. Some expatriates have become so cynical that they create their own problems when dealing with Thais of any occupation or social class. And they take great pleasure in describing how they really can’t understand “the mentality of these people”. I can only assume that the feeling is mutual!
Sure, you get the odd taxi driver who tries to take the pish; possibly more frequently with foreigners who look like they’ve just stepped off an airplane. (It always helps to learn a few local phrases, wherever you happen to be in the world.) But the vast majority of cab-men and -women are good people trying to make an honest living.
As it happens, many taxi drivers; possibly a majority, but I don’t actually know; sympathise with the UDD (Red Shirts). Let’s hope for the sake of their taxiing livelihoods that common sense returns to Thai politics!
