Give me a ride.

I think I have mentioned that I take the bus to work. The public transportation here is great - clean, efficient, cheap. However, although I try to take the bus as much as possible, I also tend to take taxis quite a bit. Taxis are abundant here because owning your own car is outrageous. Because this is a small island, the government taxes cars at a high rate to avoid congestion on the roads.

On one hand, I really enjoy taking taxis. The cab drivers are reliably friendly and the cars are always clean and in good condition. The fares are cheap - I've never driven anywhere that has cost more than SGD 15 (USD 10) and that trip involved several stops and waiting. In addition, as you may expect to find in Asia, the taxi system has some neat technology integrated into it. If you have called a cab before, the next time you dial the number, you hear a recording offering to send a cab to the top three places you have been picked up before. But, get this, they use GPS with your phone signal so that the first pick up point is always the one closest to where you are. For example: when I call from my home it always asks if I want to be picked up there as option 1. When I call from work, my office is always option 1.

Once in the cab, the technology continues. I have had cabs where the driver pushes a button or pulls some sort of invisible lever that opens my door. It is also not uncommon to hear a recorded woman's voice say, "Please buckle your seatbelt" when you get in and "Please pay ____. Did you leave anything behind?" when you get out. As an added bonus for the drivers, a lot of cabs have small monitors in them that have map functions and also allow them to bid on upcoming jobs by touching the screen if they want the call.

On the other hand, there are several downsides to taking taxis. On more than one occasion I have been in a taxi that smelled remarkably like fritos. And there were no fritos in sight. I looked. Also, almost all of the cars are manual. And almost none of the drivers know how to drive without making me carsick. It is almost like they shift into second gear and then step on the gas until the engine starts to pull, at which point, instead of shifting into third, they step completely off the gas, which results in a constant bucking during your trip. But, I can live with that. The thing that blows my mind though, is that despite the fancy computerized maps, my taxi drivers have gotten lost numerous times. This has happened even when I have given specific directions. I mean, really, this is an ISLAND. And it isn't big. There are only so many streets. It's especially ridiculous when you consider that most of these drivers have lived here their entire lives. I've only been here for 4.5 months and I know my way pretty well already. So I guess this means that if things don't work out at my current job I have a back up career waiting for me.