Monday, August 25, 2014

Cat and Mouse

Physical comedy translates well into many cultures, including in Thailand. In fact, slapstick comedy is extremely popular here, so it makes sense that Thais would appreciate the antics of the classic Warner Brothers characters, Tom and Jerry. The other day, my cabbie had a figurine with this famous cat and mouse duo on his dashboard, and the way he drove through the streets of Bangkok, I could tell he was a big fan of that cartoon. It felt like we were playing a game of cat and mouse the whole time.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

No Photos

One question I often get when people see my taxi photos is, "Do the drivers mind when you take pictures in their cabs?". I assure them that I always ask the cabbies if it's okay and I often tell the drivers about this blog or my book, Thai Taxi Talismans. Most of the time the cabbies are thrilled that I'm interested in Thai culture and are more than happy to let me take photographs in their cabs. But there have been a couple of instances when the drivers resisted. In one case, the cabbie was very superstitious and told me that he thought it was bad luck for me to capture the images of the Buddha and monks. Another driver insisted that I go to a temple instead where there were more things to photograph. While that may or may not be true, at the time I got the distinct feeling that he was just trying to rack up the fare driving me around Bangkok. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

(Not-So) Hot Taxi

From the moment I asked the driver to take me across town, I could tell that he wasn't so excited to make the journey. He immediately complained about the distance and the likelihood that we would encounter a traffic jam at that time of day. Then, all of a sudden, I noticed that he turned off the air-conditioner, and a few seconds later, he pulled the car to the side of the road. I asked him what was going on and he told me that the car was overheating. It made sense in this city of intense heat, but strangely, there were no red warning lights that went on and there were no other signs that the car was facing a problem. The only thing that was overheating was my body from the lack of air-conditioning and my temper from the whole situation. But I got out of the taxi anyway, and as he sped away, the car was miraculously working just fine again.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Taxis on the Fly

According to news reports, travelers flying into Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport will soon have less to be crabby about when queuing up for taxis upon arrival. Within the next few weeks, new kiosks will be installed along with a "state-of-the-art" computerized system. This will replace the antiquated method of airport staff manually writing down passengers' destinations on slips of paper. It should dramatically improve the airport taxi service so that travelers won't have to wait in seemingly endless lines for taxis after long flights. Let's hope that they will also train the staff working in those kiosks to be more efficient and that they'll find a way to keep unscrupulous taxi drivers in check.