Saturday, November 12, 2011

Reunion Sabah trip - Unforgettable taxi experience in KK town

4/11.(Friday)
         7pm- arrived at KK T2 airport.
         8pm- dinner at Welcome Seafood at Asia city
       10pm- checked in Tune Hotel KK
_________________________________________________________________________________
 Upon arrival at airport, we bought a airport voucher for MPV at RM42 to Welcome Seafood restaurant at KK town. The unscrupulous taxi driver drove us to another restaurant 300m, (Twin Sky restaurant if not mistaken), lying to us this is the place, and the MPV was gone in a blink. The waitress (who collaborate with the taxi driver)  from that restaurant tried to make us stay for dinner but with no avail. We insisted of going to Welcome Seafood restaurant. Starved, we dragged our bulky bags across few roads and reached the hotel in 15mins.
 Saefood is the selling point, the best shell dish had been sold out. We accidently ordered prawn mantis, which was RM120/kg. Here is how the waiter lured us into ordering that.
Waiter : Looked at this prawn mantis, fresh and the must-try in KK.
Me : How much is this? (being cautious)
Waiter : Arhh, not to worry, just take three prawns not going to cost much.
Me : Ok, but....... (my dad gave me a disapproving look for probing more)
End up having the seafood dinner at the bill of RM179 for 6 pax. Price moderate, just unhappy that the prawn mantis alone costing RM80 while the oyster is merely RM18 for 3 huge one!
                                                                     My favourite oyster





Finished the dinner at 930pm, I knew there was a free bus shuttle at the bus stop in front of Warisan Square, last trip at 10pm. Persuaded my parents into walking another 15mins only to found that the last bus was gone at 9:30pm instead of 10pm. The counter guy acted arrogantly when i queried the schedule discrepancy between internet and actual.


Pissed, we turned to the taxis lined up in front of us. These taxi drivers had been monitoring us since we walked up to the bus station, they knew we were were unable to get a bus to Tune Hotel, definitely had to go to them. Thus just stared blankly at us, without even bother to offer.


We were in the middle of the KK town, 5mins drive to Tune Hotel at One Borneo. Exhausted, with all the luggage around us, helpless to be slaughtered by these cold blooded taxi drivers.


We kept staring at each other for half minute, finally i gave up and walked up to them, putting up a smile and ask for taxi to Tune Hotel and the fare.
               "RM40 one car, you guys need 2 cars at least" Taxi driver A said.
Two taxi is fine with me, but I knew the taxi that goes by metre is about RM15, but i know he definitely wont agree.
              "Bang, tolong ON meter, kita ikut metre la" I pleaded.
              "Kalau nak meter, tunggu la sampai esok pagi. Malam tak der meter lagi" he folded             
               his arm arrogantly and turned away.
             "We are screwed, damn it!" I thought.
             "RM20 satu taxi, jumlah RM40, itu harga I bayar pergi One Borneo" i tried to 
               reasoned out, raising my voice to tell other taxi drivers around. 


The guys just sneered at me, ignoring my plea.


                  "Seems like there is no room of negotiation, fxxk it then!" I thought, 
                  start picking up luggage and all of us began walking.
                 "It was so late already and its fine for double charge...", my dad began murmuring.


Kept walking, I was struggling in my heart, praying for other taxi to pick us up, i know the fact that we couldn't walk far.
God answered my prayer! The other taxi drivers caught up with us, offering a ride at RM20 and we reached Tune Hotel safely. Thanks for the warm-hearted Samaritan taxi driver!


Thanks for being patience with my rather long winded description, there is a reason for it.


I had been travelling to different countries, fully aware and suffered the slaughter by those tuk-tuks or taxi drivers. I understood their state of poverty. Nevertheless, here even i spoke the native language with them, reasoned out the price with them and yet they insisted on extorting us after looking at the plight we were in. 


These merciless blood sucker, they are the black sheep, which many tourists labelled Malaysia as country with unreasonable taxi prices, unscrupulous taxi drivers. There were endless complaint that the drivers were unwilling to switch on the meter although they were supposed to do so. Even me, local breed Malaysian can't handle the atrocity doing, what more the Orang Puteh


Often they ended up paying the hefty fare and accept the offer, cursing all the way to their destination... Pathetic right?