Unusual airport taxi/transport experiences

[Mattg]

I arrived today in Paramaribo, Suriname and took a shared taxi from the airport into the city, which is about a one-hour drive. The ride was in a minivan and there was one other passenger who I didn't know and was going to a different hotel.

Along the way, the driver decided to stop at several roadside fish stalls to do some shopping. At the last place, we even waited a good 10-15 minutes for the vendor to scale, slice and bag four large fish.

Before we eventually reached my hotel, the driver also detoured via his dad's house to drop off some of the fish he'd just bought. He still asked for a $5 tip when we arrived.

What memorable experiences have you had in taxis (or other transport) getting to or from airports?

 

[blackcat20]

My super shuttle driver in NYC hopped out while stopped in traffic to grab himself a hotdog from a nearby stand

 

[p--and--t]

Years back before UBER et Al, arrived at around 2:30am at MEL after a significantly delayed flight (was scheduled for arrival 10pm). The airport was nearly deserted.

Needed a taxi to get to my offsite private operator long term car park.

The taxi driver from the subcontinent was extreme angry verbalising he had been waiting for a fare for hours and now he was out of the queue for a 4km fare.

Got angrier and angrier and started speeding at 90kph+ thru Tullamarine back streets, drove straight over a traffic roundabout in lieu of following the road violently shaking the car. We demanded he stop immediately and got out to walk the rest of the way. I refused to pay him and said I would report to taxi board.

Got a whole string of expletives from him as he mounted the curb to do a U turn back to the airport and sped off like he was an F1 driver

 

[Mwenenzi]

Manda Airport for Lamu in Kenya is on a small island. Ferry ride to Lamu on the the mainland.

Manda Airport - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Manda Island - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Manda is an island of the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya, known for the prosperous 9th century ports of Takwa and Manda town. The island is now linked by ferry to Lamu and is home to Manda Airport, while Manda Toto island lies to its west. The island is separated from the mainland by the narrow Mkanda channel.

 

[Scarlett]

Interesting @Mattg.
What was the cost (aud equivalent) for the shared taxi versus taking one yourself?
Did your travelling companion make any remarks about the experience?

 

[Scarlett]

Two experiences I can think of were:
- the ride (taxi, or might have been a form of private hire car; can’t remember) from AMM, into accom in central Amman, hitting over 140kph on a couple of occasions.
- An Indonesian taxi driver pulling over to take a cough in an adjacent drain, mid-journey. Couldn’t see him, but that was the assumption given he grabbed the box of tissues and headed down a little bank for a couple of minutes.

 

[Gremlin]

My first time into HYD. First time in India. Was following on Google Maps to make sure my driver went the right way. Came to the exit ramp we wanted. Drives straight past. Only to then reverse up the on ramp. His reason? There was a toll booth at the exit ramp, which he could avoid by reversing up the on ramp.

 

[Rich]

Years back before UBER et Al, arrived at around 2:30am at MEL after a significantly delayed flight (was scheduled for arrival 10pm). The airport was nearly deserted.

Needed a taxi to get to my offsite private operator long term car park.

The taxi driver from the subcontinent was extreme angry verbalising he had been waiting for a fare for hours and now he was out of the queue for a 4km fare.

Got angrier and angrier and started speeding at 90kph+ thru Tullamarine back streets, drove straight over a traffic roundabout in lieu of following the road violently shaking the car. We demanded he stop immediately and got out to walk the rest of the way. I refused to pay him and said I would report to taxi board.

Got a whole string of expletives from him as he mounted the curb to do a U turn back to the airport and sped off like he was an F1 driver

Conversely after my first overseas trip many years ago, needing to get from Sydney international to domestic to get home to Adelaide (which didn't have an international airport back then) it was cheaper for the 4 of us uni students to get a taxi rather than the airport bus. Said taxi driver looked a little disappointed but didn't grumble. I still feel guilty for that.

 

[ellen10]

Flew into Florence airport. Decided to take the bus into the city, but when we got to the bus stop the queue was very long, as people started to board. We knew we would not fit on, but no, the bus driver kept physically pushing the standing people down the aisle. We were the last to board and were literally standing beside the driver. I faced the rear, my husband faced forward and he said it was the scariest trip he has ever been on.
The driver drove so fast, slamming on the brakes, yelling abuse and many hand gestures, at times I thought I would catapult through the front window. We were so glad to get off that bus!

 

[yachty]

Out of coughet Airport to Patong. Got a taxi with my then-partner, the taxi driver then took us via his house in a very similar story - to collect his wife and a bunch of her cooking in plastic bags which we then dutifully dispersed a few times along the route, complete with waiting for the requisite chatting, pointing out the bewildered tourists in the back, and taking off to the next stop!

 

[NM]

Arrived into Kyiv on a Friday evening, with Mrs.NM and three kids (6-10 years old) in tow. Due to a "lost in translation" confusion, our hosts thought we were arriving the following day. After completing arrivals processing, we entered the airport arrivals area and could not locate our hosts. Waited around for about 30 mins and by then it was dark and the airport almost deserted.

There was s small group of men standing around smoking and chatting. One of them approached me and asked if we needed transport. His English was marginally better than my par-ruski. All I could communicate was "Maybe ... Patom".

Thankfully my Aussie mobile phone had service and I had saved our hosts' home phone number, so I called. Mother was out babysitting a friend's family overnight and the two boys (aged 16 and 18) were home alone with no car. They younger boy spoke reasonable English (he had stayed with us in Australia when he was 12 as part of a medical charity trip), so we were able to let them know we had arrived at the airport. The phone was then handed to one of the men at the airport and a conversation was had between older brother and said man, making some sort of arrangements.

We were then informed that "this man will drive you. It is US$100".

Well, of course we knew that was an absolute rip-off price, but I had the cash and figured there was no alternate option and no ability to negotiate the price as there was no official taxi station and even if there was I did not know the address of where were going.

So the five of us and our luggage bundled into back of what is like an old Fort Transit van - sliding doors, a couple of back seats and no windows, more of a delivery van than a taxi. And off we went. Could not see where were going, and even if we could see out, it would not have meant anything anyway. Eventually he took a turn off the main road and drove down a narrow lane through a Forrest. I expect the driver could hear 5 heats pounding behind him as we had no idea what danger we had put ourselves in.

Anyway, about 2km along the Forrest track we saw some lights and buildings. Then he pulled over and hopped out and opened the back door and started unloading our luggage.

We had arrived at out our Ukrainian hosts apartment block and there were the two brothers very happy to see us. Hugs all round, and gratitude expressed to our driver.

That was one time I was almost happy to be ripped off for a very over-priced airport transfer.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Flew into Florence airport. Decided to take the bus into the city, but when we got to the bus stop the queue was very long, as people started to board. We knew we would not fit on, but no, the bus driver kept physically pushing the standing people down the aisle. We were the last to board and were literally standing beside the driver. I faced the rear, my husband faced forward and he said it was the scariest trip he has ever been on.
The driver drove so fast, slamming on the brakes, yelling abuse and many hand gestures, at times I thought I would catapult through the front window. We were so glad to get off that bus!

Haste must be a "Florence" thing as am sure we had Juan Fangio driving our taxi to FLR airport in 2019 @ellen10

 

[Willie]

I took a taxi from Melbourne CBD to MEL and the driver stopped at Weston Milling in North Melbourne to collect 2 x 25kg sacks of flour which were thrown in the boot... and off we went!
Hysterical...

Ooh ROo

Willie

 

[p--and--t]

Ordered a GRAB from Movenpick hotel to KLIA and this tiny little hatchback turned up that may have been presentable in the 70s and our luggage was.loaded in the back on top the remnants of what looked like various transports of soil, plants, animals and some chicken sh..

The smell certainly cleared the sinuses

 

[Mattg]

Interesting @Mattg.
What was the cost (aud equivalent) for the shared taxi versus taking one yourself?
Did your travelling companion make any remarks about the experience?

The shared taxi was around AUD40, I think a private vehicle would have been about AUD60 (if you could negotiate the price down) but I didn’t bother looking for one as the shared shuttle service seemed fine. There was quite a scrum in the airport arrivals hall as I’d come in on a full flight from Amsterdam - which seems to be the main event for the day at that airport.

The other passenger was an older French man who just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t seem to mind. (For the record, I didn’t really mind either - got to see a bit more of the country on the way to my hotel! It just added quite a bit of time to the trip.)

I understand Dutch and did hear the driver asking the lady scaling the fish to be fast. However, “snel” seems to have a slightly different meaning here.

 

[SeatBackForward]

If only taxi drivers put as much effort into delivering a good service as they did into trying to scam passengers..

 

[p--and--t]

Before visiting Manilla, a friend born and raised there told us he would never and advised us never to catch a taxi from the street. When leaving the hotel book a taxi through the concierge, get the taxi driver to meet the concierge, provide the drivers details and record the plate number.

We duly followed the advise and the concierge provided the address where we wanted to go translated to the driver.

Hopped in the cab and headed in the general direction of where we were going and I was following the journey on google maps when the cab took a sharp right and headed in another direction.

I challenged the driver who who said "you don't want to go there, I know a place with lots of friendly girls you will have fun there."

The arguing continued for a few minutes until we were obviously in a red light district and I demanded he stop and let us out. I refused to pay him and he sped off. Luckily my phone & google maps was still working and determined that our destination was about 2km away.

My heart was beating bit faster than usual as we passed some very dodgy places and people in the street until couple streets later we transitioned into what looked like a better class of suburb and made our way to the intended destination on foot.

 

[leadman]

My favourite, but sadly gone, was the tuk tuk aka Remorque from the old Siem Reap airport into town. We held the conference there last year and I was picking up international guests and taking them back to the hotel in them, the USA people were blown away. Best part was going via Angkor Wat.

 

[RooFlyer]

I had a frightening experience at Accra many years ago.

it was at night and I was picked up a taxi and directed him to my hotel. Just after leaving the Airport precinct, he turned off the road into a run-down, darkened street and stopped. I was cacking myself. Fortunately he just walked to the book, did something, and we drove off.

 

[RooFlyer]

And of course no taxi driver in Santiago would be complete without three phones and a car screen, and they can use them simultaneously!