A blog of everyday life and traveling experience.

Sabtu, 01 Juni 2013

Don't Trust "Most" of Taxi Drivers in Malaysia



So hello! It's been a while since my last post, sorry about that. Life is too hectic for awhile with final exams coming soon. Anyway, at the beginning of May I went to Malaysia to give a surprise to my sister. She took an English summer-course (even though it isn't summer yet) in Malaysia, and she didn't have any clue that I would come to visit her! (by the way I was fortunate enough to get good value ticket from Surabaya to Malaysia with Air Asia).

So I will not writing about my trip, well, I had a really good trip with my mother and my sister, but what I want to write is about Kuala Lumpur's transportation system. So I hope you find this post useful, and sorry if I have many grammar mistakes as you know I do not write in English often.

Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia. I have to admit that it is much cleaner than Jakarta. There are lots of public transportation in KL, such as commuters, busses, trains, etc etc. Unfortunately when we arrived we didn't know much about those public transportantions so instead of finding some connection from KL Central to our hotel, we decided to take a taxi.

And that's when my impression about Malaysia changed a bit.

I lied. It changed A LOT.

As we walked from KL Central, and parked taxis were appearing, some of the drivers have already offered us to take their taxi. But when my mother asked, "Do you use meter?" they suddenly disappering, and looked a bit angry. But then, one driver came and asked, "Where do you want to go?" My mother answered, "Cheras." Then he said, "30 Ringgit." For me who didn't know how far Cheras from KL Central would think that 30 Ringgit probably okay (Well, at that time I forgot to convert Ringgit to Rupiah), but my mother shook her head and said, "No. 20 ringgit." Then the driver said, "No 20 Ringgit!" and then he walked away, muttering to other driver, "Who want to 20 ringgit to Cheras?" That's why I lost those good impressions about Kuala Lumpur.

As a girl who used to travel with public transportations (trains, U-bahn, S-bahn), taxi is not one of my favourite kind of transportation. That's why I always suggest to my mother that we should use busses to go everywhere instead of taxing those taxi. But unfortunately, our hotel wasn't in the near of any bus stop (well, one day before we left KL we just knew that there was a bus stop in front of the hotel, but the bus didn't come too often) so we didn't have any choice. We had to go by taxi, or we had to walk to the nearest bus stop which was a bit far.

Okay. So next. One day we were at KLCC and wanted to go back to our hotel. It was raining, and we needed to take taxi. And the same thing happened again. Everytime my mother asked "Do you use meter?" they just shook their heads, looked angry, then drove away without say any word. I mean, you don't need to be angry! And when my mother finally decided to bribe, they offered the price THREE TIMES than it actual price. I hate those greedy drivers!

One tip from me : Never order a taxi by phone! (unless its the driver's number). If you aren't going to airport or to other far places, they'll call you back and say there is no taxi available.

But actually, one night we met a very friendly and nice driver. His name is Devan, and he's Indian. He's really talkative. We didn't need to bribe! And he's giving us his phone number too, no matter how near we go, he'll come to us. If you are happen to go to KL, and you want his number, just comment below or give me a message on my email!

I think that's all what I could write for this moment.
So here's some pictures from Malaysia:

KLCC

Mama in front of Istana Negara 

Yeay! She's surprised!

Genting Highlands


1 komentar on "Don't Trust "Most" of Taxi Drivers in Malaysia "
  1. halo, i need devan phone number, as i will go to malaysia tonight and will arrive at 23.00 local time...and untill 4 days later i will need taxi..please email me : novie_gieriwati@yahoo.com or give me inbox facebook : Novi Sunu Shri Giriwati

    BalasHapus