Back in the NYC, again.
As I write this, I'm sitting in the terminal at Knoxville's McGhee-Tyson airport. I probably won't have the opportunity to post it until I get to NYC tonight, though... arrangements have been made with my regular NYC driver, Khalid, who happens to be a super-cool dude.... I met him by chance a couple of years ago and found out that he offers a towncar-type service with his Tahoe, which just happens to be equipped with a boomin sound system, Xbox with monitors in the back of the headrests, and 24" chrome. Ridin' in style, baby... Plus, he takes credit cards, which is the big selling point to me- I can put it on the company card as opposed to taxis, where I have to spend my own cash and then wait for the company to pay me back.
I've had some really, um, interesting experiences in taxis and hired vehicles around the world. Among the more notable-
- a driver in Denver who wanted to actually fight me because I didn't need to go the airport. Apparently, if you're not going to the airport, in most major cities, you're a waste of time to a taxi driver.
-a driver in New York who was obviously in the middle of a serious binge on something. Him falling ASLEEP at the first red light should've been my clue, but instead, I had to be a true genius and wait until something really noteworthy happened. He cut off and then sideswiped an SUV before an undercover NYPD car got behind him with lights going. He actually tried to run from the cops, but traffic at Times Square wouldn't allow it. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with being in this situation. When they catch up to us in a traffic jam, one officer pulls the taxi driver out and handcuffs him while the other gets my bags out of the trunk, hails me another taxi, and tells me that he's really sorry if I'm late to work.
- a taxi in Paris which had a strange substance splattered on its headliner. A substance which had a remarkable likeness to semen. I've got a cameraphone pic of it somewhere... not that you'd wanna see, anyway.
-hmmmm.....somewhere in SoCal. After a full day of surfing, and hanging out on the beach, I'm shitface drunk. Catching a ride back to my hotel after wrapping up the night at a CRAZY house party with some friends, I ask my taxi driver to stop at 7/11 - so I could get some snacks and Red Bulls for the morning, which I was quite obviously going to need. He came inside, too, asked me if I was "cool," and bought some Swisher Sweets. And when I got back to the car? Yep, he was rolling a blunt. Shamelessly. And that's where I'll end that story...
-New York, again. Infact, this was only about 3 weeks ago... it was piss-pouring rain, I had about 25 more blocks to walk, and I was looking like a half-drowned hippie. And so I hailed a cab. He cracks his window, and asks where I'm going. Being that I know the "rules," I try to get in. And he had the doors locked. Dick. He then proceeds to negotiate with me through a 1" opening in his window (as I stand in the rain) as to how close to my hotel he'll actually take me. He only wanted to go to 24th street, but my hotel was on 30th. I finally talked him up to 28th, and then bribed him into going on ahead to 30th once we got close.
-a (Mercedes) taxi driver in Germany (Munich, maybe?) who took us to a deserted parking lot and did some wicked doughnuts just to prove that his car had balls.
-trying to get my buddy Brian in a taxi after he had puked ALL OVER himself. They would pull up, see that we were holding him up, take one look at him, and speed off. But that's a a story that I should elaborate on another day. It really deserves it's own post.
I could go on forever, but I've probably been long-winded enough for this one.
I'm working on a few other posts, some of which will be juicy and fun, so stay tuned.
-t
I've had some really, um, interesting experiences in taxis and hired vehicles around the world. Among the more notable-
- a driver in Denver who wanted to actually fight me because I didn't need to go the airport. Apparently, if you're not going to the airport, in most major cities, you're a waste of time to a taxi driver.
-a driver in New York who was obviously in the middle of a serious binge on something. Him falling ASLEEP at the first red light should've been my clue, but instead, I had to be a true genius and wait until something really noteworthy happened. He cut off and then sideswiped an SUV before an undercover NYPD car got behind him with lights going. He actually tried to run from the cops, but traffic at Times Square wouldn't allow it. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy with being in this situation. When they catch up to us in a traffic jam, one officer pulls the taxi driver out and handcuffs him while the other gets my bags out of the trunk, hails me another taxi, and tells me that he's really sorry if I'm late to work.
- a taxi in Paris which had a strange substance splattered on its headliner. A substance which had a remarkable likeness to semen. I've got a cameraphone pic of it somewhere... not that you'd wanna see, anyway.
-hmmmm.....somewhere in SoCal. After a full day of surfing, and hanging out on the beach, I'm shitface drunk. Catching a ride back to my hotel after wrapping up the night at a CRAZY house party with some friends, I ask my taxi driver to stop at 7/11 - so I could get some snacks and Red Bulls for the morning, which I was quite obviously going to need. He came inside, too, asked me if I was "cool," and bought some Swisher Sweets. And when I got back to the car? Yep, he was rolling a blunt. Shamelessly. And that's where I'll end that story...
-New York, again. Infact, this was only about 3 weeks ago... it was piss-pouring rain, I had about 25 more blocks to walk, and I was looking like a half-drowned hippie. And so I hailed a cab. He cracks his window, and asks where I'm going. Being that I know the "rules," I try to get in. And he had the doors locked. Dick. He then proceeds to negotiate with me through a 1" opening in his window (as I stand in the rain) as to how close to my hotel he'll actually take me. He only wanted to go to 24th street, but my hotel was on 30th. I finally talked him up to 28th, and then bribed him into going on ahead to 30th once we got close.
-a (Mercedes) taxi driver in Germany (Munich, maybe?) who took us to a deserted parking lot and did some wicked doughnuts just to prove that his car had balls.
-trying to get my buddy Brian in a taxi after he had puked ALL OVER himself. They would pull up, see that we were holding him up, take one look at him, and speed off. But that's a a story that I should elaborate on another day. It really deserves it's own post.
I could go on forever, but I've probably been long-winded enough for this one.
I'm working on a few other posts, some of which will be juicy and fun, so stay tuned.
-t
posted by tjayswift at 1:14 AM
1 Comments:
I've had a couple of good ones:
A cab in Ulsan, South Korea that actually got air over a hump in the road.
A 100+ mph cab ride across Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the cab was a Renault!
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