Twisted Taxi!

So... here I am, free and clear of Immigrations with a three-month stamp in my passport. Light as air. Still, I had to look, just to make sure. ...Yep, 90 days from date of arrival. Good to go.

I decided to buy a ticket for the taxi so I could get the budget price and went outside to find one. I was directed to a car across the traffic island and got in. The young driver asked where I was going and I told him. He wanted to make sure how to get there, so he got out to talk to another driver.

"Better safe than sorry," I thought, even though I could tell him the directions once we were in S2. (Seremban 2).

After a quiet ride (which meant he could not speak any English), we arrived in Seremban. But, instead of U-turning into S2, this guy passed into Seremban 1 and, before I could stop him, headed off the road to a TOLL BOOTH!

"What are you doing? Don't go there! Don't! Stop!"

Did he stop? Nope. He went right out to the toll booth and PAID THE TOLL, heading to Port Dixon or who-knows-where-else!!

"Why you sleep?" he accused me.

What? I said, "Ok, you have to turn around. Get off the road as soon as you can and turn around." So, he did. But, this time we entered Seremban from the other side and I completely lost my bearings. I was trying to read the signs to direct him, but before I knew it, he had gone off the road AGAIN.

"Wait. Wait. What are you doing? Where are you going?"

He was driving without listening and apparently wasn't able to read the signs. I said,

"Jusco. You know Jusco?"

"Ah, Jusco. I know Jusco. Why you not tell me Jusco first time?"

I'm thinking, "Phew, he knows where Jusco is. We're home clear." But, he headed off in another direction, again, trying to go to Port Dixon!

I leaned into the front seat and said,

"See that sign? It says Seremban. Seremban is back that way," pointing behind us, "Make a U-turn, now. You know U-turn?"

He looked like he was falling off a cliff. But, he pulled into the right lane, so I was hopeful. Then, he drove off to a road leading off to the left without making a U-turn. That was it for me.

"STOP. STOP THE CAR." I said. And I jumped out.

So, there I was standing at an intersection somewhere in Seremban 3, in the middle of the night. There was little traffic and no taxis seemed to be passing by. I was too fuming and frustrated to care. My friends were waiting for me and I couldn't just sit in that guy's taxi all night. He would have ended up taking me to the coast or God-knows-where, round and round in circles

and I wouldn't have been able to explain to him how to get back.

So, there I stood. Then I started walking. Then a motorcycle pulled up.

He asked if I needed help and whether he could help me and I said he could and instinctively got on the back of his motor bike. (After using motorcycle taxis in Cambodia, it seemed like the natural thing to do.) He seemed a bit surprised and said I had no helmet but that he could take me to S2 anyway. So, he did. Friendly chap.

He let me off at the taxi stand at Jusco and I got the last taxi that was there. He took me to my friends' house, finally. Bless his heart. (I even gave him a tip, which is very uncharacteristic of me.)

My friend in Seremban 2 welcomed me back to Malaysia and then said, "Good-night."