Somethings are just idiotic. A prime example is 10,000 of the 10,001 taxis in Shenzhen having their shift change at exactly the same time, 7am and 7pm every day. If you aren’t going in the direction the taxi driver wants to go, so that they can switch drivers, they will flat out refuse to take you as a fare starting around 6pm.
Forget about a little quiet now that the taxi companies are rapidly installing little TVs on the back side of the front seat headrests. Loaded with ads, bootleg copies of Mr. Bean, ABC’s Funniest Home Videos and the Tom and Jerry cartoons these user friendly TVs at least can generate a laugh. Highly doubt they are paying in royalties on these noisemakers though. At least the TV’s can be “muted” which lasts all of 30 seconds if you hit the “Mute” button, but if you hit the rewind or fast forward button they are quiet for about 2 minutes while it figures out which way to go. No quality checks peformed before they were installed and I might even guess they were painted with Lead based paint.
Even louder and an instant headache maker for me are the walky talky type radios the drivers love to talk on. A common occurence is to get into a taxi, either one that has been parked waiting for a fare or one that I flagged as they drive around looking for a victim, and as soon as you shut the door and they pull away they call their fellow driver buddy on their walky talky. These things have this ear screeching 3 beep every time they send or receive. And they are talking about nothing…At least if it was the traffic report or conditions to where we were headed I could tolerate it for a minute or two. But they just yap, yap, yap.
Then the driver’s buddy tells him to listen to the radio so they can talk about the last call, radio gets turned on which only seems to come through the speaker right behind my seat. Since I am sitting in the back, and the driver is in the front, he has to turn up the radio so he can hear it over the beeping and yapping of his friend through the walky talky. At least I can understand a little of the radio talk since it is Mandarin versus the Cantonese conversation of the drivers.
I notice the driver is going a little fast and in the wrong lane to make my street so I tell him to turn at the next intersection. Doesn’t even hear me. I try again, not quite yelling “turn at the next street”. He is too engrossed in debating with his buddy over the walky talky about the radio show to hear me so I yell this time “TURN HERE”. He turns around and says “what”? I practically scream “TURN”. He turns down the radios a little and says the name of my garden with what sounds like a question and I just reply softly “yes”.
As I get out of the taxi, he turns off the radio show and signs off with his buddy on the walky talky. Guess he figures he deserves a little quiet since he had to drive out of his way…
Tomorrow I am going to work until 6 and walk home.
Coming soon: Bus BO and Corolla Cash
