Taxi in Kuala Lumpur

First of all, I would like to apologize to friends of mine who are currently staying in KL and consider Malaysia as their secondary country. The purpose of writing this post is not entirely for criticism. As the matter of fact, it is more like a guideline and the exposure of truth that anyone needs to know and deal with.

As anyone who has stayed in Malaysia, or particularly in Kuala Lumpur, the very first interesting thing that you will encounter is the taxi service here. The funny thing is that taxi meter here always works but also never works if you know what i mean. If anyone wishes to go for taxi here, bargain skill is needed in order to avoid getting ripped off too much. I have to emphasize too much here because either this way or the other, the passenger will get ripped off.

I, for many times, felt annoyed everytime coming here only because of this great service. As i was an international student, moving around the city was impossible due to no personal transportation. It ultimately became even more difficult for me because the only way to go around is by taxi.

In fact, taxi drivers here are excellent businessmen not only for their rip off skill but also their sense of location and time. The picture above was taken in front of my condo, a beautiful place which i called home for the last 3 years. These godfathers in the pictures are my regulars and the area where they park their cars can be called their encampment.  I had a feeling that i would build a small house there before which they would if it was not for the complaints of the local residents. They camp their 20 hours a day including weekends and holiday offering services to anyone who needs going around with extremely ridiculous price rate. Their offer price depends upon the condition of the present weather and the distant to the destination. For instance, from my condo to the nearest shopping complex which is SunwayPyramids will cost me RM7 (normal price for this would be RM4 if go by meter). Rainy day, price could go up to RM10 like nothing.

“Excellent service” is one thing, passengers here when taking taxi have to keep in mind to taste all sort of smells in the cab (sh**hole i might call it). It felt like shower is something real fancy to this particular class of people.

Coupon system does exist in KL. Many of you might wonder what that is. It can be explained in simple way, passengers need to pay fare first before boarding the cab which in the end get ripped off due to the expensive price. For me, it is a strange way of living because taking a cab is a fancy way but in KL, it is even more fancy due high price and useless meter system.

Living in KL is fun and personally i had a lot of good memories there. People are friendly, living cost is not too expensive compared to neighbour countries, infrastructure is outstanding. With such reputation, it is questionable that why taxi scam still exists. I certainly hope sometimes in the future, the government here should really do something to stop this madness from territorizing the city and destroying the good names that Malaysians have worked hard to build up.