Kamis, 07 Juli 2011

Remembering when...

How many people do you think can snug in the taxi or bajaj?

I think there is a rule that there can be no more than 4 people inside taxi. As I remembered a taxi's driver once told me that if he have more than 4 people he could get heavy fine from the police. For Bajaj, well...I am sure there must be a maximum limit for Bajaj as well in terms of having passengers.

If you have seen Bajaj then you know that there is no way more than 3 people could be inside it. But since we need to save money and as long as the driver did not mind then let's have 6 people inside it :D



The last time I did that when I was about to go somewhere along with other 5 classmates. We obviously a lot smaller back then compare to our weight now. So, even though the driver sort of give a loud of sigh seeing all of us he did not angry or anything like that. I suppose he understood that being high school students (well, at least during my time) we do not have too many allowances. He then just laughed and let us all trying to force our way into his Bajaj :D We were lucky that his bajaj did not have flat tire or anything like that.

Other time, I was waiting like forever for this regular bus at terminal Grogol West Jakarta. I was still a college's student back then.

I looked around the terminal and realized that there are a lot of people keep on coming and waited for the same bus. I have already imagined how crazy the struggle that I have to do for getting inside the bus. If the bus ever going to come.



  Then a young woman; probably a few years older than me approached me. She asked me whether I headed to this direction around East Jakarta. I nodded to confirm as I did not give her my complete home address. Then she asked me whether I want to join with her and others to grab a cab and share the expenses together. Without further thinking I said yes and then accompanied her to look for other passengers. Come to think of it, kinda crazy to just say yes and go with complete strangers cramped together inside a taxi. But I was desperate to o home as soon as possible as it was no longer daylight. In the end she manage to find 4 more people who have same direction with the two of us. All of us went out from the terminal and soon get a cab. You can imagine how we all tried so hard to sit side by side inside the taxi. Since the first woman who asked all of us have the longest destination, she sat in the front. You have no idea how happy I was when the taxi finally reached my destination. I hurriedly gave her my share to pay the fare and quickly get out from the cab. Funny now that I realized I never saw any of them again up to this very day.


*Nowadays, I would not recommend you to just go along with strangers just because you have waited the bus for eternity. Better tired to wait for the bus rather than being robbed by strangers who take advantage of your situation*

4 komentar:

  1. I agree with you, sharing a taxi with 3-4 other people that we do not know is naif therefore not recommended.

    BalasHapus
  2. at least, now Bajaj(blue Bajaj) has wider space for people sitting! :D

    BalasHapus
  3. Hi
    Back in England, Taxi drivers get face huge penalties even jail if they put too many people in their cab, although I do remember having a friend put in the trunk of a cab once, we paid a little extra.
    Here, I have done 7 and 7 big westerners, 2 in the front seat, 5 in the back. It was not too far - Kalideres to Thamrin... good times. The driver seemed happy enough and no harm done.

    BalasHapus
  4. @Harry : so true... Now we can't trust almost anybody :(

    @Jasmine : true with lesser noise :D

    @Luke: hi Luke! Long time not hearing from you... Haaa, well you know we Indonesian can be cheapskate on taxi fares... We often insist the driver to take us all and don't care the driver could get heavy fine... :S

    BalasHapus

Thanks for reading and feel free to give any comments :)