Ridiculous demands and Pizza Hut.
We woke up the morning after wandering the night time streets feeling really ready to go. Our flight didn’t leave until later in the day so we had several hours to fill. We knew that asking a taxi to take us to one of the few remaining tourist attractions was out of the question. Instead, we decided to stay in our hotel watching Animal Planet for as long as possible.
Near midday we finally headed out in search of a restuarant where we could finish off those last few hours before heading to the airport. A taxi agreed to take us to where we were going for 50 takas. Very reasonable. Of course, we didn’t end up at our agreed upon destination. After a few extra trips around the block we decided that perhaps the restaurant didn’t actually exist. We decided to just let the driver drop us at Pizza Hut like he had already tried to do a few minutes before. This is when things got interesting.
I paid the driver but he would not accept the money. He kept smiling and saying, “50,000.” Remember how we agreed to pay him 50? Of course, we were not going to pay the taxi driver 50,000 taka when our hotel room cost 1,000 taka. What was he thinking? It didn’t take too long for a crowd to gather. After a lot of talking and shouting (not us) the price was lowered to 500 taka. Molly and I were not having it. Finally, someone came along who spoke English and both parties could explain the story. The referee agreed with us that 50 taka was a fair price for the ride. The driver was upset that he had to take so many trips around the block and therefore would only accept 150 taka for his troubles. At this point, Molly settled it. She half tucked, half tossed money at the driver so it would land on that little ledge your pants create with your shirt, declared “70 taka, finished!” and stormed off into the Pizza Hut. I was about .5 seconds behind her.
[Here are the amounts in US dollars: We agreed to pay $.65. The driver demanded $652. The dispute was settled with $.91.]
Over pizza Molly and I talked out what had happened. Settling money issues is by far my least favorite aspect of travel. It’s so frustrating when you think you’ve settled on a fair price but are surprised when you reach your destination. Usually, I don’t mind paying a little extra for drivers who work really hard getting you where you’re going… but I don’t like drivers who claim they know the way and then demand more money when they get lost. By the end of our pizza we were ready to giggle about it a bit. “50,000!” became our new favorite joke of the trip.
At this point we just decided to head to the airport early. Between the night before and our taxi kerfuffle, we were ready to go.
And then there was the plane ride.
xo, jill
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