I hate taxi drivers

Taxis are very easy to come by. I just walk out of my apartment door and one will be right there ready to be hailed. There are so many of them around, and it's very convenient. Unfortunately, we spend a ton of dirhams to use a taxi because we have to use them all of the time. There isn't much more of a public transportation system than this.

One thing is for sure-if you pick up a taxi in Sharjah, GUARANTEED they will not know where they are going. It's almost uncanny how bad of taxi drivers they are. They pretend for a little while, but you can tell that they just suck. They have to call their friends and sometimes have to actually STOP and ask another taxi or a passerby. Now, I had the crowning taxi experience of my time here in the UAE. I was heading to Dubai to go for drinks with someone, and this taxi driver (from Sharjah) pretended to know where he was going. When I told him where I wanted to go, he had to have me repeat it a few times, and then he called a friend to see where it was. Then he kept driving and thought he knew where he was going. Then he took me to a place nearby where I was going, but he still didn't know, so he had to stop a parking director and a hotel attendant to ask where he was going. We continued driving for about 10 more minutes (this journey has been about 30 minutes so far, and Dubai is more like 20 minutes away). He's on a huge highway, and I'm chilling in the back, thinking everything is ok. Then I see him shake his head, and he tells me, "I don't know this. I don't know where I'm going. I'll drop you off here, and you pick up taxi." I was PISSED. Imagine my delight when I was promptly dropped off on the side of a highway where there was a bit of construction and left to my own devices!! I thought, "ok, I'll just wave for a taxi when one drives by." First of all, hardly ANY drove by. And even if one did, I would flail and flail, but none would come to my aid. So, I'm stressing at this point. I'm a young, blonde, American girl in the Middle East on September 11th on the side of a huge highway with no options at my disposal. I am wearing a short tight skirt and a tank top. Therefore, I felt like I would be either taken or arrested. I start yelling out loud to myself, "What the frick am I supposed to do? I am in the middle of the fricking middle east, and no taxi is helping me. Great. GREAT!" And you can be sure I was using excessive hand motions as I ranted and raved. I had to start walking down the highway, shaking my head and saying, "Why do these things always happen to me? Why? Why?" Eventually, I see a taxi coming and I flail my heart out, and he stops. Thank the lord. I run down to him, and am breathless in my gratitude. Geez, that was a close one. (this side of the road experience lasted about 15 minutes)

I told him my tale, and he said that a lot of people from Nepal and Bangladesh come and become taxi drivers almost illegally because they don't have to take a test, so that's why they don't know anything.

Needless to say, I was a little late, but I arrived in one piece to have drinks. This hotel was right in front of the Burj, and afterward we went and saw a fountain light show. Gorgeous. Can't believe I live here. But the taxi drivers still suck.