I just attended this seminar/exhibit in a hotel in Makati wherein they convened school representatives from the UK. Over lunch - may I just add that it was a free buffet lunch - I still got to mingle with the other counselors and university reps who were present. When another counselor asked one of the reps, who was from Malaysia, if it was her first time in the Philippines, she answered yes and this led to her cringing experience with our taxi drivers! She related that she was billeted at a different cheaper hotel in Makati and had to take a taxi to the exhibit's venue which was also within Makati. She hailed a taxi and the vehicle was a few meters and speeding away when the driver blurts out that he's charging her P500 for the fare! (Me: OMG!) She had no choice but to pay the fare (because she did not know any better)... What's more dumbfounding to hear is that the next taxi she rode in properly used the meter and charged her P70 for the same distance! GAH!
I was dismayed and disappointed after hearing about her experience! To use a better Filipino term - nainis talaga ako for her!... I was really controlling myself from uttering expletives! So I just ended up telling her that maybe next time before getting into the next taxi ask first whether the driver will use the meter or not... Now in retrospect I should have told her to take note of the taxi's plate number too the next time she visits the Philippines just in case history repeats itself and she gets unlucky again....
