Despite my love of Uber, I still take a fair number of taxis. Uber isn’t widely available in many markets, and for that matter, there are some circumstances where taxis are just more practical.
While I’ve had some good experiences in taxis over the years, a vast majority of my experiences seem to be negative, unfortunately. Like the following:
- Las Vegas Taxi Excitement
- Dubai Airport Taxi Scam
- What To Do When You Notice Your Taxi Driver Falling Asleep?
- Warsaw Taxicab Confessions
- I Hate Taxis. With A Passion
Anyway, this afternoon I took a taxi in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a city where I find taxi drivers to actually be pretty uncontroversial. They’re usually quite professional, though rarely talkative. Which I usually like. Contrast that to Singapore cabbies, who almost always talk for the entire ride.
Well, today I had what could only be described as a very unique Hong Kong taxi driver. Shortly after I got in the taxi the guy said “I sing for you? I’m best singer in Hong Kong.”
“Sing? Sure!” I mean, with him claiming to be the best singer in Hong Kong, how could I say no?
Then this happened:
After round one of singing he said “how many kids you have?”
“None.”
“How many wives you have?”
“None.”
“My daughter verrrry beautiful. She’s like a model. She’s like a singer. She’s like a businesswoman. One side of her brain is business, the other side of her brain is sales.” He showed me a picture.
“Wow, very beautiful.”
“She’s best singer in Hong Kong. I’m number two singer.”
Then he asked if I wanted to hear another song. I mean, how could I say no? So he fumbled with his radio, which was having some tech issues. He was so focused on being able to perform again that he barely paid attention to the road, to the point that we had a few near misses.
I also loved how every time we stopped for even a second he’d put the car in park, only to put it bak into drive a second later. That seemed sort of inefficient.
Anyway, go figure traffic was terrible for this ride, so I got a solid 20 minutes of singing.
“So, do you sing for all your passengers?”
“Yes. I have three passions — driving, singing, and football.”
Then he sang in English, a performance which could best be described as:
What a guy!
Traditional Cantonese opera is a bit of a dying art at the moment. He was pretty good too. My mother in law sings like this whenever she gets a spare moment, I've grown to be quite fond of it to be honest.
I had a Taxi driver in Naples who had two passions: Racing and Beethoven.
So he took us to my destination in half the usual time while doing some really scary crazy driving (overtaking where not allowed, taking turns very fast, up to three times the speed limit etc.) and using his car stereo to play something from Beethoven with volume to the max.
Some of my friends where scared as hell for the whole...
I had a Taxi driver in Naples who had two passions: Racing and Beethoven.
So he took us to my destination in half the usual time while doing some really scary crazy driving (overtaking where not allowed, taking turns very fast, up to three times the speed limit etc.) and using his car stereo to play something from Beethoven with volume to the max.
Some of my friends where scared as hell for the whole journey while I had LOT's of fun on this trip! In the end he ignored the meter and demanded only half price because he had also a lot of fun :). Needless to say he got a HUGE tip from us.
Wretched singing. Nothing special about this....It's Chinese Opera music.
Extra tip for the singing driver? Although I don't think people tip in HK
He is singing traditional opera song. It is already a dying form of entertainment in China/HK. So consider yourself lucky to be able to experience it. His singing is actually decent.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Well, it was an amusing drive, which also makes up for a lot! I love it when someone is passionate about his/her job and shows it. No matter what it is, joy is one of the most important things that get you up in the morning.
But was she really beautiful? And if so: feel free to send me her details! ;)
LMAO. In the fourteen years that I've lived in Hong Kong (and the earth) this happened once.
HAHAHA! Opera singing. at least you didn't get one who curse, swear and drive like a dragon dancing