Honest

He could've been at least $500,000 richer and been able to take a well deserved rest from driving the mean streets of New York but honesty is the best policy of this cabbie.

Just like many of the taxi drivers in here in Al Ain, he suffers from high blood pressure and kidney problems. What's the likelihood of someone leaving $500,000 worth of rocks in the back of a beaten up Nissan Sunny or Toyota Corolla driven by Jan Noor from Kabul?

Gold 'n' White

(to the tune of 'Golden Brown' by The Stranglers)

Gold n white, on the Main Street
Lights are green, people will beep
Man in the front
Woman in the back
Meter is on
Bang! What is that?

(instrumental)

I've been here far too long
People smoke and make the seats pong
Taxi's too old
Passengers too bold
Don't pay the fare
What do I care?


(instrumental)

Every night after the prayer
We sit on the roundabout
Women pass, we stare
Thinking of home
Wives left behind
How lonely I feel
When these thoughts pass my mind

Eek!

A reassuring message on Wikitravel's Abu Dhabi page:

Foreign visitors should be warned ahead of time that some taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi are former members of the Taliban. Those who are will display a swatch of black cloth on their vehicle somewhere.

Note to self: throw away black pashmina that hangs over passenger seat of taxi in case passenger gets the wrong idea...

Eat Petrol!

"AC mushkilla, eat petrol"


Were the words of my Al Ain taxi driver yesterday when I requested he turned up the AC which was spitting out air on the 1 setting. Or I could've come and sat in the front passenger seat :-/

Relunctantly he turned it up to 2.

The rise in petrol prices means that Al Ain cabbies are finding ways of keeping fuel costs down and turning off the AC is one of them...

Al Ain taxi sign

This is what an Al Ain taxi sign looks like. Sorry about the quality of the photo but I didn't want to draw attention to myself so I had to take it from a distance and zoom in on Picasa. If you don't read arabic, on the right it says 'taxi' and on the left 'Al Ain'. Does the shape and colour of this sign look familiar?

Abu Dhabi taxi sign

This is the sign on an Abu Dhabi taxi. Those who don't read arabic note the different words on the left side of the sign. It says 'Abu Dhabi'. You see quite a few of these in Al Ain and when you get used to the different signs its quite fun to spot them as there are not as many of these ones about. The driver of this cab was approachable so I asked him if it was OK for me to take the photo, hence the close-up.