Comments on: “It’s That Building, Right There…”

By: Peter H.

Peter H. — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:10:27 +0000

Daniel: Actually the license expires in Nov. 2009 as that is in Minguo years (Establishment of ROC in 1912) which is quite still broadly used in Taiwan. I just add 11 years to get A.D years.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:39:23 +0000

Speaking of his registration.. it looks like it expired in Nov, 1998?

I believe the Chinese chars in front mean “valid until”..

I’m not a penny-pincher by any means, but I would’ve paid half-price..

By: Peter H.

Peter H. — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:25:25 +0000

Hi Chris,

First of all, found your site via Gruber’s site. Anyway, something funny to add to your cabbie story in Taiwan.

It’s funny as the name of that cabbie sounds like (off by a small tone) a Chinese word/phrase, “離譜” (not sure if you can see it that)…it is pronounced “li-pu” which funny enough basically means “ridiculous”, “beyond reasonable limits”.

BTW, the cabbies here in Taiwan are generally very good with direction especially in the city (and even the outskirts of the city in my experience as well). If it is their fault of not finding the place that you wanted to go in a reasonable amount of distance/time, more often than not, they will not charge you for the extra part. You probably gotten a rare bad apple. The only bad experiences I have with cabbies are that they will drive a bit crazy sometimes and will stop at the worse place and time in order to pick up a customer.

By: Chris Brummel

Chris Brummel — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:29:29 +0000

Yeah, he charged us full price. BUT, I honestly believe that it wasn’t an act (I was very skeptically watching him to see if I got the feeling of the “ring-around”). He seemed genuinely apologetic, just not sorry enough to avoid taking the foreigner’s money.

I’ve never ruled it out that he’s a better actor than I’m giving him credit for, but I honestly think he zoned out while listening for his GPS.

By: Bill Snowden

Bill Snowden — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:20:09 +0000

I suppose I should withhold judgement until I know what he charged you, but the simplest explanation for this one is that he was taking you for the proverbial ride. It is very hard to believe a Taipei cabbie would be unable to find a district home to city hall, several shopping malls, and the world’s tallest building. Of course, he may have been brand new in town, but you’d still think he’d be able to manage simply aiming the car east. Next time, take the subway ;-P.