TAXI!

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Way, way back in oh-five when we first moved out here, getting a taxi was a bit like in a Hollywood film, you'd walk up to the curb, stick your hand out and instantly a battered white and gold Toyota Celica would swerve across the road and sqeal to a halt next to you.

Once inside, you'd tell the driver your destination, he would come up with a figure for the fare, I would inform him that I wasn't a f*cking tourist and he'd either reduce his fare by 95%!a(MISSING)nd say "sorry my friend" and strike up a conversation with you or begrudgingly put the meter on.

The Gold Wings as they are known were part of the intrinsic charm of Abu Dhabi, Dubai had long since brought it's taxi fleets into the 21st century, but were pricey, wheras the the Gold Wings could get you all the way across town for less than a pound. They'd take you to Dubai and back for twenty quid, provided you had a tub of Vicks vapour rub for your nostrils and you could endure three hours of Koran recital or Radio Khabul on the stereo.

Most of the Gold Wings had done at least a million kilometres, and despite the ubiqutous display of air "freshening" devices scatterd on the dashboard rug, they smelt like what you think a taxi in the Middle East would that has travelled the equivalent to the moon and and back. Twice.

Then Abu Dhabi wanted to cut it on the Global Stage, to step out from Dubai's shadow. Formula One track, Red Bull Air Race, Guggenheim, Louvre, blah blah blah. All of a sudden the place started filling up. The empty five star hotels were being used, and when the new breed of Abu Dhabi resident with his Armarni suit got the concierge to hail him a cab, he wasn't too pleased to learn that the previous occupants were five Afghan labourers after days work at the rubbish dump returning from the animal market with their newly acquired goat.

So, a couple of years ago, Abu Dhabi revamped taxi requirements, all new cabs would be silver, they'd have GPS and drivers that spoke good English and all the rest. To quote TransAD, the new controller of public transport for Abu Dhabi:


"It is only right that Abu Dhabi, as a dynamically-developing global hotspot, should have a taxi fleet to match. The new fleet represents high standards in passenger comfort, safety and style, and we are confident that they will be immediately popular with both residents and visitors."

They also went on to say:


"The certification and optional training package will provide taxi drivers with the skills and professionalism that is an essential part of any world-class taxi system"

The website states:

Drivers Responsibilities:

* Be polite, collaborate & decant.(sic)
* Be neat, clean and tidy.
* Wearing a uniform in the official working hours.
* Be aware of traffic laws & regulations.
* Be aware of an Arabic or English language.
* Not smoke in the car.

Anyhoo, I'm asking for directions to somewhere in Musaffah that I need to visit, and line three of the instructions says "keep going for about 200 metres and you'll see hundreds of buggered taxis on the right hand side" so I was expecting a Gold Wing grave yard, but instead, there were hundreds of the new, proffesionally driven by highly trained driver types. I only got a dozen photos when an irate bloke came out of the yard and started shouting at me in arabic. I don't speak much of the lingo, but I was fairly sure he wasn't inviting me in to get shots of the really mangled ones inside.

I'm sure you can draw your own conclusions from the images below.

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Photos

Gold Wing
A taxi of ye olde Abu Dhabi towne

Comments

[Moomin]

Taxi
Makes you wonder what their driving was like before the professional training. Keep driving yourself, please.

[leiah]

you couldnt be anymore correct
OH MY WORD! Finally i have found an uae blog i adore. I love reading your blog as you are also based in basically the same area, and have had the same experiances. The hollywood affect is so true, I am not used to catching cabs every where I go so this was a shock to me, I felt like i was in san di ago or something? california where they roll up to your house, and you get in feeling like the fresh prince of bell air:-) I have had a few terrible experiances with the drivers here and am still yet to enjoy one. The first was okay. The second a lil dogier and the third I almost strangled him. After my friend and I had had a good night out we decided it was time to leave, however there were 13of us and not everyone wanted to leave. So the two of us jumped into a cab and made sure the driver knew where he was going after having him assure as a hundred times...( like tourists ). 45minutes later we were still lost.....We took a free-unwanted-night-tour-of-somewhere- most likely the whole of abu dhabi......it was insane and ended up being close to a 100dhs fare...all of which i refused to pay esp because of all the double backing we had done. Eventually we were dropped somewhere near home and walked the rest of the way.... However I competely agree that the taxi fine for crashing or having an accident ( sorry a traffic collision) is unfair, human rightly its not right, thats way to much out of one persons salary esp here. I hope that somehow this fee gets bought down a little, this can happen to anyone anytime, and sometimes its actually not anyones fault, its a wet road a worn tyre etc?