I went to Batha today, as I do five times a week, to catch a taxi to school. I was in luck as several taxis were waiting for fares. I approached the one nearest me, but was motioned to another taxi that was apparently the first in the cue … although they were in a sort of circle and it was hard to tell who was first.
“Salaam alekum” I said. “Centre Americain?”
“Trente dirham” was his curt reply.
“Thirty dirham?!!” I said, with no small amount of indignation in my voice.
He lowered the price to 20. The expression on my face was enough for him to realize I wasn’t about to pay so much.
“How much then?” he asked.
“The price that will be on the meter” I replied. “It’s an 8 dirham fare. Maximum 9 if there is a lot of traffic … are you crazy?” I started to hail another taxi and I turned make a show of writing down the number of his taxi in order to report him. Believe it or not there are rules and regulations for taxi drivers.
Now he got conciliatory and tried to motion me back towards his cab.
“You are a thief” I shouted so everyone could hear. “A thief!”
He motioned for me to come to his taxi …
I shook my head and shouted “thief” one more time just because it felt good.
Another taxi arrived and I hopped in. I paid 7 ½ dirham for the ride. The real price.
I know this happens frequently to foreigners because the assumption is we all have a lot of money and the person trying to overcharge us hopes we have no knowledge of what the real price is. Or sometimes, they hope we will take pity on them because they were in need and they will tell you they are sorry but your money has been spent trying to solve their problem and they can’t provide the service you hired them for unless you are willing to pay for it again.
“Forgive me” they say with impressive humility.
And my favorite retort to non-repayment of a loan is "you only care for money!"
ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!
But do they really think this behavior is okay?
No, of course it’s not okay. And in the end, you do have to forgive -- because it feels better. But, here I go again, owning up to my own foibles -- shouting “thief” in the middle of Batha did feel pretty good today.
I guess we all behave badly at times.
3 comments:
I bet every taxi driver in Fez has heard about this by now, and will be watching out for you! Good job. I had a similar ride in Marrakesh when we were there.
Be sure to read my very similar story on my blog: http://humming-bear.blogspot.com/2011/12/antiquities.html
It makes a vacation in Morocco a huge hassle to have to haggle over taxi fees knowing that locals will usually get the real & fair price and foreigners, especially Americans will have to pay 3-4 times more. Seemed like highway robbery to me.
It was always the petit-taxi drivers at the train station in Fes that bugged the hell out of me! 40 dirhams to go to Bab Boujloud, are you kidding me?!! At least the ones in Batha are few and far between (actually don't think I ever got cheated by one from there - did from Boujloud!). It's annoying when it happens though.
I'm currently in Thailand where the same thing happens on a daily basis, I've learned to deal with it mostly but I still have the odd occasion when I've had a bad day at work and have a 'thief' moment too! I also feel guilty about it afterwards, but it lets of steam...
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