The world came together last night at Pub Dolce Vita in Itaewon. Looking around the room I noted the following countries were represented by patrons in the bar: Korea, USA, Philippines, Japan, Canada, Russia, and Mongolia. Not sure why none of the UK expats showed up given their fondness for the sport of darts.
So we had us a tournament and me and partner managed to make it to the finals. We were coming from the loser’s bracket which required us to beat our opponents in two best of three matches. And both of those matches went all three legs. In fact, it came down to both teams having a chance to win on their last dart. They missed, we didn’t. My share of the 1st Place money was W30,000.
It was well after midnight when we finished and I was tired, hungry, and a little drunk. And I had missed the last subway and bus home (why they stop running so early on the weekends is something I’ve never quite understood). Which meant it was catch a cab or rent a room. I opted for the former.
Now, the only real problem I’ve ever had in Korea is with taxi drivers. It’s a problem that only surfaces when my Korean wife is not with me. And it’s not a language issue so much as it is, well, I have to say it is racism. My experience is always the same and it happens repeatedly: vacant cabs slow down, see I’m a foreigner, and then accelerate away. That happened two or three times last night. I also had two cabs stop, crack the window to ask where I was going, and when I responded “Gireum station” they said “anio” and took off. My understanding is that it is illegal to refuse a fare, but the cabs do it with impunity. Finally a Deluxe Taxi stopped and let me in. The only thing that makes a deluxe cab deluxe is that they charge a higher fare. Last night the meter started at W5000 and was up to W24,000 and change when we arrived in proximity to Gireum (he actually dropped me about a block from where I wanted to go, but there was no point in arguing about it). The normal cab fare from Itaewon is between W12,000 and W15,000. So, that’s the price I paid for being white in Korea I suppose. I have heard it is even worse to be black in Korea.
Last year when Jee Yeun’s kids were with us in Las Vegas they had an ugly run-in with an American taxi driver. And while I felt bad for them of course, I couldn’t help but think now you know how I feel every frickin’ time I cab (alone) in Korea.
Anyway, it was a frustrating end to an otherwise pleasant night.
UPDATE: Kevin Kim makes offers some great advice for winning cabbies over in the comments. Give it a read! And of course, not all cab drivers are useless bastards. I remembered a happy Thanksgiving incident that I had blogged about a few years back.
Sorry the night ended the way it did, and that you ended up with a net W6000 in winnings, post-taxi. Enjoy a nice Korean meal with that money!
I’ve had cabbies drive past me at night, too. Many cabbies who refuse to take you somewhere believe that you have to cross the street to take a cab in the opposite direction. I have no idea why so many cabbies are averse to making U-turns, but it’s a dickheaded aspect of the culture here: they just don’t wanna reverse direction, for whatever odd reason.
In general, though, once I’m in the cab, I’ve had mostly pleasant experiences—I’d say over 90% positive. Either I’ll get to talking with the cabbie, or we’ll ride along in relative silence (possibly with the radio blaring bad bbong-jjak music). I’m comfy either way. There may well be a racism angle, but from the Korean point of view, despite my half-Koreanness, I appear as white as you to most Koreans.
A few things I do when hailing a cab: first, I smile when hailing. Next, when the cab twitches toward me in traffic, I bow in thanks as it approaches. A little ass-kissing helps catch the cab. Next, when I open the door, the very first thing I say is “Thank you!” or “Thank you very much!” Then I settle myself into the back seat. The driver will either wait expectantly for me to tell him where I’m going, or he’ll ask, “Where are you going?” I tell him my destination, and 9 times out of 10, we’re off. On the rare occasions that the cabbie refuses my fare, after all that buttering-up, he’ll normally explain that he’s going in the opposite direction of travel, so I need to cross the street and catch a cab on the other side. As I said above, this is a dickheaded thing to do, and the main reason for it is probably sheer laziness, not racism.
I’ll admit there have been one or two occasions when the cabbie didn’t initially realize I wasn’t Korean. One guy in Daegu did a hilarious double-take toward the end of my ride; we’d been talking the entire time, and it was only at the very end of the route that he looked in the rear-view mirror at me and saw I was an extraterrestrial. I had to make a real effort to stop myself from laughing at his expression. Another time, after a few cabs had passed me by, one finally stopped, and I’m pretty sure it’s because my silhouette looked more Korean than Caucasian to him.
For what it’s worth, I wrote about my absolute worst cab ride, with a man who had to be the world’s stupidest cabbie, here.
Sorry for double-posting, but there was an error in the first comment: I’d forgotten an “in” at a crucial moment in a sentence. If you can delete that first comment, I’ll be much obliged.
Good points, Kevin. I always strive to be friendly and polite plus I usually tip very generously in the hopes that that will provide incentive to pick up foreigners in the future. I think your ability to speak the language is a huge plus of course.
The other issue is where I’m catching the cab. I do always make sure I’m on the right side of the street so U-turns are unnecessary. But it is Itaewon late night and that means people are drunk. I’m quite certain that cab drivers have had some bad experiences with those types.
Anyway, it’s a fair point to remember that most of the drivers are working hard to make a living. If on occasion a driver puts self-interest over that of the customer I guess it’s to be expected.