A nice German couple stayed at my hotel last night. They had taken a taxi from Phuket Airport because they did not know exactly where the hotel was.
This was a licenced airport taxi, but with a brain-dead driver who refused to listen to the directions that my wife gave him over the phone in Thai..
[Wife] When you leave the airport car park, turn left
[Taxi]No, I always turn right
[Wife] Yes, but our hotel is on the left
[Taxi] There is nothing on the left
[Wife] Yes there is, there is a road that runs next to the runway
[Taxi] Huh? What is a runway?
(Truly amazing, but many taxi drivers have never heard of the word 'runway', even when spoken by a native Thai)
[Wife] It's where the planes land and take off
[Taxi] There's no road there
[Wife] Listen, LISTEN!! There is a road on the left - and hotels and restaurants
... Anyway, my wife now agrees with me that my frustration with these taxi drivers is not due to a language problem, but simply because they are thick - plain and simple
This scum taxi driver charged my guests 500 baht (which they had to pay cos they agreed before the journey). The distance from my hotel to the airport is 250 metres...
I'm not a violent man, (well only when sexually aroused...), but I could have happily pushed the driver's face into the bonnet of his shiny taxi.
I did point out that the guest's onward journey to Phuket ferry port (50 minutes away) would cost them exactly the same taxi fare - 500 baht.
With scum, greedy and extremely stupid taxi drivers like this, what hope has Phuket of ever solving it's corruption/poor service issues?
Simon