Good and bad cab drivers

My friends and I have been going out to see various parts of Istanbul almost every night for the past couple of weeks. The bus system here works pretty well for getting to these destinations, and it only costs 1 lira (~83 cents) for most one-way rides. However, the buses stop running at around midnight, so if you’re out past then, the best option for getting home is a cab ride.

Most cab rides go smoothly, but a couple have been “memorable” for one reason or another. So far, being in Istanbul has been an overwhelmingly positive experience, and I think it is one of the safest and friendliest cities of its size. Both of the following stories, however, illustrate the darker side of Istanbul.

“Good” cab driver

Yeah… I’ll let you decide whether this cab driver is actually a “good” one after you hear this story. We were out late in this district called Taksim one night (see the post titled “Snow” for pictures) and three other people shared a cab with me for the ride back. About halfway through the trip, we were riding down a one way street, and all of a sudden this shiny, silver car was coming towards us, going the wrong way.

I suspected that the guy in that car was drunk, and my suspicions were confirmed when he got out of his car and started looking like he was about to attack someone. By this time, about three other cabs had come out of nowhere and stopped next to our cab and the silver car. The drunken guy, still looking pretty angry, started banging on the driver’s side window of one of the other cabs. Why was he so angry, when he was obviously the one that was driving the wrong way? I’ll never know for sure.

But anyway, I started wondering whether the guy was going to attack us next. He never got the chance to, however, because our cab driver jumped out of our cab, walked about 20 feet away to where the drunken guy was still banging on a window, and pulled out a knife. An actual knife! I was watching from inside of the cab, and I could barely believe it. Our cab driver got up close to the guy, yanked the guy’s jacket, and held the knife over his head. Some of the other cab drivers got out of their cabs, and I was sure that a fight was about to break out.

Luckily, no blood was spilt. Things settled down after a few minutes, and before long, everyone returned to their respective cars. I’m thinking that this guy might be considered a “good” cab driver, because it was almost like he was protecting us from this dangerous drunken guy. But then again, I’m not exactly comforted by the idea that these cab drivers feel the need to carry daggers around with them.

“Bad” cab driver

OK, so I don’t think that there’s any question that the following guy is a bad cab driver. This story starts out in much the same way as the previous one. Some of my friends and I were hanging out in Taksim late last night, and wanted to take a cab back. It was snowing pretty heavily outside, and the roads were getting kind of dangerous. However, the cab driver seemed incredibly nice. One of the students riding with me knew a little bit of Turkish, and was having a pretty good conversation with the driver.

We finally made it back to the Superdorm, and the fare came up to 21 lira (about $18). We were thinking about giving a pretty good tip to the cab driver for taking us through such bad weather and for being so friendly. But we didn’t want to tip him after what he did next.

The student who was sitting in the front seat (the one who knows some Turkish) handed him a 20 lira bill. But then, after some slight of hand, the driver only had a 1 lira bill in his hand, and told us that we had handed him a 1 lira bill, and not a 20 lira bill. I didn’t see what had happened, and the student that had handed the driver the money was not completely sure that he had handed him a 20 lira bill. There was confusion, and since the kid that originally handed over the money was not sure if he was mistaken, we gave him another 20 lira bill, and then got out of the cab.

After we all got inside the dorm, we talked about what had just happened. The kid who had handed over the money looked in his wallet, and thought about how much money he had originally had, and was then sure that he had indeed given the driver a 20 lira bill.

So yeah, we were scammed out of 20 lira. The cab driver should have only received 21 lira, but we ended up giving him 41 lira. And judging by how nice the cab driver was during the ride, and by how smoothly his slight of hand had gone, he was pretty practiced at this scam.

This just reminds me that in such a big city (Istanbul is the 4^th largest city in the world, with a population larger than 11 million), there are going to be some shady people. I’ve also heard that pick pocketing can be a problem in some areas, and have always held my important items in the inside pocket of my zipped-up jacket. After this real life example of what’s possible in Istanbul, I’ll definitely be even more careful.