Taxi Tales

Well a trip just wouldn’t be complete without a weird taxi experience. I was spending time with friends (the unpaid variety) and it got to be 21h and we scrambled to get me a taxi before they all go home to sleep for the night. (Ah the luxury of New York and the omnipresence of taxis…). One came speeding down the road and nearly hit us when we flagged him down. Then there was an intense exchange regarding where I wanted to go and how much I would pay, brokered by my Malian friend. Eventually an agreement was made, even though it seemed pretty clear that the driver didn’t know where my hotel was, nor did he speak any French. Eh- it was late, I needed to get home, what can a girl do?

Thus started the series of weird occurrences:

#1 He mysteriously lit a match under the steering wheel before we started driving

#2 My door didn’t close and rattled intensely and every so often he reached over to physically hold it shut

#3 He picked up a random guy from the side of the road to accompany us- when I asked who it was he said “like a brother”

#4 We stopped for gas along the way because apparently his tank was empty

#5 He did the match lighting thing again and it became clear that the match was to illuminate the exposed wires under the dash so that he could choose the appropriate ones to hot wire the car

But whatever, I got home safely.

I wonder if there is a tipping point of how many weird things need to occur before the situation is truly unsafe? After how many oddities do I take action? Apparently 5 weird things is within my comfort zone.