タクシー

Now, some of you may remember this incident where I came back from Japan and was sort of mildly irritated at the amount of money I had to pay for my cab fare. I considered it sort of like a moment of remembrance, since even now, more than 2 years on, I still remember it. Sometimes, it's hard to imagine time passing by so quickly... but it does.

So anyway, today was another taxi-time, a meter-moment, a cab-construed-chronological-circumstance.

You see, today, I went down with a colleague to cover some event at Timbre @ The Arts House. The trip there itself wasn't the issue, apart from the fact that some of the roads around the Marina area are blockaded for the F1 race this weekend. So we dropped off at the Fullerton Hotel, and then we went to the event.

While it started there, the event was really the launch of a river taxi (again! that confounded construction!) service that would ply between Fullerton and Clarke Quay, along the Singapore River. The ferries themselves were pretty neat, I thought. No photos, though. I was on duty, so it would have been rather un-professional to take photos.

But anyway, we ended up at Clarke Quay area. Now for those of you who know me, I rather like the Clarke Quay area, since 1) Central is there, and 2) Meidi-ya under Liang Court is there. And if I am in sudden dire need to purchase Japanese stuff, that is a good place for me to go. Another would be Bishan, or Taka, but that's another story.

So anyway, the whole event ended at Clarke Quay. My colleague and I then went to look for a cab since she had to rush back to office to file the story. We managed to get one at Liang Court, and then we zipped back up to the SPH media center at Braddell.

What I found appalling was... no, it wasn't that the driver drove the way my brother drives on Need for Speed. So like I was saying, what I found most disturbing... no, it wasn't that there was a massive jam along the CTE that makes the trains in Japan look spacious.

What really irked me this time was that the taxes I had to pay for my cab ride was higher than my cab fare. See, I shall give you a breakdown of what I paid for in my 20 minute ride.

Cab fare: $7.80
ERP: $3.50
City Area Surcharge: $3.00
Diesel Surcharge: $0.30
Peak Hour Tax (35%): $2.75
GST: $0.30

So what this adds up to is:

Base Cab Fare: $7.80
Taxes for Cab Fare: $9.85
Grand Total: $17.65

Bother inflation.

Cheerio