When I first moved to Dubai I had many a tweet or Facebook status, and even a few blog posts about taxi drivers here.  There is literally no other place on earth that has so many crazy people driving them around, I swear!

We appear to have  a fresh batch of drivers again.  (I wonder how often that happens?)  How do I know?  Because every taxi I have been in recently has started off the ride by saying “I new. You know?”

Nope.  Not kidding.  Understandable for some smaller places, but major hotels or places like DIFC it’s a bit crazy.  Luckily I have been here long enough to know my way around so it’s no biggie… unless I’ve not woken up properly and forget to direct them.  That happens a fair amount.  I’m not a morning person!

There are two that have stood out this week are at completely different ends of the spectrum:

Driver 1, a nice chap from Kashmir, was lovely to drive with.  He was also chatty but in a non-slimey way.  It was a very nice way to get to work in the morning.  He had no idea where he was going either but was really keen to discuss the route and learn.  He saw the peacocks near the office and was over the moon, declaring it his favourite part of Dubai!  He was just mesmerized.  It may have taken slightly longer to get to work while he slowed to look at each one, but it was just nice.  Something I take for granted on a daily basis caused such wonder and happiness for something else.  It was a good start to the day.

Driver 2 however was literally white knuckling the steering wheel and obviously sweating with nerves.  I felt so bad for him.  I was also a little nervous.  This guy is allowed to drive on Sheikh Zayed Road.  How?!  I literally don’t sit in traffic along my maximum 10 minute journey to work.  The most you have to deal with is slowing down for peacocks to shoot across the road in front of you (which didn’t happen even once today, thankfully!).  If he was that apprehensive on that super easy journey, can you imagine how bad it would have been going further and in real traffic???

There is no larger point to this post than to have a ramble about taxis.  I hope I get Mr. Kashmir again because he would be interesting to have a chat with on a longer journey.  I’ve never seen the uber driver from Malala Yousafzai’s town again.  If it hadn’t been so early in the morning (like 7am early) I would have asked so much more.  Finally, I really hope that Mr. White Knuckle gains confidence very quickly because he is a danger to himself in his current state.

End of ramble!