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October 19, 2003The Taxi Haggle of Howrah
Bottled water: 10R Chowringhee Street at the corner of Sudder was a taxi scrum. A river of yellow tops stood stalled; there was hardly room to cross the street, though of course people managed to squeeze their way. Claudia and I, pack-laden, were cab-hunting for Howrah Station so we could catch our 2045 train to Bhubeneswar. Many hire lights were off. A taxi pulled into the "lane" nearest our bit of curb. I saw the flash of a hand. "It's all you babe," said Claudia. Game face, on. I walked over and stuck my head in the open window. "How much to Howrah?" "Ninety rupee." "Ninety? We went there for 70 the other day!" (Well, not really. But from our other day's arrival in the City of Grey Air the metered fare from Howrah to Sudder Street was 78R.) "Seventy-five." "All right." Claudia and I piled in, and he turned around into the taxi scrum. I'll spare you the details of the drive to Howrah. It was hair-raising here, mellow there, and always smelling of diesel, pollution, and a few million people stuck in a hot, humid city. Really, it wasn't too bad at all, if you're used to feeling like a salmon swimming upstream with 2,000,000 other fish on both sides of you. Wait, one important detail, that we didn't see till we got in, and that of course our driver hadn't mentioned: the taxi was metered (not all of them are). This changes things. I leaned over to Claudia's ear. "He and I agreed 75, but this taxi's metered. What do you think?" "That could work in our favor." Eventually we arrived. Claudia got out of the taxi and started taking out our bags. I stayed put behind the driver and drew my wallet. The meter stopped at 27R. He turned to me, hand out. I handed him three 10-rupee notes. "What's this?" I pointed at the meter. "It says 27." "No." "Yes." "No," but there was little conviction behind it. He held the notes tight in his hand and looked at me petulantly. "That's not--" "Then why do you have a meter?" He said nothing; I got out of the taxi. Keep the change, I thought. Taxi to Kolkata's Howrah train station: 27R (plus 3R tip). Winning your first minor haggling battle: priceless. Comments
Ooooopsie. well I dont know calcutta but there could be a mistake here. For taxis in mumbai, the rate shown on the meter is multiplied by a factor and is shown in the tarrif card. the same goes in other cities also. as I said oooopsie, this time, I pity the taxi driver. Posted by: Dusty on October 19, 2003 02:10 PMYeah, the meter from Howrah to Sudder Street showed 50R, and with the card was 78R. This time though, there was no card - so yeah, could've been a mistake, but we went by what the meter said. Posted by: Ant on October 20, 2003 05:00 AMWhen arriving at Howrah don't trust any of the porters, they are infamous for running away with bags, they will never keep their word as to the price and they will take you to the expensive rickshaws and taxis outside - not the prepaid stand. I don't think we ever used a porter because I don't trust anyone. :) We didn't have too much of a problem. Posted by: Claudia on January 3, 2004 01:30 AM |
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