By It looks like GI’s aren’t the only ones with a beef with taxi drivers in Korea:
Two days ago, Motoko Watanabe and her husband arrived in Seoul from their hometown in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Since hearing of close friends’ pleasant experiences in Seoul, they figured the short trip to Korea would give them the most bang for their buck.
But what was supposed to be an affordable three days of sightseeing and shopping around the popular shopping districts Myeong-dong and Namdaemun, turned into a budget buster the middle-class newlyweds did not anticipate.
Did they go overboard gorging on sumptuous hanwoo while impulsively buying Yonsama socks and Louis Vuitton handbags?
Hardly.
According to Motoko, the couple spent a third of their travel budget on taxis. “We don’t know our way around so it feels as though we’ve been wasting money and spending more than necessary on taxis,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like we’re going in circles when we’re in cabs.”
She’s not alone in her gripes about taxis. [Korea Herald]
Read the rest at the link.
I could go on and on about the shady taxi drivers that try and rip off USFK servicemembers in Korea, but in defense of Seoul taxi drivers only on one occasion did I ever have an issue with a taxi driver in that city, when he had the meter running and at the end of the ride try to charge me a higher price. For the most part though my taxi experiences in Seoul have been good to include getting in a taxi one time with a karaoke machine, hanging disco ball, and light show. Now that is a cab ride!
However, I think being able to tell cab drivers where to go in Korean goes a long ways to having a more pleasant taxi experience.
The Marmot’s Hole has more on this as well that is worth checking out.
2:48 am on March 26th, 2010 1
If the taxis trips were too expensive, they could haved tried the subway… or hell even just walked.
Also if they didn't know the city very well there is this ancient piece of technology called a map for use in such a situation. They are free on the internet.
2:55 am on March 26th, 2010 2
In all my years of doing business in Korea, only rarely have I had an issue with a taxi driver. I can say without a doubt i've been ripped off by NYC taxis than Korean taxis.
In Korea i've found that if you clearly can state where you're going, you'll never had a problem. If I can't give the exact location to a taxi, I will call whomever I'm going to visit and have them explain to the taxi driver where exactly I need to go. It's better for tourists to either take the subway or have the hotel doorman tell the taxi where you're headed.
3:05 am on March 26th, 2010 3
"In their defense, the drivers just say they don't understand what we're saying …"
I thought taxis had access to call into a translation service.
8:59 am on March 26th, 2010 4
""It's difficult to say whether we are trying too hard to cater and to accommodate foreign tourists and not encouraging them more to try and speak Korean," said Kang Oki, the Korea Tourism Organization's executive director of public relations."
2:55 pm on March 26th, 2010 5
Some drivers will rip you off, others are just clueless so it seems the same.
I did see some Japanese on a Seoul bus last night which was a first.I could tell at first because they didn't yell on their phones.
8:37 pm on March 26th, 2010 6
The only issue I had with Taxi was one time in Busan. We were four adults with four 20kg bags. The driver was trying to fit us in his sedan which had a gaz tank in the trunk. It was just so obvious it was impossible. But he wouldn't understand. Which was making the other taxi drivers in the Queue more angry. When My wife became angry at him for being stupid, and saying she would report him. He started shouting etc.. We finally had to take two taxis (like always) because they don't have taxi big enough or mini van from the airport. Maybe we didn't see them. We tried to book one in advance to go from our hotel back to the airport, but the guy didn't wake up.
5:57 pm on March 27th, 2010 7
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by GIKorea. GIKorea said: New blog post: Foreign Tourists Criticize Korean Taxi Drivers http://rokdrop.com/2010/03/26/foreign-tourists-criticize-korean-taxi-drivers/ [...]