Oh me, oh my, it is another taxi experience

Hmmmmmm SOOOOOO I have been told that I need to blog more often. But SOMETIMES life just gets really busy here!

So today I literally thought I stepped out of reality and into a disco club with the taxi I got into today. I have my share of taxi stories both funny and a little scary. Which I never blogged about my crazy taxi experience that was actually pretty scary. Back to the later....So anyway disco club...I finally was able to hail a cab after about ten minutes of waiting after school today. I was so tired and had so much to carry home that I was not going to walk the 35 minutes home, so I decided to be lazy and take a cab. The cab that finally stops, is blaring music, it has mardi gras beads hanging from the mirrors and strung throughout the cab. Then he had flashing blue lights somehow rigged to the inside of his car that were giving me a headache. If that wasn't enough he had "bling" dangling from every nook possible and to top it off a tissue "cover" of a couch that said have a comfy ride! LOL. Why did I get in you ask? Well...Did you miss the part that I had been waiting for ten minutes and I was tired! Oh the taxi's in Cairo. Never seem to be dull or boring. You either have a crazy taxi drivers in the white cabs that love to drive as fast as he can so you can get to your destination anywhere in Maadi in under 60 seconds or you have the drivers who drive the black and whites and know the white cabs get all the good business so they spruce up their cab as much as possible to catch the eye of the on lookers. It's like they have a contest to see who can stuff the most decorations in their cab and still get business! LOL. I think I have seen it all...From my disco cab today to a taxi covered in blinking lights inside and out from bumper to bumper as it flashes on the way down the road!

As far as my crazy, scary taxi ride. Here it goes...

I went to Heliopolis to meet up with a couple friends for dinner. After dinner we watched TV and then realized how late is was. It is really hard to find a taxi to go to Maadi as the hours go on. So Kenny (HIm and his wife are from Tulsa!) walked me downstairs to get me a taxi. He is fluent in Arabic and was going to tell the guy how much I would pay and where to go. First mistake: Telling him I would take a black and white taxi. (It's all we could find) Second mistake: Getting in the taxi! Third mistake: It was 10:00PM at night.

So anyway I get in and we made a deal. 40 LE, which by the way is TOO much but it was late and I was tired. So the driver started off in the right direction but we hit major traffic. (Hello it's Cairo, if you are not used to this by now, DON'T be a taxi driver!) Anyway he was getting irritated by all the hold up so he flips a u-turn and goes back to where we came from. Then he decides to go off on a side street that takes us out to a deserted area. Tons of buildings but they had all been abandoned. NO other cars were around and we were hitting big potholes left and right. I thought, oh great we are going to get a flat and be stuck out here in the middle of no where! After about 15 minutes of this we finally saw civilization again! (Not sure where we were but at least people were around) Then the taxi driver proceeds to ask everyone in sight how to get to Maadi. One answer was not enough. He literally asked someone on every block!   I should have counted. It's like he knows they are not for sure but give you directions anyway.

We finally made it to a familiar place and I was trying to tell him where to go and he would not listen. He kept stopping and asking like I didn't know what I was talking about. FINALLY he listened to me and I made it close enough to walk home (at this point it is 11:30PM.) I was tired, frustrated and I was a little worried but I paid the guy his 40LE and he actually apologized and I walked the rest of the way home. I never thought I would go off roading in a taxi.

I wish I could grow wings and just fly everywhere I need to go. I do not missing having a car payment and insurance but days like this I do miss having a car!