Taxi in Kuala Lumpur

For whatever reason I always keep my self away from using a taxi in KL. Taxi in KL for me is the last choice if I don’t have any other transportation. Why? Well, because most of the taxi drivers I have met were mostly rude, never smile and sometimes they don’t want to use the meter. Yes, we have to bargain with them if we want to go somewhere else that they feel too far or have a traffic jam. And also, most of the taxi’s in KL were still using an old car and sometimes smell strange inside.

Don’t expect that you will get a taxi around KL at the rush hour between 7am - 9am or 5pm - 8 pm. All the taxi in KL at that time somehow were disappeared, because they don’t want to be stuck in the traffic jam. Or if you lucky and still can get taxi at that time they will charge you double the price and won’t using a meter! Let me tell you a story about my bad experience with taxi in KL.

I was in a hurry to meet a client at some place in KL. It was 3 pm and all the road was half empty without traffic jam. There are maybe more than 10 taxi’s park around the train station area. Without a doubt I opened one of the taxi’s door and seat my butt at the back. I asked the taxi driver to go to some place (about 5 km disctance), and to my surprise he didn’t want to bring me there. He said that the traffic jam is bad at this time. What, I said, it’s still 3pm!

Feel angry, I asked the other 9 taxi’s driver, again, to my surprise, all of them reject me with the same excuses, traffic jam. I knew my destination area, I’ve been there a couple of times and at 3 PM the road would be half empty and far-far away from traffic jam. Anyway, failed to get the transportation, I called my client and cancelled the meeting that day.

And also, don’t be surprised when you are inside a taxi in KL, the taxi’s driver would stop somewhere else and get another passenger who have the same destination as yours. Yes, you are not the only passenger, you will sit with some strangers. All of taxi’s in this article is a normal taxi, and most of them are using local cars like Proton Wira, Proton Iswara and Proton Saga. If you don’t want to hassle with a bargaining and also don’t want to sit with some strangers, you can get the premiere taxi where most of them do stick to the correct meter charges.