Yesterday evening around 6pm, I picked up a Malay woman together with her three young children at the taxi stand in Toa Payoh Central. When they were all on board, she said, "Please bring us to 'Chinchalok Road' near Katib in Yishun" I said "Huh, say again, what's the name of the Road?", she said "Chinchalok Road, never mind, never mind, I'll show you the way, its somewhere near Yishun Stadium". I suddenly felt 'blurrr', "Okay, okay, you show me the way" and I headed towards Yishun, thinking how I can forget such a road name. Where can it be??
Approaching Katib MRT Station, she said, "Turn left here", I said "Okay, this is Yishun Ave.1" and coming towards Sembawang Road, she said "Now turn right and then turn right again into (pointing her hand) that small road". When I heard her instructions, I immediately realised that she wanted to go to "Lorong Chencharu" which is directly opposite Sembawang Air Base. I said "Oh, you want to go to the Bottle Tree Park and she 'giggled' shyly, laughed a bit and said "Yah, yah the bottle tree" with a sigh of relief.
I did not hear her pronounce the name of the road clearly and all the time whilst driving, I kept trying to figure out her destination without any luck till I saw her pointing her fingers at the road. This is my second time here after a very, very long time and I must have forgotten all about the 'Bottle Tree'. The park here is very peaceful, quiet and hidden away. There is a fishing and also a prawn pond with 'kampong' style surroundings. A good fun place for fishing, food and family gatherings. After my passengers alighted, I parked my cab at the car park, took some photographs, walked around a bit, felt nice and very relaxed.
Interesting encounter with these commuters on your blog, Uncle Frank.
ReplyDeleteMy cabbie friend told me once that the Indian passenger wanted to go to "Big Dog". My friend tried not to laugh as it would be impolite to think its funny.
After checking the street directory in his taxi to clarify the name of the destination, he then realised that he wanted to go to Bedok ; )
Hi Thimbuktu, very often the names of their destinations are not pronounced properly and so we have to try and decipher where it is but most of the time we eventually get it right.
DeleteRegards,
Uncle Frank
Remembered a story told by our STA (S'pore Taxi Academy) lecturer...a Limo driver himself...about a foreign lady passenger asking a Taxi Uncle want to go to 'bed...OK..?'...but finally it was understood that she wanted to go to bedOK....ie. Bedok....we had a really good laugh.
ReplyDelete