How to Confuse a Bangkok Taxi Driver

One thing I have learned about living in Bangkok is never present your taxi driver with a map; it seems to throw them into a state of complete confusion.

Call me old school, but I like to have a printed copy of a map, especially if I don’t know where I am going. I enjoy planning my route and following it to reach my destination. I have now progressed to google maps but, still, I always have a printed copy with me.

Sometimes, my destination has been too far to walk, so I have had to hail a taxi. Before jumping into the back seat I have shown the driver the map, which has the route marked out. Easy, right? Apparently, not so easy and the reaction I get is quite funny. They look at it, I point to the destination, they look again, turn the map upside down and back again. Sometimes, they bluntly say “no” they can’t take me, at which point I retreat from the vehicle, or sometimes they ask me if I know how to get there. Who’s the taxi driver? It’s not like the map is in English, all the place names are in Thai, so I really don’t know what the problem is. A few taxis have sat-nav, and they can follow that, but present them with a printed map and they go to pieces.

So, my advice is never, ever give your driver a map. Just get into the car and state your destination. That always works!