Marfuka meets a cabbie who won’t flout rules

TRAVEL

HE is running behind schedule. If he doesn’t get to the airport within the next hour Marfuka is bound to miss his return flight home.
He could have asked the hotel reception to book a cab to the international airport. The taxi would have come up the driveway leading to the hotel for him to jump on. But he needed to buy a couple of cartridges for the shaving gear he had been using during his 14-day visit to Australia. It is a brand that is quite expensive in Port Moresby because of its scarcity. Not many shops sell it in the PNG capital and those who do have put mark-ups prices that make the items so expensive. He wanted to enjoy the easy comforting feeling that three-blade razor shave gives him until it ran out. Then he would revert to his usual disposable shaving blades.
He has at times tried growing a beard to give him that tough looking features that the manly population of PNG consider macho. Or it is just out of necessity that they cannot afford shaving items and some of them who live in communities that struggle to have regular running water.
But each time Marfuka has tried the pimples that grow can be quite a disturbing feeling particularly when the pores of the skin on his face are clogged by a day’s dirt created by sweat.
He was now in Cairns, the last leg of the self-sponsored trip. The holiday visit had started in Sydney where Marfuka was a member of a larger travelling party that had flown in from Port Moresby. They had watched an NRL game between Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra.
Marfuka had then flown to Brisbane. He spent a couple of days in the Queensland capital before boarding another domestic flight to Townsville.
He had initially thought about doing that sector via coach, a more luxurious ride compared to the PNG highways.
These Queensland cities are connected by the 1,673km long Bruce Highway and the quality of the roads are quite immaculate, a far cry to PNG’s porthole riddled national highways.
He had got into the Far North Queensland capital in the evening. He then checked into an affordable hotel accommodation close to the Esplanade. It was quite convenient for him so that he could visit the night market, have something cheap to eat and then retire early in order to squeeze in a decent night’s sleep. He needed a good rest for the flight home the next day.
Cairns was the last leg of this trip. The holiday visit had started in Sydney where the travelling party had flown in from Port Moresby. Marfuka had then flown to Brisbane. He spent a couple of days in the Queensland capital before boarding another domestic flight to Townsville.
He had thought about doing this sector by road. But he eventually decided against it as it would have been a much longer trip.
He had spent a few days in Brisbane and checked out places he had heard his friends talk about or from what he had seen on TV or read about. After Townsville, the North Queensland capital, he boarded a coach to Cairns.
But he was now running out of cash as well. In fact, his visa debit card was almost depleted. What he needed to do was tighten up on his spending. Last night’s trip to the casino was a reckless decision he regretted the moment he lost his first $100.
His plans to buy souvenirs from Cairns Airport would have to be aborted. Luckily, he had bought some for his family and relatives back home at each Australian city he visited. In Sydney he bought t-shirts which displayed the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In Brisbane he bought a replica of the Broncos jersey for a diehard fan friend back in Port Moresby.
The genuine Broncos merchandise would have torn his souvenir budget to shreds. In Townville, following a visit to the Flinders Mall, Marfuka added more souvenir items to his collection.
Now he had finally got to the city that was closer to home, a 90-minute flight on Air Niugini which covered the 840km between both cities. This was his first ever trip to Australia and he was learning plenty in contrast to his own culture back home. Some of it didn’t have to do with culture but habitual practice they had instilled in them as the Australian citizens grew up.
Marfuka rushed to the nearest taxi and jumped into the back seat. He told the cab driver he needed to rush to the airport to catch a flight back to Port Moresby.
The vehicle didn’t move as the driver in a very apologetic note told him; ‘Sorry Sir you have to get on the cab at the front on the queue”.
Marfuka counted 14 to 15 of them which were lined up about some 20 metres from where he was. He got out, half lifted, half dragged his luggage to the first cab.
He repeated a similar instruction to the driver who pulled out and off they headed to the airport.
Marfuka then recalled that time he had got out of the night club in Townsville in the early hours of the morning. He had to join a long queue of people who needed a cab home.
He noticed that those who had obviously had too much to drink were struggling to keep up with the orderly conduct of the rest of the men and women on the queue. Security were marshalling the ‘night club troops’ on their ride home. The order in which this process was being facilitated was amazing. Amazing because compared to back home trying to get intoxicated persons to stand in a queue almost 30 to 40 metres long would have been a nightmare.
Marfuka gets off the Cairns cab and walks to the front of the queue.
Because it is not such a busy day this morning there are more cabs and a few passengers.
He issues the same instructions to the driver that he needs to get to airport fast in order to catch an international flight out of Cairns.
Marfuka counts his leftover cash and keeps his eye on the meter.
His intention is to stop the cab when the meter strikes a certain amount and when he was within the airport vicinity. He planned to walk the rest of the way to the international terminal. During the drive he had checked his plane ticket again and realised his flight was much later than he had wrongly thought so.
The idea was to save some money for something to eat while waiting for his boarding call.
His eyes were on the taxi meter and when it got closer to the amount he was planning on spending, he instructed the driver to stop.
But the driver tells him he cannot stop there as he will be arrested for stopping at a spot where cabs are not allowed to be dropping off passengers. The taxi ranks are designated areas for drop-off and pick-ups.
Back home a taxi driver can stop anywhere – even in the middle of the road to drop off a passenger or pick up one. There is little consideration for the other users of the road.
Taxis in Port Moresby don’t have meters. Flat rates are charged. Marfuka uses taxis a lot in the capital city so he knows how they operate.
Taxi licences are issued by the Land Transport Board. There are designated rates for various routes in the city. These are hardly used. The usual practice is a negotiated rate between taxi driver and customer.
So, here’s how the conversation goes in the popularly used Tok Pisin but translated into English for the benefit of our readers.
Customer: “How much is it to (named) destination?”.
Driver responds. “It is up to you. I don’t like to put a figure (on the service). You can give what you can.”
Customer: “No, you have to give me an idea how much it costs so that I have enough cash for you. Or we’d have to stop at the nearest ATM to organise cash for you.”
That conversation either ends with either a compromise on what the rate would be or the customer moves to the next taxi to begin a similar discussion.
However, if one gets picked up at the airport the rate the minimum rate is non-negotiable. Usually, it starts at K50 and then the rest of the rate is based on negotiations.
In recent times the authorities have worked a system where taxis operate under a number of properly registered businesses. These companies have their own fleets. But other private taxi operators pay the registered businesses to use their company logos. This costs K30 to K50 per week for each taxi which is paid to the licensed company. Every week these companies make some good revenue depending on how many vehicles use their licences.
This can become quite tricky for visitors to the city who are not familiar with the usual practice. They can be overcharged by dishonest taxi drivers. But they are spared the usual practice of being cheated by deceitful taxi drivers in other countries.
Marfuka has learned some tough lessons already on other trips overseas.
The first question will travel along the lines of: “Is this your first time in (country)?”
Marfuka always answers that he is making his second or third trip even if it his first time to that country.
He will never forget that time when the driver was going around in circles, and then eventually dropped him off.
After a couple of days when he became accustomed to the city layout he realised that he had “been taken on a ride”, cheated and overcharged double what the trip should have cost.