While Pretensions was visiting KL, The Expat magazine ran a poll on taxi services in Singapore and Malaysia. The results, published to much hoo-ha in both countries were thus

	M'sia	S'pore
Taxi Quality	3.8	8.6
Driver Courtesy	4.4	8.0
Availability on the Street	4.4	8.1
Availability by phone	4.8	8.8
Driver Job Knowledge	5.5	8.7

Scores are out of 10.

Pretensions has made use of the taxi service in Singapore for many years and has been largely happy with it. Yes, she has occasionally lucked out and gotten the newbie that doesn't know how to get to any landmark in Singapore or the driver who's done one shift too many and is about to nod off at the wheel, but for the most part, taxis in Singapore have been clean and well-kept, easily available (except on Fridays after 9pm) and most drivers courteous and reasonably knowledgeable about routes. They are also getting more and more expensive nowadays, but are still lots cheaper than eg London or Tokyo.

How about Malaysia? Well, P took 5 taxi rides in KL and these were her results. Keep in mind that P's English is excellent, Mandarin Chinese not wonderful and Malay restricted to a few words here and there.

Taxi Driver #1 - From Hotel in KLCC to Office Building in Bandar Sunway. Hotel staff hailed taximan, an elderly chinese gentleman and instructed him to use the meter. He complied and was given the address of P's meeting place. To give him credit, he admitted he was not familiar with that area and would have to drive around a little to locate it. We set off with some trepidation but the ride was fairly smooth (especially once we established that P spoke neither cantonese nor khek and we would have to stick to mandarin chinese). Once we reached the industrial area where the office was located, we rapidly found ourselves lost amidst faceless shophouse blocks. "Do you know where we go from here?" asks P's driver hopefully. P once again explains it's her first time and she has not the least idea where to go. She decides that calling someone at the office and getting him to instruct the taxi driver is the best course. One phone call later, P's colleague is busily speaking to the taxi-driver in cantonese and teling him to wait at the Shell petrol station while he runs down to collect P. We pull over to the side of the road and begin waiting. After 3 minutes and 3 mis-identifications of random males later, the taxi-driver decides that P's colleague will approach from a random direction and we begin heading down the road. After another 10 minutes of driving, waiting and being honked out by shuttle buses, P decides it's time to try another phone call and this time, the taxi driver heads back to the Shell station and stays there. P is finally rescued by colleague wanting to know where we were while he jogged round the block. Lateness: 20minutes late. M'sian taxi score: -5.

Taxi Driver #2 - From Hotel in KLCC to University of Malaya building. Again, hotel staff hailed taximan, a youngish Malay chap, and instructed him to use the meter. He obeyed and set off. Hallelujah - this one speaks excellent english! Double hallelujah, he is well familiar with the university because his son studies there and gets me to the University and building in record time. Lateness: 15 minutes early. M'sian taxi score: 10 (he was tipped).

Taxi Driver #3 - From Hotel in KLCC to Lake Gardens. Hotel staff hail taxi, but forget to ask him to use meter. Taximan is a youngish, garrulous Malay. He speaks some English, lots of Malay and accented Cantonese and doesn't stop bombarding P with hefty dollops of all the above languages. He attempts to be charming but is actually fairly irritating. He also appears to consider himself a slick conman type, since he takes advantage of the lack of meter use to try to force P into a "package deal" - roughly 30MYR for a return journey, with him coming back for P in an hour. P remains sceptical even tho' she's not sure what the price should actually be and he desists. He answers his mobile phone a couple of times during the journey and once turns back to comment that he doesn't want to take this call, as the caller is a GAY (emphasis is taxidriver's, he spells it twice for P just to be sure). What is P supposed to make of this? Should she be horrified? Nonchalant? Does this mean the driver is or isn't? Honestly, why should she care as long it doesn't affect the driver's skill and navigation abilities? Upon arrival, the taximan attempts to charge P 12MYR for the trip. P has a sneaking suspicion this is much too much and bargains it down to 10MYR. She finds out later that the price should be 6MYR. Lateness: NA (no appointment time). M'sian taxi score: -10

Taxi Driver #4 - From Lake Gardens nearby main road to Hotel. P spend 5 minutes sweltering in hot afternoon sun while waving madly at various taxis before managing to flag down one. The taxi driver pulls in around the corner out of the main flow of traffic. P boards and mentions hotel name. The middle-aged chinese guy nods and heads off, starting the meter automatically. There is no conversation (peace!) and bill comes up to less than 6MYR. Lateness: NA. M'sian taxi score: 8

Taxi Driver #5  From Hotel in KLCC to KL Sentral station. Hotel staff hail taxi and don't ask him to use meter (Perhaps P needs to start tipping hotel staff - note: tipping is not usual in most Asian countries). After taxi driver #3, P makes no bones about asking the elderly Indian driver to use the meter. We run into a little traffic along the way, so the journey takes longer than usual, but is uneventful and he gets P to the station in time for the train. Lateness: 10 minutes early. M'sian taxi score: 7 (1 point deducted for having to ask him to use the meter).

None of the taxis were noticeably filthy but they weren't as well-kept as their Singapore counterparts.

Verdict: Taxi standards in KL are highly variable. The first lesson of the day: ask them to use the meter! 

M'sia clearly needs to get its act together however, and make sure rogue taxi drivers don't get away with fleecing the ignorant.