I met an interesting taxi driver

I just now took a taxi from pudong to puxi. And met this interesting driver. He is 56 years old.

After I got in, he kept saying oh-ni-toh-fut while driving, I asked him why, he said he is not familiar with the road in pudong, and afraid he can't take me out to puxi.

I told him don't worry. Pudong road is wide, and with road sign, and we can ask people. And I joke with him (i good mood today), "just as long as you don't take 2 hours to bring me back to puxi, i still want to go back to office". He is so cute, he repeated saying oh-ni-toh-fut many times, and he said, "don't make me faint, my dear lady".

We got out of the pudong, with a few wrong turnings, and I have to watch out the road-sign to direct him to the right road.The meter was already 24 bucks when we were taking the Fuxing tunnel. (to my understanding, from the place I onboard to the cab to fuxing tunnel, if he doesn't go wrong way and kept making circle, should be around 15 bucks.) And he spoke, "just now u come here from puxi, how much u paid?" I said, "47". He said, "ok, i will stop the bill at 47 later".

And we chit chat. He seems to be very optimistic person. Then he said he believes in buddha because buddha saved people. Then our conversation shifted to donation. And he told me he donated 20 bucks this morning to the people in wenchuan. It's a donation his leader insisted everyone to at least give in 10 bucks. I said, "why make it so hard? It should be on own's will." He said, "I agree. But I also willingly donate this 20 bucks".

He then told me he has lots of sickness - high blood pressure, heart-attack symptoms sometimes, removed his 胆囊 (cannot eat meat), shoulder strain, hand strain, etc. Then he said his taxi rental is 375 yuan per day. Petrol, is 200 yuan per day (summer increased much more because all passenger want air cond). And if kena fine on highway, it is 200 yuan to police department, and his 单位 will also fine him 100 yuan. I said, "WHAT??? WHAT HAS IT TO DO WITH YOUR COMPANY UNIT??" He said, "it's communist. If you don't like the decision, they will ask you go to court." At that moment, although I am not very proud to be malaysian, but, at least in malaysia, if we get fined, we don't pay our company money besides just paying the policeman, right??

So, he said sometimes in a day, he earned 200 yuan only, after one whole day of driving. Sometimes, he rugi because if kena fine, where got leftover?

He also told me he was raised up during the time of when the teenagers were forced to be sent to all kampong, to do the hard work at farm. So he said his life is very kon-kor. He said soemone told him this is 报应 (revenge), because his was a butcher in his previous life, killed many animals.

I feel so sad for him. He saw me from the mirror and saw my sad face, he suddenly salute to me
"敬礼!" hehehe.. he is such an optimistic person.

I donated 200 yuan to the wenchuan incident today, through office collection. Now I regret. I should have donated this 200 yuan to this poor driver. I like his spirit, living a hard-life, and yet can stay so positive and so optimistic.

When I get out, I seriously wished him "I wish your next customer is to Pudong Airport." He salute to me again "敬礼!".

* for someone not know shanghai situation very well, ALL taxi drivers love to take passengers to Pudong Airport, because the distance is very far, and the bill can go up to 150 yuan within 1 hour. From airport, they can bring people back into town, which is another 150 yuan. That's 300 yuan at least in 2-2.5 hour. They can never earn so much bring customer within the city locations.