As I think I've mentioned in a previous Editor's Note, I tend to ride in taxis quite a lot in Bangkok. I don't have a car or a motorbike, so when the MRT or BTS isn't an option, taxis are usually the way to go. Apart from often being rejected as a passenger because the driver inexplicably decides he or she doesn't want to go where you want to pay them to take you, or the occasional fate-tempting Formula One wannabe speed demon, I find the taxis in Thailand to be generally pretty great. Compared with a lot of other places, the taxis in Bangkok are cheap, plentiful and generally fairly reliable.
But there's one thing that has really been bothering me lately. For some strange reason, in every single taxi I've got into over the past few weeks, some selfish and lazy previous passenger has left used tissues stuffed into the ridge of the inside door handle. That means that every time I go to close the door, my hand lands in a pile of some idiot's used tissues. This is a truly disgusting experience.
Leaving empty bottles, bags, wrappers, or any kind of rubbish behind in a taxi is bad. Leaving used tissues behind is even worse. And leaving used tissues right where the following passengers will automatically stick their hands is about as low as you can go.
The weird thing is, this ride-ruining encounter with some self-centred fools' soiled tissues has happened to me so often lately that I'm becoming convinced it's some sort of weird trend that is sweeping the Land of Smiles. Perhaps in these troubled times, the only way that some people can make themselves feel better and get a kick out of life is to ruin some random stranger's taxi journey. Not to mention probably ruining the day of the taxi drivers who ultimately have to clean up the mess.
Whatever the reason, just don't leave your rubbish in a taxi or anywhere else for that matter, except in a garbage bin. And especially don't leave used tissues lying around, particularly where somebody is going to unwittingly stick their hand. It's just not cool.
Ben Edwards
Editor
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