How To Stay Safe When Calling Cabs & Taxis?

What if your car breaks down? 

Or you are too drunk to drive home?

Photo of and by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

In Singapore, I like to use the trains. In the USA, distances are greater.

US flag.

USA Fatal Outcome

A student in the USA, Samantha Josephson, called for a ride, got into the wrong vehicle, was found dead. (March 2019)
The Daily Mail had 12 pages of comments and suggestions of how to avoid such tragedy in future.

Singapore Flag.

Singapore
In Singapore, the big hotels have doormen who will hail a taxi for you, and check the driver understands the destination.

Passenger's Name
In Singapore I have used Grab and noticed the driver sometimes gives me my name. I didn't think of asking or waiting to learn if the driver knows the name of the passenger. I thought it was to be sure he was picking up the right person, because otherwise two drivers and one group of passengers or two could be in confusion.

Protecting The Driver
For example, my tracking system shows my driver is approaching. But there are many blocks of apartments in a circle. You often have two drivers arriving within the same minute, and siling past your block whilst you run out trying to flag them down.

Supposing you have been waiting ten minutes for a taxi to the airport. The driver asks, "Mr Brown?" "Yes," you mutter.
It would be easy for group one to take the first taxi to appear. They get driven to the wrong place, argue with the driver.

It could be a habit. Kiasu. Being one up. Getting ahead in a queue. I have often heard of customers trying to claim restaurant tables by nodding when asked," is this your name?"

Both drivers are aggrieved. One gets passengers wanting a shorter journey, paying less. The other driver gets passengers wanting a longer journey in the opposite direction, when he was about ti go off duty.

If they mistake is discovered. bother passengers jump out, and blame the taxi company. Both drivers lose money.

Is it Your Cab?
To go back to the problem of ascertaining that you are being picked up by the right cab.
First, when  waiting for a cab, you should watch its direction.

When it gets near, you should know the number plate of the vehicle.

What if he makes an excuse?

The driver can make all sorts of claims, such as, "They muddle my car up with my mother's / father's / brother's".

One solution is to take the number plate of the car (which could be stolen). Better still, photograph it. Also photograph the driver before getting in. Drivers don't like this. They think you are about to report them to the government for wrongdoing.

I find it easier to blame my husband. "My husband wants to know I'm going where I said I am going, in a taxi, not sneaking off shopping."

Oops - there's a passenger maybe telling a white lie.

Stay On The Phone
Other suggestions are:
Make sure your phone is charged in case you need help
Stay on the phone to somebody.
Pretend to be on the phone to somebody
If the driver locks the door, phone home or phone the police and tell them
If the driver locks the doors at traffic lights, saying it's to stop robbers jumping in, ask the driver to unlock the doors as you dive, so that you are not trapped in the case of an accident
Carry a glass breaker to get out in case of kidnapping or the door being jammed in an accident
If the driver tries to lock the car doors, object or wind down the windows and start waving and shouting or hold up a sign saying help!
If the journey is delayed by traffic and rain and the increasing fare is too high for you to pay, check somebody at home has enough money, or tell the driver to drop you at a nearby railway station and explain why.
Stay on main roads. Have a map to check directions.

If Locked In!
If all else fails, try to stop your self being driven off main roads. I would steer the car into another vehicle or object (ideally without injuring my nor anybody else.

If kidnapped, trapped, and in danger, block traffic and make others run to your vehicle to try to get you out.

Some readers suggested that taxi companies should give driver and passenger a code.

Others suggest that people should travel in pairs.

On New Year's Eve, in one US city, taxis offered people free rides home. The bar would call the taxi to be sure the passengers, if inebriated, got into a car whose number plate and driver was known to the bar.

Another system is to book one taxi to the restaurant, and arrange for the same one to collect you. We tried that in Cambodia, where the early evening driver always wanted to get the return fare. What if somebody else turns up and claims, "My friend is busy, so he sent me?"

What if your driver appears on foot and walk you down an alley towards where he claims to have parked the vehicle?

My preference is to have a cab booked by your hotel or your restaurant, using a cab company whose name and number you know. Ask the name of the driver.
I like to have a map from both the hotel and the restaurant. I mark the route, or ask my hotel to do so, and ask if any alternative route is possible and would not cost much more.
Then I watch the driver's route. I know I am not being taken on a long journey, nor being kidnapped to an unknown destination.

What is somebody else jumps in the car? In some countries there is a shared cab system. Check with your hotel and the cab company that nobody else will be in the car with you.

Stay Safe
Read the safety pages for your country's cab and taxi services and those of countries you are visiting. install the aps so that in an emergency you are not relying on other people.
For example, Grab in Singapore has a website page describing its emergency button.

Safe Travels!

Useful Websites
News
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6868023/University-South-Carolina-student-Samantha-Josephson-confirmed-dead.html#reader-comments

Taxis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_taxicab_operation

Sharing Rides
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi

Lyft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyft
https://www.lyft.com/

Uber
https://www.uber.com/
https://www.uber.com/en-SG/safety/
https://www.uber.com/newsroom/checkyourride/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber

Grab
https://help.grab.com/passenger/en-sg/360000002827-What-is-the-Emergency-button

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have a later update on Monday April 1st 2019. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Write A Travel Diary, Poem, Speech, Novel or Family History On Holiday

You are on the move. No time to write.

Are you sitting on the beach, waiting for a bus, babysitting, waiting for somebody to return from a meeting? Waiting for the tour operator to start the tour?

Yes, you do have time to write. Songwriters write songs on the move all the time. Just three verses. Preferably with a twist ending. Think of the song YMCA, written as the songwriter passed the sign in the street.

Carry a notebook and pencil in your pocket. An alternative is a five year diary which lets you have longer and shorter entries.

1 Plan time for a poem or short story or short scene in a novel chapter every day. Write the title whilst cleaning your teeth.

2 Write the first paragraph whilst waiting for the kettle to boil or the microwave to ping.

Write a chapter on the train or the plane.

Chapter one scene one queue for check-in. While your eyes are on your notebook, make sure your passport is in front of you, eg round your neck in front, and make sure your luggage is where you can watch it - in front of you or under your right foot as a footrest.

Entertain your invalid by asking them to tell you an incident from their life story day one of your trip or starting writing.

Write it whilst in the bath or toilet.

Think about a title whilst washing up or loading the dishwasher.

Plan a speech or short story or poem or song whilst swimming.

Read your story or their memory back to children, granny, next day.

You benefit by ending up recording their life story for yourself, descendants or to give them as a birthday present.

I wrote up my mother-in-law's life over dinner once a week and printed it for her as a birthday present.

A shortened version provides a couple of interesting anecdotes, even jokes to lighten the mood, for funeral speech.

Useful Websites

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781320840941?gC=f177369a3b&gclid=CjwKCAjwp_zkBRBBEiwAndwD9StYI_TMaWrCIX_QTTdJ0udBifE1sYILmXOuhrqPXZU8ihrN1O5RVRoCyYMQAvD_BwE

https://www.traveldiariesapp.com/en/Tour

https://www.amazon.com/Grandparent-Book-Keepsake-Journal/dp/0307453103

https://www.bookdepository.com/My-Travel-Journal-/
Travel-Journal

Author
Angela Lansbury. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Where Is Einstein's Home? Cities To See In Switzerland: Basel, Berne, Geneva, Lucerne, Zurich

Switzerland - which city to see?

Where Next?

Basel

On the north western border.
City Hall (Rathaus) red with murals, art museums.
Caricature & Cartoon Museum.
Other speciality museums in the city and surroundings are on: art, architecture, design, dolls houses, Jewish museum, toys, wine.

Berne
einsteinhaus
Einstein's home with his wife, where he wrote the theory of relativity, whilst working for the Swiss patent office.

Einsteinhaus living room. Photo from Wikipedia under Einsteinhaus. Public domain.

Geneva - water fountain, flower clock, Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva.

Lucerne - chapel bridge with water tower, covered bridge with frescoes and plaques inside.

Photo author Simon Koopman in Wikipedia.

Zurich
Chagall Windows in Fraumunster.
Art Museum.
Riverside walk and parallel hillside shopping street.
Corbusier House and Corbusier furniture in museum.

Useful Websites

BASEL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caricature_%26_Cartoon_Museum_Basel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museums_in_Basel

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attractions-g188049-Activities-Basel.html

BERNE
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Berne
GENEVA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement

ZURICH
Handy and detailed information on museums and food.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Zurich
wikitravel

https://www.zuerich.com/en

 Chagall Windows
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/chagalls-church-windows

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Chagall

 Corbusier House & Furniture
Corbusier Furniture
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/culture/museum-fuer-gestaltung-toni-areal#internal
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/pavillon-le-corbusier#internal
tripadvisor

 Multi-lingual Lunchtime Toastmasters Club
The International Lunchtime Toastmasters in Zurich
https://iltm.ch/

SWITZERLAND

1 Tourism
Airline etc
https://www.swiss.com/sg/en/

2 Switzerland
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-sg/accueil.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. See previous post on Zurich. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Chagall, Corbusier and Three Languages. Switzerland's Top Stop,Triple Sights in Zurich: See Chagall Windows, Money, Corbusier - And Bonus Visit: International Lunchtime Toastmasters in English, French and German

Swiss flag, which you see everywhere, including on the lovely Swiss chocolates. Flag picture from Wikipedia.

Does the Swiss flag look familiar? The colours were reversed for the Red Cross, which was started in Switzerland.

Swiss Languages At Lunchtime
When I met a member of a multi-lingual Toastmasters club, in Singapore, I was so excited that my dream, already exists in Zurich, Switzerland. A club where they speak English French and German in one meeting, and you can speak in any of these languages and pick up the others. 

No need to give up an evening out or with family. They meet every other Wednesday. So, if you are passing through Switzerland, time your visit for a Wednesday when the club is meeting. Email them in advance. 

The club is a part of the worldwide Toastmasters International. So if you speak fluent French but only a basic German, as I do, a chance to brush up your German.

The club meets in Zurich, in Switzerland. I must admit, if you say Switzerland, I immediately think of Geneva. But you are more likely to land in Zurich airport, or to drive through it, before darting off around Switzerland by car or train. Yes, of course I have been through, and to Zurich.

Reminders About Swiss Cities
Zurich is the biggest city and you are likely to fly in there as we did and take a train elsewhere. Berne is the location of the government. 

Zurich is on Lake Zurich in the north. You walk along the river and see swans and waterside restaurants. Hotels are expensive. We limited ourselves to two nights in the expensive entry city.

Restaurants are also expensive. Check out the chain restaurants. But my family frowned at the fast food places. Insted we economised and and opted for a sandwich and coffee at lunchtime, splurging on a more expensive dinner with fondue or raclette in the evening. 

You could do things the other way around. Spurge in daylight by the scenic river for photos at lunch. Then find a cheaper out of town basement in the dark at night. it might depend on the times of day of your arrival and departure and whether you are in the city midweek or at weekends, or simply when the restaurants can offer you a table.

Fondue  
Fondue is likely to be with bread, raclette with potatoes. I am a potato person, especially if I have had sandwiches for lunch. If you care, check ingredients before picking a dish or a restaurant. 

We checked out menus in every place we passed. The walk along the pedestrian street, start (near the hotel) to end (by the art museum and Chagall windows in a church) was predicted to be half an hour to an hour, according to various guide books and people we asked. 

However. we made repeated delays looking at menus and restaurants upstairs and downstairs rooms. This turned our predicted half hour walk into a three hour stroll including stops for window shopping and shopping. In addition we had half hour stops for elevenses, lunch and tea. 

Fraumunster and Chagall
By the time we reached the Fraumunster with the Chagall windows, walked all the way around it to find the inside, it was nearly five, closing time. There was an entry fee. They did not want to let us in. We started to argue. Then we realised we would want to read the captions and leaflets and contemplate, so we had to go back the next day.


Fraumunster, Zurich, Switzerland, photo by 

Fraumunster The church is called Frau (lady) munster (church)lady church not after the Madonna but because a benefactor built it for his daughter and church women.

Chagall Chagall's Art
If the Chagall windows, the tall triple windows, look familiar, it's because they resemble the blue windows in the Rheims Cathedral in France. Chagall was born in Belarussia to Jewish parents, but he went west and ended his long, productive life in France which is Catholic but officially secular. 

Chagall windows in Rheims Cathedral, France.

You might also recall works by Chagall such as the windows in the hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, a major tourist site and sight. Over in the USA, see the Chagall in New York. Back in France, Chagall in Paris, and many more.

You pay a fee to see the Chagall's. A fee - for a church? Yes. 

The advantage is that limits numbers. You can stare and stare. Each picture has different stories and the colours have different symbolism.

Art Gallery Monet's Water Lillies
Next stop in Zurich, for us, was the art gallery, to see more Chagalls and other world famous painters paintings, such as Monet's waterlillies.

The largest and most striking picture is the giant waterlillies which stretches wall to wall in its own room. Must be worth millions. My local supermarket charges a tenner (ten pounds sterling) for a little art work in a frame. Not surprisingly, guides are watching the paintings and you.

The amazing thing is that close up the painting is just a lot of blodges of muddled colours. I stood up close, muttering in English, "I am not impressed". 

A guide approached me. No, he wasn't afraid I would touch the work. He helpfully explained, in English, "Follow me. Stand here by the door. Now look at the painting!"

Wow. What a difference! Step backwards (avoiding other visitors) until you are at the doorway - then, suddenly the whole picture is perfectly in focus. The colours are dazzling. It is day. It is heaven. It is invigorating. It is soothing. It is escapism. It is skill. It is creative. It is art.

I spent five minutes just staring. My family came looking for me. "What took you so long?"

I showed them where to stand. I stood long enough to add the picture to the art gallery in my memory.

I recall it as yellow, like Van Gogh's swirling picture, the most expensive in the world. But Monet painted many pictures of the water and plants in his garden, the same scene, at different times of day, different colours. So each one is a new experience. I had read about Monet many times. But this display of his paintings was the one which made the difference to me.  

Waterside Options
From art to eat. Those Zurich restaurants and cafes on the waterside are more expensive. Worth it for a long, leisurely coffee, not for a quick stop, unless your aim is lots of souvenir photos of us having coffee by the boats.

Things to see: Walks along the pedestrian streets, either down by the waterside or parallel. 
We stayed a couple of nights, giving us a day and a half. Make sure your walk allows time to visit the two main attractions, the cathedral with Chagall windows on the lower side of the river, and the art gallery, back across the bridge and uphill.

Summary of what to see: 
1 Church with Chagall Window
2 Art gallery with Swiss sculptor and Swiss artist, 
3 Walk along the waterside around the lake. 
Optional extras:

4 Zoo. I have seen lots of zoos. 

5 Corbusier
Last on my list was Corbusier.

We went to lok at the outside of the Corbusier house. Make sure to catch it on an open day.

His furniture is in the local museum which you can visit using the Zurich Card.

Transport
Trams - noisy and dangerous. I like trains. You could say the same of trains. But Swiss trains are like Swiss watches, precision objects.

We were very impressed by the trains. They run on time, no doubt timed by Swiss watches. The gate to the platform might close well in advance to prevent delays and undignified gallopping along the platform, so don't expect to rush up and leap on two minutes before departure, like on tube trains worldwide. 

On our day of departure a band was performing a concert in the station concourse. The music echoed around. 

On the trains we liked the hangers for your coat or jacket. Trains smarter than planes.

Shopping
Buy Swiss chocolate. Or Swiss army knives. Go window shopping for watches. Admire watches, and watch the prices and brands and maybe buy watches.

Knives might need to be posted or packed in main luggage rather than in hand luggage if travelling home by plane.

Events include Swiss National Day fireworks in August.

Local languages are Swiss German, French. Zurich is the German speaking area. Many people also speak English or Italian. Make time for that lunchtime multi-language Toastmasters.

Where Next?
Basel
On the north western border.
Berne
einsteinhaus
Einstein's home with his wife, where he wrote the theory of relativity, whilst working for the Swiss patent office.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Berne

Geneva - water fountain, flower clock, Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum

Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva.

Lucerne - chapel bridge with water tower, covered bridge with frescoes and plaques inside.

Photo author Simon Koopman in Wikipedia.

Useful Websites

1 Tourism
Airline etc
https://www.swiss.com/sg/en/

2 Switzerland
https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-sg/accueil.html

3 Zurich
Handy and detailed information on museums and food.
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Zurich
wikitravel

https://www.zuerich.com/en

4 Chagall Windows
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/chagalls-church-windows

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Chagall

5 Corbusier House & Furniture
Corbusier Furniture
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/culture/museum-fuer-gestaltung-toni-areal#internal
https://www.zuerich.com/en/visit/attractions/pavillon-le-corbusier#internal
tripadvisor

6 Multi-lingual Lunchtime Toastmasters Club
The International Lunchtime Toastmasters in Zurich
https://iltm.ch/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Please share links to your favourite posts.