Stranded at Mall for 2 hours..

Hello steemit,

Here's my upsetting tale of what happened to me yesterday. I went to a mall to do a little shopping. No big, right? I had also called for some water to be delivered to my condo unit at 5pm. I left around 1 pm, the mall if just 5 minutes away, and I only had 3 things I wanted to do at the mall. I was done by 4pm and proceeded to catch a Grab taxi.

On with the story. All good so far.. also, I had done the same routine just last week and it was no prob at all. I also used Grab many many times already.. always only minutes wait..

well, I guess the moon was full or something and it interfered with the grab app cuz it was not working.. that, or ALL the drivers didn't feel like going to the mall that time. THERE WERE NO TAXIs! Why?? I don't get it..

So, I waited, and waited.. an hour passed. I got hungry and went BACK into the mall to eat some dinner..

Try again, this time I headed for the taxi bay. Being a PWD (disabled) I got to go to the priority line. There was just 1 pregnant girl ahead of me. 20 minutes later, a taxi FINALLY arrived. OK, 20 minutes.. doable. SURE.

1 HOUR LATER, no sign of any taxi and it was already 8pm. I got concerned that the mall would be closing at 9pm and no taxis would ever show.. There were also 11 other people in line waiting.. I can only guess how many HOURS they had been waiting.. (If the priority lane always gets to go first.. then a 'regular' person has to wait for that lane to be totally gone first? that could be indefinite as long as seniors/pregnant/disabled come) :(

I asked another guy in line and he just shrugged, smiled, and said 'just wait'. WTH?? That seems to be the pinoy way.. just grin and bear anything and every hardship in life. Well, this fat, lazy, and sometimes loud and NOT willing to 'just wait' American paid some guy 350 php ($7), 3 times what a taxi would cost, to bring me the 5 minutes to my condo.

Sure. I coulda just walked.. it would probably take me an hour to walk since I am slow and had a box of groceries.. I also had no clue how to cross the busy road there at the mall, and know there would be endless other obstacles to overcome on my long trek.

I don't know how pinoys put up with it. They grew up with it I guess, so they just deal.. I am not very happy about it, though.. I very much miss bacolod were taxi's are easy to find, or you could even just walk to anywhere. Also the frequency of someone, other than a guard or a store worker, offerning to help me here in the city is about 20% that of in bacolod. I feel MUCH safer and at ease there..

Have a good day all,

Ben

*first pic from https://www.tnp.sg/news/lta-tries-out-taxi-info-system-shorter-waiting-times-taxi-stands