I have missed this Taxi driver’s story in between.
It was a Sunday( 3rd July), and we were moving from St.Leonards to Parramatta. He was not sure of the location of where we wanted to go, but had a street map. I just helped him out in spotting the place we wanted to go, to the precise point where the apartments are.
Then he started with asking me whether I am a software professional, and whom I am working for and all. I took this opportunity to go in to his life and get his story.
I will call him Ching, a Chinese migrated to Australia some 10 years ago. He had come to Australia some 10 years ago. He struggled a bit to find a job, and then started with driving taxi. Once slowly settled down his parents in China started looking for a girl for him. He says, then, he could see the girls have changed over 3-4 years when he went back to his home country. They were only looking for money. He was telling some examples of his friends who married from China and the girl ran away with a rich man in Sydney, after an year or so !
So, Ching dropped that plan and found a girl, basically Vietnamese, settled in Sydney itself. She also came to work and almost 3 years she has been in Sydney when Ching met her. He feels that this gave him the advantage that she will be comfortable with the environment, and don’t have to worry much about her language problems or cultural shocks. He is now married to her and has got two kids.
The taxi drivers works in shifts. One person is only allowed to work for 8-9 hours only. They take one day off a week. Most of the drivers, Ching says, start by 6am or 7am and work till 3pm. Ching normally starts an hour late, and stays for an hour or two more so that he can exploit the demand for taxi around 3 pm when all taxis vanishes. The second set of people takes over to work till midnight, after that.
Ching is a Buddhist, but he was telling me he will eat fish and meat. Once a week they will fast, that is fully vegetarian. I was about to ask him why, as the followers of Buddha – the father of Ahimsa, they are eating meat, but then I realise in spite of all this wisdom and charm, this question may be too much for a poor taxi driver ! I have the danger of us been forced to get down somewhere on the roadside with all my luggage J !
I am not sure whether I am becoming a story teller from a traveller, but I think these stories are also part of the journey J.
By the by, these guys here never worry about helping you out with loading your luggage, and never worry about the tip too! If you give them a tip, they are more than happy, that is all. I am just telling this, as it is the other way in US.
Tailpiece:- About Driver's license in the Aussie Government Site J,
Whether you rent or buy, you'll need a valid driver's license. If you have a driver's license from your home country, with your photograph on it, you probably won't need anything else. In some cases you may need to carry a translation of your license if it isn't in English. You probably do not need a so-called international drivers' license - they went out of fashion years ago.
Information :- Taxi charges-
Booking- $ 1.15,
Flag off - $ 2.75( what we call minimum),
per km - $ 1.56
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