I don't remember if I mentioned it on this here li'l ol' blog, but upon arriving in Korea, I was accosted. At the airport exit, where I was prepared to look for the train and hopefully find my way where I needed to go on my own, the taximen approached. Blindsided and confused, they suckered me into being their customer.
At the time I was okay with it because I'm sure that I would have gotten lost on my own and I didn't feel like lugging my luggage around with me.
But having just remembered this... and then subsequently recalling the (voluntary, due to extra luggage and rain) taxi ride BACK to the airport, something struck me!
In the first taxi, I looked for a mileage meter thing, hoping to see how fast my fee was growing, but couldn't find one. I thought I saw what might have been one but it was stuck at zero. The taximan gave me a "guess" at what the fee would be to the hotel (about 35 bucks, if I recall correctly, or a little more) and I just rolled with it at the time. Upon arrival, he also asked for a tip. I assumed this was the norm in Korea, but later discovered that, at least in restaurants, tips are NOT the norm.
Fast forward a month, to my taxi ride back to the airport (from a different location, admittedly). It felt about the same length of trip, but obviously it had been a month so who knows if it actually was. At any rate, this guy had a meter rolling. Good! And it rolled very slowly! By the time we got to the airport it was only about 18 bucks. Hmm. So I tried to give him above 20 (this was all in won, the currency of the Republic of Korea, so my math is iffy), but he gave back all the change. No tip? Buh?
I think you see where I'm going with this.
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