Vlog #4 - First hand experience of Saigon Taxi scam!

Last weekend I flew into Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to attend my best friend's wedding dinner. The trip was good, fun and enjoyable. On the day of departure back to Singapore, I went for the water puppet show and was headed to the airport from there. Thus, I did not take the hotel taxi at fixed rate of 160k Dong (USD 8).

There was a row of taxi outside the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre in District 1, and I chose this driver who wore a neat white shirt and his taxi resembled one from the reputable Vinasun taxi. As a seasoned traveller, I asked if it was a metered taxi before I hopped on. It was metered. Albeit a doctored and erratic meter! After doing some research online, I think I might have hopped onto a fake taxi!

I was just randomly looking at the meter as it jumps. Then I thought I saw it jumped from 59k Dong to 72k Dong. Every increment is supposed to be 3k Dong in HCMC! Damn, I even chuckled to myself as I thought I have misread the 69k as 59k Dong. Then I continued looking at the meter.

The distinct moment came when I heard clearly two clicks and saw two corresponding jump in fare on the meter. That was when I starting to record the entire process down. He had the clicker to inflate fare on his left hand behind the steering wheel!

It was an emotion roller coaster. From feeling generous, in thinking that I will be fine in paying slightly more since I'm home-bound, to worrying about my dinner money being siphoned off, and then to wondering if I had enough money to pay as I only had about 400k Dong (USD 20) in my wallet. And all of a sudden, I realised I fell prey to a scam!

He kept trying to distract me by asking if I was from Tokyo, and then kept asking me to look at shopping centres whenever we past by one. The last straw came at 2:55 minute mark of the vlog which you can see him desperately asking me to "look! look! look!", and quickly inflate the fare outrageously till I shouted at him to stop.

The scam didn't stop at just an erratic meter. Later on he tried to hide the big bill of 100k Dong and insisted I gave him wrong amount. Luckily I kept track of how much I had in my wallet. To not shortchange him, I even did a mental track back to verify if I did additional shopping before going for the water puppet show. Nope, I didn't. I clearly documented what I bought and ate for the sake of my next vlog (thankfully)! I tried to ask for help at the airport, but the taxi staff ignored me. It was the guilty-conscience of the driver that almost brought the episode to a closure. Read about it in my vlog!

I'm really just thankful to be safe and sound. He could have caused personal harm and damage to me for all you know.