Wanna go drinking on a Friday night in Singapore … prepare to line up … unless you’re a Trini!!

One of the things that is inherently Trini about me, is the absolute lack of any sort of patience for a lineup. I hate lining up for anything in the world … see my Trini mindset with dialect in bold

• Best restaurant in Barcelona, Paris, New York, etc … “I ent lining up … I going for a tapas, baguette, bagel, etc”
• Sporting event … “Trinidad playing World Cup in Germany … I ent lining up for no tickets … I must know somebody … and in fact I do”
• Airport … “I have priority status and will not fly on any metal that doesn’t allow me to line bypass … seriously”
• Chicken and Chips … i.e. KFC in Trinidad … “I ent lining up for none at them … even when is 100 Trinis in front of me … all more stouche than me”

So imagine my surprise when we go out drinking at Clark Quay and I was greeted by this …

Then followed by seeing this …

Then this … like really??!? This was like a never ending scene from a horror movie …

For a flecking taxi? Seriously, D* and I watched from a bar 10 m to the right and we saw that the line up for a taxi from about 12am – 3am raged and it took about an hour of waiting to get a taxi. Now my thoughts went from the following

• “These people are really orderly”
• Rain pouring … “These people really patient”
• Couple drinks in …“These people crazy!!”
• Finally talking to Rahim (the manager at the bar I was drinking at) … who explained that if you walked two mins down the street, there was a shorter line of 30 mins … and if you continued walked for another 5 mins, you could find a shorter queue of 10 mins … “These people fricking crazy and maybe a little dotish”

It took D* and I about three minute of walking down the street to flag a taxi down and be on our merry air conditioned ways. Coming from Trinidad does equip you for places like Singapore … it’s like Tigers eating Gazelles … it so “suck-eye” (see Trini dictionary link for meaning)

I’m sure that smart Singaporeans cannot possibly line up for taxis like this …

Here is an excellent link on Singapore Taxi Culture …

http://singapore.thinkexpats.com/places/67-uniquely-singapore/80-the-singapore-taxi-experience.html?start=1