Thursday, November 09, 2006

Shopping via Taxi

Near my flat is a car park. When I first moved in, it was never completely full. Then it became always full, from 9 a.m. until about 10 p.m., with lots more cars prowling for a space.

Now it’s half empty, thanks to the fact that Dubai put up the orange parking ticket dispensers, the notice that they were now required by people parking in the lot, and the availability of a free, sand lot nearby.

Today, parked in the lot, I saw a taxi from Sharjah. At first, it seemed empty, but then I saw the driver sleeping. The meter was running. Apparently a rich shopper had taken the taxi to Dubai and told the driver to wait (and, contrary to popular opinion, the meters charge for time as well as distance).

The meter read (in local currency, of course) about £10. I keep forgetting that, to most Europeans, £10 is a trivial amount of money. Here it could feed a labourer for a month. Assuming, of course, the labourer’s employer is foolish enough to actually pay him.