{"id":42861,"date":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/42861\/weirdest-beirut-cab-experiences-part-ii"},"modified":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T00:00:00","slug":"weirdest-beirut-cab-experiences-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/42861\/weirdest-beirut-cab-experiences-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Weirdest Beirut Cab Experiences: Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all had at least one. Whether it\u2019s creepy, funny, or emotional, the Lebanese cab expe-rience is not to be missed. At the risk of sounding like one of those clich\u00e9d journalists who talk about the romance and quirk of Lebanon\u2019s post-Civil War social scene, there are all sorts of cab drivers, from the hardened pessimist who grumbles about the political state of the country, to the overly-friendly guy who asks you questions that are just a little bit too personal. <\/p>\n

Because just one article about weird cab experiences<\/a> isn\u2019t enough, here is part two.<\/big> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a service (sir-veece) once with a buddy en route to Hamra, we offered the cabby a drink from a7la 3alam. He kindly declined, but told us during his seafaring days he was quite the drinker. We asked if he was a sailor and he confirmed that he was, and would voyage to distant ports all over Europe… He told us about Scandinavia, about the French riviera, and then told us about the Swiss coast. Switzerland was the catalyst, because they have no coast.\u201d -Ilija, 25<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a lighter, more heartfelt note, I was once sitting in the backseat of a Charlie Taxi and got really annoyed with how the driver was driving with one hand. He couldn’t stay in a lane and pressed the breaks very abruptly. I kept telling myself that the ride would be a short one and I’ll be off soon. After he didn’t press the brake hard enough before a speed bump, I shifted from the win-dow seat to the middle to ask him if he can drive less recklessly. But before I can say anything, I saw that he was driving with one hand because the other was holding some kind of stick attached to the floor of the car. I thought it was a farfetched stick-shift, until I saw his right leg stopped at the thigh. I thought, could this be real? This guy doesn’t have a right leg and is driving…for a living. Looking back, for a man without a leg, the ride wasn’t that bad. He lost his leg when a mine ex-ploded during the civil war.\u201d – Ilija, 25<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of a particularly long, congested route to my friend\u2019s place, the cab driver turned around, held up his cigarettes, and said, \u2018You know why I smoke these? Because Hitler smoked these.\u2019\u201d – Mahmoud, 20<\/p>\n

\u201cAn old man, who called himself Dr. John, told me he knew all, including my past and future. He kept asking me to hold his hand, which I declined. Apparently the hand holding wasn\u2019t neces-sary, because he proceeded to tell me that I get angry but cool down fast, I have a sweet heart, and I was going to meet a sweet guy. Then I remembered I was in the same cab with the same guy 2 years before, and he had told me the exact same things. So either he really did know my future or he says the same thing to everyone. When I got out of the cab, he yelled across the street to me, \u2018Tell them about Dr. John!\u2019\u201d – Sara, 23<\/b><\/p>\n

And it seems like more than one person had this experience\u2026<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy decided to interpret my life once and grabbed my hand to read it and then it just went downhill from there.\u201d – Sarah, 25<\/p>\n

\u201cI get in the cab and said \u2018To Treesome, Gemmayze, please.\u2019 He\u2019s like \u2018Where is that?\u2019 I told him the names of some other places nearby. He\u2019s like \u2018No no, gemmayze, how do I get there?\u2019 I was pretty surprised, and asked him how long he had been a taxi driver, and he said 8 months. I asked how it was that he didn\u2019t know where Gemmayze was, had no one ever asked to go there? He said no. I said \u2018Okay, it\u2019s near Centreville, next to Annahar newspaper.\u2019 He still did not know. Then he goes \u2018Ah! Gemmayze! So I go through Mansourieh, then\u2026\u2019 I said, \u2018No! No Mansourieh!\u2019 So I told him I would show him how to get there. For some weird reason, I fell asleep on the Dbayeh highway. I wake up and we\u2019re on the Baabdat highway on the way to Broumana. I ask where we are going. He\u2019s like, \u2018To Gemmayze!\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Not from here! Why didn\u2019t you tell me?\u2019 He said \u2018I didn\u2019t want to wake you!\u2019 So we U-turn. We get near Virgin and I say to turn left. He\u2019s like \u2018Ah! Next to Saifi Village!\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018You know Saifi Village but not Gemmayze?!\u201d – Danny, 27<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a service going home on a cold day and the driver was an old grumpy man. He saw a young woman walking by who wasn\u2019t wearing a lot of clothes. So the guy got really mad and said something like, \u201cSTAGHFARALLAH IT\u2019S WINTER AND SHE\u2019S DRESSED LIKE A WHORE!\u201d I didn\u2019t say anything and was close to home, but there was a lot of traffic. Then I hear this weird sound and I see his hand go up and down fast. I look closer and see that he started masturbating like a crazy person. I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t panic \u2014 I found it rather funny. I felt safe because I was near home around a lot of public places, so I said to myself, \u2018Let me take a video.\u2019 I turned the camera on and pressed film. The problem was that I forgot to switch to video so there was this loud flash sound. He turned suddenly and was like so surprised there was someone behind him. I literally jumped out of the cab.\u201d – Nayla, 27<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to find a dentist\u2019s office that was near AUH when a car pulled up and the driver called out, \u2018Taxi,\u2019 which I thought was overkill because the large red sign on top of his car had al-ready alerted me to its purpose in life. I asked him for directions and he told me, \u2018Get in, no problem lady, no problem.\u2019 He literally drove one block and a half and asked for 10,000LL. That\u2019s how I learned what \u2018Taxi\u2019 means in Beirut.\u201d – Shannon, 44<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI went into a cab one night and sat in the backseat. There was a typical meat-head driver and an African man in front. The African man kept telling the driver he was going the wrong way because he knows the route to his own house. The driver was offended, and started huffing and puffing, \u2018This is my country. How dare you tell me the roads in my own country?!\u2019 The African man said \u2018Because you have no idea and you think you know.\u2019 So the driver grabbed him by the shirt, saying \u2018How dare you,\u2019 and the African man started throwing punches. Mind you, I was still in the backseat with really pathetic attempts of saying, \u2018Guys, khalas. Khalas guys.”A full-on fight ensues, they\u2019re punching and grabbing as the car stands still in the middle of the street. It was when the driver reached in the glovebox, I was like \u2018Oh hell no, that’s a gun.\u2019 I got out of the car and ran. I was still looking at the car to see what would happen. Nothing, they just drove away with both of them still in the car. Is the African man dead? Did they make peace after? Did I realize I might’ve been part of a prank show? Who knows\u2026\u201d – Ramzy, 23<\/big> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all had at least one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":416441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_preview_accessed":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-42861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wtf"],"authorship":[40],"yoast_head":"\nWeirdest Beirut Cab Experiences: Part II<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We\u2019ve all had at least one.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/42861\/weirdest-beirut-cab-experiences-part-ii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weirdest Beirut Cab Experiences: Part II\" \/>\n<meta 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