Luxor Taxicab Drivers (Part 2)

I had forgotten about our previous experience riding with a cab driver here named Michael, until we ran into him again earlier today.  He really deserves a blog entry all to himself, so it was good to see him again.  Michael is pretty cool, he is Christian and he speaks a decent amount of English and went on to tell us about his experience attending school and later on being an X-Ray technician.  He still is an X-Ray tech and he also drives a cab.  So we were driving along and he had asked me to take his number for use if we need him to drive in the future.  I figured it was a reasonable request, so I went ahead and put his number in my phone.

When I was done, I figured it would be a good idea to take a picture of him driving, so I could remember and place a face with the name.  As I took the picture, Michael looked back and assured me that the picture wasn't going to be good, so he asked me to hand him my phone.  I handed him the phone and he proceeded as he was driving to try and figure out how to take the picture on the iphone.  He took the picture, looked at it and said, no, the image must be perfect.  So in X-Ray tech mode, he pulls to the median, not the side of the road and retakes the picture.  "We must take a perfect image."  In semi broken English, correlating the picture to an X-Ray, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, I decided to laugh and enjoy the ride.

We make it home and then on the way out of the driveway as he is backing away a small child is playing right behind the cab, where he can't see.  Candice looks and sees the child and between me and her yelling and the child completely oblivious and the driver backing out, we all three nearly had heart attacks.

So when I hop in the cab today, the driver smiles and says, hello, Orlando.  I look, and I recognize him as Candice says, hello Michael.  He looks serious and remembers our last meeting, stating, the baby I almost had a heart attack, "I didn't see.  If you hadn't seen him, it bothered me all day, I was so scared."  We agreed and rode with him.  Later, as we were headed back to town, a policeman is in front of us.  He is blocking the way on a motorcycle, deliberately slowing traffic.  For the record, the officer did start it.

However, Michael decides to play chicken with the policeman.  Later as we hit Nile Corniche, Michael is more sure of himself and decides to really play chicken with the police officer.  He cuts him off hard and leaves him in the dust.  We all laugh as I wonder not if, but when, he is going to get pulled over.  Michael interrupts my thoughts as we pass the light, moving past the temple saying, "he knows I can handle my cab, so he is okay with me."  No sooner than he says this he bumps the curb.  I hold my laugh and horror way down, deep down and just decide to enjoy the rest of the ride.  He is a good driver, but funny things always seem to happen when he is driving.