xyzAsia

Airport taxi drivers are the bane of every Asian traveler’s existence. The moment you step out of the customs hall, at almost every airport in Asia, you will hear the familiar “Taxi sir?” Based on my own experience, and being as objective as possible, I would say that 24 out of 25 times, it will be a tout that is asking you that question. They survive by preying on tourists who look like they might be visiting for the first time, and don’t know where the official taxi rank is, or what the licensed taxi prices should be. If you respond to the question with a “Yes, I need a taxi” then I would say that 23 out of 25 times, you are going to get ripped off, paying up to double what you should be (and occasionally even more), or end up in a unlicensed rust bucket in which you will wonder whether you will make it to your destination in one piece. Very, very occasionally, you might end up in a genuinely dangerous situation where your personal safety is at risk. Fortunately it hasn’t happened to me, but it has to others.

Here are a few tips about getting in from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) – the airport that I know best. I’ll add some others as soon as I get time.

Kuala Lumpur

Despite the Malaysian police and airport authorities supposedly having constant crackdowns on touts at KL International Airport, it is a rare day not to be approached by at least 4-5 touts as you push your baggage cart through the arrivals hall. After a crackdown has been implemented, you may find the touts are all dressed in smart suits, to look like hotel representatives or limousine chauffeurs, to try and throw the police off the scent. But the fact is anyone asking if you want a taxi in the arrivals hall is a tout, because if you want an official airport taxi, you need to buy a taxi voucher after leaving the customs hall and before going through the sliding glass doors into the arrivals hall. The taxi voucher counter is easy to miss if you don’t know where to look for it, so there is usually a guy on the INSIDE of the sliding glass doors asking people if they want a taxi. He is the only person who is not a tout – his job is just to point out the taxi voucher counter, so you can get your prepaid voucher before you enter the arrivals hall.

You have to buy a prepaid voucher to use the airport taxis – they don’t accept cash (to prevent tourists from being ripped off) – so if you miss the taxi voucher counter on your way out, you can still get a voucher at another counter in the arrivals hall. But your problem will be to find the counter without being misled by a tout disguised as an airport official who will tell you something like “No need to buy a voucher, just come with me and you can pay in cash” or tell you there is another counter on a lower level (they will just be trying to get you into the car park where the touts have taxis waiting). Some of the taxis the touts use are city taxis looking for passengers for the return trip to the city, but others are unlicensed taxis. Very occasionally, you might be lucky and find a city taxi driver prepared to use his meter (often the ‘scruffy’ looking touts in the arrivals hall are actually city taxi drivers looking for a return fare) but too often they take advantage of unsuspecting tourists to overcharge them.

One day I overhead a tout in the arrivals hall telling a family from the Middle East that he would give them a special rate of RM150 to take them to the city. Yes, the rate was special alright – the usual fare is around half that. It’s a bit hard to say what the fare should be because it depends on where in the city you are going. The fare will range from about RM60 for destinations on the southern side of the city to RM90 for destinations on the northern side of the city. The city centre is usually around RM80 depending on traffic conditions (airport to city centre generally takes about an hour). The prepaid taxi vouchers that you buy at the airport will cost about 10% more than the metered fare, but the condition of the airport taxis is better, and they have more room for luggage than the city taxis.

Of course, if you don’t have much luggage with you, then give the taxis a miss. Take the KLIA Ekpres train from one of the lower levels of the arrivals hall and it will get you into KL Sentral in 28 minutes. It leaves every 15 minutes in peak hours and 20 minutes at other times. It’s fast, comfortable and a lot safer than the taxis. Many of the taxis drive at unsafe speeds (the speed limit on the freeway into the city is 110 kph, but I have had drivers get up to 160 kph before I told them to slow down). Some years ago, a European couple were killed in an airport taxi that was speeding. The KLIA Ekpres costs RM35 per person each way, and you can buy tickets from a counter in the middle of the baggage hall whilst you are waiting for your luggage to come off the plane. KL Sentral is not actually in the centre of KL – it’s about 5-10 minutes away depending on traffic. Again, there is a prepaid taxi voucher counter there, so you can do the last leg of your journey without getting ripped off. The taxi voucher counter is right outside the exit from the KLIA Ekpres. You can’t miss it. If you are traveling really light, and you know where you are going, then often it is quicker to complete your journey using either the commuter train (KTM Kommuter), elevated light rail system (Putra LRT) or monorail. The KTM Kommuter can take you to the PWTC station for hotels like the Seri Pacific and Legend; the LRT can take you to KLCC where the Twin Towers are (hotels close by include the Mandarin Oriental and Corus) or Ampang Park (hotels close by include the Nikko and Crown Princess); or the monorail can take you to Bukit Bintang or Jalan Sultan Ismail where many of the other hotels are located. The KTM Kommuter and Putra LRT stations are all in the same building as the KLIA Ekpres, but for the monorail you have to go outside the building and walk across the car park to the station on Jalan Tun Sambanthan (3 minutes). It’s on the opposite side to the Hilton and Le Meridien hotels.