You note we use the masculine here and that's because some 99% of the drivers are, the few women I travelled with were all quite polite if not talkative.

A compounded conversation with a driver (any resemblance with actual people or events is probably intentional), Jalan Sempadan can stand for any location (really).

Me: "morning"
Driver: "rfekwgf" (or something like it).
"Jalan Sempadan please"
"huh"
"Jalan Sempadan please, block ##" [mental check, yes Jalan Sempadan is correct]
"Jalan Simpang Bedok huh?"
"Jalan Sempadan yes, it in Bedok, block ##" [same ??, it looks different but pronounce it]
"kay"

"you live Singapore ?"
"yes"
"long-ah"
"a while yes"
"howlong-ah"
"depends how you look at it, first time here was 1991"
"wah, 10 years-ah"
"well no, maybe 4 years in the past 10, coming and going"
"you like Singapore girl-ah"
"yes" [I married one after all]
"many girls here-ah, no problem for you-ah, go out in weekends-ah"
"well I'm married, don't go out alone that much, my wife is Singaporean by the way"
"ah? Chinese-ah?"
"yes" [lucky guess, 80% of the population is Chinese]
"no matter wha !"

I'll spare you the rest of this bit - later in the ride

"you know where block ## is - ah"
"sorry no, first time here"

"no block ## here mah"
"where are we?"
"Jalan Simpang Bedok"
[looking at road sign] "no, I need to be at Jalan Sempadan, in Bedok"
"aya, you say Jalan Simpang Bedok"
[been here long enough not to argue] "well I need to be in Jalan Sempadan"
"I dono lah, never been there lah, can find in directory o-not"
[check directory] "here it is"
"o, nofar, solly-ah"
"never mind" [just get me there]

Remember, taxi's are cheap, this is not New York, this costs a dollar. Don't bother!

Singapore taxi (honestly!)

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