Route Taxis are the best! They make me feel so mobile, they are cheap and I like to squeeze in with a bunch of strangers and enjoy the ride. It is nice to have someone who is always there for you and never passes you up when you need a ride. Thanks be for route taxis!
oh oh
:-(
i need to get a BiG-BIG bunch-'o popcorn
[[ with extra butter ]]
'cause this thread is gonna be *interesting*, fi SURE
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self-SAY::>> "..cabin fever...??.."
mi-SAY:::>> "..yep yep .... same time every year.."
self-SAY::>> "..seen.."
be hapPpy
Was thinking the same thing .. laughing.Originally Posted by smith744
Fasten your seatbelts!
http://negril.com/forum/signaturepics/sigpic9303_1.gif
Route taxis are one of a few ways I'm able to afford to take vacations in JA. Don't really care to have my girlfriend on my lap on two routes so far this reach....never tell her I said that.
Nothing wrong with Route Taxis. You should know that a couple will pay 260 Jamaican dollars for one 'leg' of your cab ride and you may end up riding with 4 people in the back seat and a school kid on your lap if you travel at 'peak' times. For 500 J, (about 6 U.S. dollars) you get a private ride.
I always laugh at the able to afford trips to Ja route taxi statement.... A couple more bucks and you are charter........
how much is the average airfare? Hotel?
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.self-SAY:::>>> "Fool,,WHY you log-into this thread..????.."
me-SAY::>>> "..snow-ed in... cabin fever ... time on my hands ... wanna *play*..... I can dribble, too.."
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boo hoo
boo boo
your-laugh-ing make me cry cry cry.
:-(
* sniff sniff *
first-ly,
me poor ... broke ... short-short pant-pocket$
I don't take a *limo* here in foreign ---ain't dew-ing it in Jamaica..!!..
in fact,
I haven't taken a WashDC/USofA taxi in ump-teen years
*home*, here in-foreign, I use public transportation 99.9% of the time.
WHEREAS, [for-me], Jamaica is '..home..', too:::>>>> me do the SAME thing down yonder der, that I do UP-yonder here.... .... me-personally, *see* no need to change my life$tyle, just because I'm in Jamaica.
it's a *me*-thing.
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[[[ an aside, regarding the *comfy*-ride innuendo(s)::>>> now-days, lately, at-the-present-time, MANY (almost most) of those Ja-route-*taxis* are a far more comfy ride than a lot of those so-called charter vehicles.
Almost three years ago, I was blown-away when I saw how the Ja-route taxi fleet had *upgraded*, while a bunch of the charter-guys were still driving the same put-put-mobiles.
THIS TRIP, over Christmas break, I had several "..Heaven-to-Murgatroid.." moments, when I saw snazzy jazzy slick-slick vehicles they be-using now-days for route-taxi-ing ---- MANY are fancy mini-vans, with multiple sliding doors, on BOTH sides of the van. Quite-a-few of those route-taxi-vans have THREE-rows of seating for passengers.
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don't wanna be redundant,
but here below is a video re-post ... taken December 31, 2013 ... NewYearsEve
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I rode in that taxi (above)
'bout 3-4 times back & forth Lucea-to-Negril
..btw...nice & safe driver
one night/evening,
I rode in back-seat/row::::: soooooooooooooooooo nice back der ...... I was all by my lonesome-self on that back row, on that drive back to Lucea. In fact, all passengers in-taxi were comfy .... on the Lucea-to-Negril route, they don't pile-up the route taxis (as in the good(?)-ole-days). BeachRoad and WestEndRoad same way.
NOW,
IF you traveling via route-taxi in the rural-areas, THAT could be a whole *different* pot-of-chicken-feet....things go *different* in the non-tourist suburbs.
:-)
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I'm kickin' my self,
'cause I didn't shoot more taxi-sample videos
for you-all's *consideration*
* sigh *
next time WILL do
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secondly,
dem '..couple more bucks..' can add-up in quick-fashion if your trip is 3, 4, 6, 8 weeks.
'member dem-SAY::>> "..every mickle makes a muckle, blah blah raaa raaaa.."
lol
lol
THAT's a topic for 1 or 2 new thread(s).
lol
lol
mi-personal-ly don't chat 'bout *hotels* et al.
as for the airfare expense, that's pure foreign bandit-try {full-stop}
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mi done playing .... going to the bench.
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oh
oh
oh:::>> ALL-ways remember::::>> Jamaican route taxis are not for tourist/foreigner usage.
so,
don't ride/use Ja-route-taxis :::: the seat(s) you occupy might be mine.
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self-SAY:::>>> "...nice C.Y.A.-ing der, at the end.."
mi-SAY::>>> "..mi no idiot..... I know how to *play* this *game*,, from long time......pass the popcorn,,, please...."
be hapPpy
My take on this is "I 'like' Route Taxis as a necessity" but I 'love' a charter ride for the flexibility and comfort"
I live in the middle of nowhere in Jamaica. There are few vehicles anyways and the majority of them that ply the routes are "robots" (white plate personal cars used as a route taxi). The drivers live in or near my community so they are not the reckless taxi drivers you see in most places. If you need a bag of cement, you just ask the driver to pick it up and you pay for it + the taxi fare (or maybe a likkle more) so you don't have to go along to purchase it.
It costs me $500j to take a route taxi to Santa Cruz and back from my house. It costs me $2000J to do the same with a charter. If I need to shop at the market, hardware store, chemical store, etc. I have to walk all over and carry my purchases with me. A charter is there with me and makes it a whole lot better.
Just my take on this.
Peace and GuidanceRoute Taxis are the best! They make me feel so mobile, they are cheap and I like to squeeze in with a bunch of strangers and enjoy the ride. It is nice to have someone who is always there for you and never passes you up when you need a ride. Thanks be for route taxis!
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Iteachdetroit,
I assume from your name that you are indeed a teacher, that you know that we always can learn new things and the power of knowledge.
Late last year, a couple of extremely well traveled and experienced visitors to Negril were robbed in what they thought was a "normal" route taxi. As it has turned out, it was a stolen taxi and the driver and passenger were up to no good. Here is a link to one of the two threads that were running at that time. Please read it in detail -there is some useful advice being posted.
http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...put#post112959
Essentially, only you can make the decision if the pocket change you save is worth the safety risk. With many thing we do in life we are essentially making safety risk decisions. Should I drive to work going this route or that route? Should I buy this medication or wait out the illness? Was that sushi made by a competent chef? But the risks can be minimized.
By taking down the phone numbers of the drivers listed in our transportation section (we personally know all of them) and having them handy and giving them a call while you are taking the last couple sips of your cold drink is every bit as convenient as a route taxi. Sure it will cost you a dollar or two more - but how much is peace of mind and safety worth to you? You wont have the joy of having random strangers possibly sit on your lap, but such is life. There are trade offs.
I will sum this up as I did that last thread with these words I wrote to a different poster:
"While you say no disrespect is intended, it seems that your previous comment in this thread lends one to believe that I have an ulterior motive. Believe what you want and travel how you want. But to answer your question, I have heard of too many incidents around the island involving tourists, even though one is still too many.
Negril is a rather small town with a population hovering around 5000 and receives lesser numbers of visitors to the island than MoBay or Ocho Rios, so the number of incidents here are relatively small. But there have been incidents reported all around the island, in Hanover (not Negril), several in St James, a few more in the north coast areas and of course Kingston.
There are visitors to Negril who everyday rent scooters and feel perfectly safe and "in no danger" as you state you feel about the route taxis. There are scooter rentals all over Negril and tourists do rent them. But this month alone we have seen and talked to 4 sets of visitors who gotten serious cases of road rash which put an obvious damper on their vacation. All professed to have rented them in the past and knew the "runnings" and yet they ended up hurt. Bad things can happen to good people.
As I have stated, the majority of route taxi operators are hard working, honest and decent drivers trying to make a living. But you, as a visitor, do not have the years and years of daily experience with the route taxi system that all Jamaicans living here have - it is second nature to them. They instinctively know which taxis to use and not to get in, they were taught this as a child. There is no visitor to the island that has that same ability, and sometimes that even fails experienced Jamaicans.
So, by all means, go ahead and think you are in no danger at all using random route taxis. They are not allowed to refuse you, it is against the law. But would you have known not to get into the Lilliput route taxi? Would you have even noticed the Lilliput wording and known what it meant?
There is a system that has been put in place by the Jamaican government and JTB to directly serve the needs of those visitors to our beautiful island.
I can no more recommend that visitors use the route taxi system, which was designed with the local populace in mind than I can recommend walking through the unlit areas of the beach at night.
It is simply not wise advice."
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