Ah ... Taxi drivers. :)

Interesting day today.

After lunch Stig and I were going to Dunkin Donuts. The crosswalk there is usually a cluster-fuck. It is the crosswalk I posted pictures of the car driving across the crosswalk. Today was no different.

When we went to cross the taxis had the crosswalk so blocked you had to walk on the road either side around them to cross. There was even a taxi on the OUSTISDE blocking the crosswalk (waiting to get in the taxi queue.) So I yelled at them for blocking the crosswalk. I guess the one of the outside couldn't handle being chastised by a foreigner. He leaned out his window shouting gaeseki this ... shepalnom that ... blah blah blah. My reply was to flip him the bird.

He bounded out of his taxi all pissed off. Keep in mind his taxi is STILL on the road, blocking a lane of traffic AND the crosswalk. He keeps blathering and swearing in Korean. What could I say? I told him I don't give a shit. This is a road not a fucking parking lot. He kept blathering. I told him I didn't understand (in Korean) and got off the road. You would think it ended there wouldn't you?

You would be wrong. This is Korea and he is an adjusshi with a bloated amount of self-importance. And I am but a dirty foreigner who insulted him and dared to suggest that he is not entitled to block the crosswalk and the street. He keeps standing ON THE ROAD with his cab there BLOCKING a lane of traffic yelling and whining. Posturing and pouting. Yelling at me. Yelling at the people waiting for the next green to cross. He is frothing at the mouth pointing at the road and the taxi queue in the distance. What can I say ... had to interject again. I looked at him and said I don't care. The road isn't a parking lot. With a smile.

Evidently he didn't like that. His vitriol got stronger and stronger. From this point on every other word was gaeseki. Everytime he paused I would just smile, chuckle, shrug my shoulders and say I don't care. (I think he understood that. Maybe he is a 2NE1 fan?) He stayed out IN TRAFFIC for a good 5+ minutes going on and on. Then he got in his taxi and drove off.

A minute or two later he was charging down the sidewalk screaming and yelling. Basically, he became a typical posturing adjusshi. Yelling, pointing, yelling at the people around him, raising a fist. (If you have ever seen Koreans fight it usually involves 20 minutes of posturing. Cocking a fist back every so often. Which usually causes them a lot of grief when they pull this bullshit with foreigners. You cock your fist back as if throwing a punch and most foreigners will flatten you. Seen quite a few Koreans get knocked on their ass this way. Their shocked expressions are priceless. They can't believe they were hit.)

He went on for about 5 minutes. At one point he hauled out his cell phone and threatened to call the police. Sweet. I dared him to do it. I even double dog dared him. Funny how quickly people back away from a hollow threat. He put the phone away and went back to swearing and screaming. I told him I would call the cops if he didn't. So I aksed Stig to go into Dunkins and get the manager to call the cops. (The manager there speaks English well.) In Korean I let him know the cops were being called. Well in broken Korean. He didn't like that.

After a couple more minutes of invective he went out onto the street ranting to other cabbies. Stig figured he was trying to get a lynch mob together. :) He kept this up for a few minutes. The other cabbies pretty much ignored him. Then he ranted on the sidewalk for another minute or so before mooking off to his cab.

The police showed up about 10 minutes after he left. The manager talked to them about what happened. She let them know he had left. They hoped I understood that not all Koreans are like him. (Yeah ... yeah ... I hate when they do that but at least they didn't apologize for him.)

Now I don't usually advise calling the police in Korea. 9 times out of 10 it backfires on you. (Ask Metropolitician.) This was my 1 in 10 and I doubt I will ever play that card again. I figured it would make the mook leave and it did. When I told him the police were being called he saw Stig in talking to the manager, and the manager on the phone. That is when he started backing off. (Unlike him I don't make idle threats. If i say I am gonna do it ... I do it.)

All that was left to do was sit out with a coffee and chuckle at the stupidity of the mook. I didn't want to leave my scooter out there alone just in case the asshat did come back and tried to fuck with it.

There was some mookishness after that. Some ass left his chair on the patio and then tried sitting on my scooter. Another driver parked blocking the crosswalk and then drove through/across the crosswalk. The usual idiocy.

If this happened back home I would have put him on his ass the first time he cocked his fist. (In Korea it isn't worth hitting them unless you absofuckinglutely have to because win or lose the fight you will always lose when they come after you for blood money.) He kept thrusting his finger at me too. If he had touched me, I would have popped him one regardless. But I knew he wouldn't ... he was just a posturing coward. I think my smiling kept pissing him off too. Which was what I hoped for. :)