I consider myself a nice guy. I try to be nice with everyone and generally give people the benefit of the doubt. For the most part the people I encounter are good. Especially in Morocco most people are helpful and very hospitable. There is one exception, the Moroccan taxi drivers. I don’t know if I have met one honest Moroccan taxi driver in Morocco. I understand that they are struggling but do the Moroccan taxi drivers really need to con the “tourist” in order to make a quick buck?
I reached the point a long time ago where I would rather walk everywhere rather than take the taxi but now I’m at the point where I just want to tell them off. The final straw came about a week ago. I was on my way to Jma el fna to buy some gifts for a family I was visiting. I was planning on walking from Gueliz to Jma el fna. A taxi man saw me and started a conversation with me. I’m always open to having a conversation to people so I engaged in the conversation. Well the taxi man convinced me that the dates that I was going to buy for the family would be garbage and would insult the family I was visiting. He told me that he would take me to the secret place in Jma el fna that sold the real dates that people come to expect.
Well he did take me to buy the dates but then decided to take me on a tour of Marrakech. I told him several times I just want to go home and rest. After maybe an hour of wasting my time he took me home and asked for 300 dirhams for a trip that should have been 20 dirhams. Of course the meter was not on as Taxi drivers in Morocco feel that this is optional even though it is mandatory to use it. This taxi driver may of received the money for me but his greediness has destroyed the reputation of all taxi drivers good and bad.
Now I will do everything in my power to avoid Moroccan taxi drivers and if they do approach me I will treat them as if they are all trying to rip me off. The worst part of this is that this is not the only time it has happened to me. I’ve always tried to say this is the last time and that was just a bad driver but after so many bad encounters I am going to avoid them as much as I can as they cannot be trusted.