Taxis in Fiji

Because Josh and I don’t have a car here in Fiji, we have been using taxis as our most frequent mode of transportation. For those of you reading this from the USA, Australia, and New Zealand…you must be thinking, “How in the world can they afford that?” The answer to that question is simple….taxis are really cheap and plentiful in Fiji. According to my calculations, which of course are very precise (I look out our front window and count how many taxis drive by verses normal cars), there are about 3 taxis out of every 5 cars.

These taxis however can be quite an experience. Sometimes they are really nice, sometimes they are about to fall apart. Sometimes they are station wagons with tons of space for things you are carrying, and sometimes they are so small you have to squish yourself just to fit inside. Sometime the drivers are literally driving like they are on the autobahn, and sometimes the car can barely make it up a hill. Sometimes they have to stop and get gas mid run, and sometimes the cars literally fall apart as you are driving down the road.

Yesterday, Josh and I had an interesting experience on our way into town. We jumped in a “relatively nice” taxi and headed into town. After we had been in the car about two minutes our Hindu taxi driver started speaking broken English about something and pulled into the gas station. Apparently his engine was overheating and he needed to add some water. There was Fijian attendant there that came up to us and started joking around about us not paying the driver because of the breakdown. We just laughed and went on our way.

On our way back from town we were in one of those “not so nice, hardly moving” taxis. Then all of the sudden, without explanation, our driver pulled over in front of the Australian Embassy. Apparently, he had a near flat tire and thought it was about to blow. So in we went to the same gas station where we had another conversation with the same Fijian attendant. This time though, when he saw us….he just started laughing and told us we had the worst luck ever. It was quite comical….but as the car was going to take awhile to fix, we walked the rest of the way home.