Door to Door: an Unpleasant Experience

I've just recovered from a sickness; my brain hasn't been fully functional. So do excuse me if I looked/sounded a bit peking (e as in the, i as in king. It's a Pontianak Malay's word for crazy). Ah, yes! A rather long winding way to just say that I want to rant.

So, here's the situation. Normally, I'd take a bus to a particular destination, and the overall trip takes about 1 hour. Overall means walk to lift, go down and walk to bus stop (10 mins), wait for a bus (5-15 mins), time spent on a bus (30-35 mins), alight and walk to the destination (10 mins).

Yesterday I needed to arrive at the same destination before 10am. Since I was still in the recovery mood, I stepped out from my house at about 9:15am. “Ah, I'll be late if I take a bus” was what I thought. So, I duly decided to take a taxi, hoping to reach my destination before or exactly at 10am despite a higher expense. Which is a fair expectation, isn't? Afterall, taxies are supposed to be more mobile and deliver faster than busses.

Nope! Big no no! Not at all! No, no, and no! Have I said no?!?!?!?

First, I waited for a taxi at the entrance of my house complex. See, it took 5 mins to walk from the house's entrance to the lift, go down, and then walk to the entrance of the complex. After failing to get a taxi for about 10 mins, I took a 5-min walk to a taxi stand in a plaza and reached there at 9:30am. Yes, a plaza (BPP — Bukit Panjang Plaza). Actually it's very close to the bus stop I usually used, but still I decided to take a taxi in a (soon-to-be-proved) vain hope to arrive a.s.a.p.

The problem was, it took another 35 mins to finally board to a taxi (i.e. 10:05am). And this was after compulsively pressing the call button many many times. And mind you, there're other travelers waiting there as well. Of course, once boarding to the taxi, it took only 15 mins to reach my destination. The cost? SGD 8.8, nearly 7x the cost of taking a bus (SGD 1.29).

Now, I deliberately leave this till the end: I arrive at my destination at almost 10:30am. This was even later than had I decided to take a bus. Madness! How can it be?! Taxies are supposed to be superior in their delivery time, provided we're willing to pay! But how is it that the total, door-to-door time from my house's door to the destination's door (i.e. the meeting room) was the same?!?!? And yet, I still paid 7x of the cost of busses!!!!

Grrmph $%^#&@%&$@&(*&(#@$@@#