RELIABLE TAXI SERVICE IN ORLANDO

If you throw your belongings in the trunk of a taxi, ALWAYS ensure that the driver gets out of the car to help you grab them. Make sure that he or she gets out before you. Never ever get out of that taxi without your things and a driver still being in the taxi.

You’re likely safer with Uber and Yandex as all information is on file… but never do this with street taxis. I have had a friend very wronged at the Bishkek Airport. He threw his stuff in the trunk and went climbing in the backseat of the car and the taxi drove off with all of his stuff and not him. Be careful. This happens everywhere though, not just when traveling in Central Asia.

I never get dropped off directly where I am staying. I have had multiple instances here with Almaty taxis in the past, so I just get dropped off somewhere nearby and walk. I always pick a prominent place by where I’m staying and consistently stick with that. Lately, the place is Dostyk Plaza. I just tell everyone that and they know where it is and no harm.

I was contemplating talking about these or omitting them but I feel it is important to discuss them so you know why it is important to use a reliable taxi source when in Almaty (the third was Uber, on the other hand). These incidents can take place anywhere. They are not Almaty-specific. But, here is a little insight as to why I eventually was keen on writing this post.

My first visa run a few years ago took me from the Dostyk Plaza area to Sayran Bus Station early on a Saturday morning to catch a marshrutka to Bishkek. The hostel I stayed at at the time called me a taxi to take me to the bus station and they used an actual company. The driver picked me up and we started our way to Sayran.

I had exact change on me for this ride as well as the amount needed to buy a bus ticket to Bishkek. Nothing more. Once we pulled up to the bus station, I told him to let me off before and he refused.

He then proceeded to pull through the pay station and demanded I pay for it so I could be dropped off close to the station. I was furious. The extra money was dipping into my marshrutka ticket. I told him that it would come out of his tip.

Once he stopped the car and I gave him the money with no tip (as it was used on the pay station), he was so furious he started shouting at me. I quickly grabbed my things and got out of the car walking away as fast as I could. He decided that would be a great time to try to run me over.

He stepped on the gas and made his way for me. I was able to maneuver in between two parked cars and he stopped his car and got out running after me trying to hit me. I was able to go in between two other cars and when he was about six feet from me, he threw a coin at my head as hard as he could. I reacted and my hand went up, deflecting the coin but leaving a mark on my hand and it in agony.

I started running toward the bus station screaming as he was chasing me and a group of about 10 Central Asian men just stared at me doing nothing. I eventually ran inside and he had turned around. I reported to my hostel and then to the police. Nothing was done. The car below was the culprit (I took photos of the car for license plate reasons as I was running away and have no remorse for sharing them).

I arrived back at Almaty Airport from Bishkek via a flight because the roads were icy and snowy from a visa run to Kyrgyzstan. My flight landed in Almaty late in the evening and I had to get a taxi from the airport to my hostel.

While I was on my way to grab an Eco-Taxi out front (don’t think these taxis exist anymore), two men approached me and the one said he would give me a lift to the city as he already had a passenger going there (the other guy with him). I asked the price and it was half-price and since he had another passenger with him, I obliged.

He spoke to me a lot during the trip asking me where I was from (I almost always say Germany when I feel a situation could be potentially dodgy as saying American will almost always make it dodgy and more expensive) and other things.

We pulled up to a corner near Hotel Kazakhstan (the place I lied about staying at so they didn’t know my actual destination) and as I was starting to pay, he demanded about $100 more than what initially stated (around $5). I pretty much told him to get bent and quickly realized that the other man in the car was not really a passenger, but rather an accomplice.

I was able to open the door and grab my belongings (a lot of tech equipment and photography stuff) and start to run. Because of the recent blizzard, it was slick outside and the snow was deep. The driver ran after me and tried punching me down to the ground. While he clumsily did this, he lost his gait and fell down.

I was able to continue running to the hotel and was screaming at the top of my lungs to get the security guards attention. The man got up, continued running and followed me inside of the hotel. Security stared and did nothing.

The front desk didn’t seem to care. And the man said he did nothing but was trying to collect his 1500 KZT for the fare (after telling me it was a ridiculous amount more than that and trying to beat me down to rob me).

After about an hour of trying to explain things to the front desk while the man was standing there, they called the police. He dashed out the door as soon as they were called and told me to not leave the hotel because he would be waiting for me. Again, security didn’t care and did nothing.

The police came and told me if I filed charges, I’d have to stay around Kazakhstan until they were cleared or went through which could be a year. I said no and that I needed out of Central Asia asap at that point. I then waited a few hours until the early hours of the morning to leave the hotel to go to my hostel so the men wouldn’t see me leaving.

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This one was not nearly as frightening, thank goodness. The Uber app back in 2016 in Kazakhstan used to only give estimated fares (not sure if it still does or not) for getting to places. I called an Uber to go from Dostyk Plaza across the city to Rozybakiev Street. This should be an easy trip down Al-Farabi and done.

The driver picked me up, drove me around for an hour, racked up huge charges to my account, started cursing and trying to hit women drivers (telling me that females shouldn’t be allowed to drive) along the way.

It was the weirdest and scariest taxi ride I had ever had (thank goodness Bulgaria topped it a year later). I eventually was charged an astronomical amount for this ride and ran out of the car. I contacted Uber and told them and they refunded the money to me.

I am not telling these incidents as a way to scare people. I am asked about them often and I think they fit the reason that knowing how to take a taxi in Almaty is super important to me and I want to ensure everyone has a positive experience in this city.

After a lot of trial and error, I haven’t had any issues here in the last two years and I can truly thank Yandex for that. If you have any questions, updates, or suggestions- please add them in the comments!

I’m in Almaty. I made the mistake of giving my phone number to a Taxi gang and having them follow me to my AirBnB instead of having them drop me off nearby.

Minutes after settling with the host, I start getting spammed with messages about them wanting to show me the city. They had already offered prostitutes, erotic massages, marijuana, to which I politely said no, but wanted to say FSCK NO. I told them that I just want to relax and walk around the city for a couple days, which is 100% true.

The next day, one of them messages me and tells me that he really needs to tell me something. But it needs to be in private. Smelling fish, I ask what he wants. “An offer”. I block his whatssap, and soon after, I’m getting calls from his partner. Again, blocked.

Background: I’m a solo traveler. Male. Large and strong male from the USA. I’m here to visit and journal.

*Update* They now calling me and cycling through different Whatssapp numbers. The profile pictures appear to be kids/boys. Maybe their children? Proespective gang members?

I had my AirBnB host call the taxi driver to help sort things out. The driver sent screenshots and requested that we go over our chat history. My AirBnB host and I both agreed that I was not understanding the situation.

Because we left the Almaty airport at 2am after 23 hours of flights and airport time, I was extremely tired. I would rate the driver’s English at about 2 out of 10, so we ended up using Google translate for much of our conversations. Inadvertantly, I agreed to having him be my private driver for the the 10 days that I knew for sure I’d be in Almaty (I have 20 days total in Kazakhstan). This means that I agreed to have him on standby the entire 10 days with arrival in less than 20 minutes of contact. Small trips in the city center would be free of charge. Tours outside of almaty would come at a small fee. In my opinion, his “stand by” price per day was extremely reasonable for USA standards.

This young man, age 25, was extremely concerned because he was losing money by not driving people anywhere. He didn’t know what to tell his boss. We got this sorted out. I apologized profusely , but declined his private driver service because I like walking from place to place. I do plan on doing Big Almaty Lake and probably another tour with him. I did pay the small amount of money for his lost income (and a small tip). He was very understanding. He mainly wanted to know if he should start his regular Taxi service again.

In regards to the raunchy things he offered me – I’m used to this. Male taxi drivers are always very candid with me whenever I travel alone, just as I am candid with them. I presume that male solo travelers often have other exotic experiences in mind, but I have a girlfriend of almost 9 years. He was just trying to meet my needs and probably get a small kickback.

By “in private offer” discussion, he meant that he wanted to show me pamphlets of tours we can do together. He was offering me tours…. I wasn’t about to be led down a dark alley to get my teeth kicked in and he wasn’t trying to pile more women on me.

As more background – I either speak or can at least read and have a basic understanding of most Germanic and Romance languages. I have zero grasp of Russian and Kazakh and booked the trip 3 days prior, spur of the moment. Lesson learned: don’t nod along to things and pretend to understand – you can always ask for clarification.