January 8, 2009 | Bangkok
Issue #269: Why I Exercise

What’s Your Flavor?

What’s Your Flavor?

September 5th, 2008

We asked you, BK readers, which is your favorite color for taxis. Looking at the results and some of your comments, most of you took it as a vote on which color is the prettiest. But when it comes to service, pink is actually your least favorite ride.

 

“I love the pink ones! Very few places in the world can get away with a pink taxi! It makes me feel safe; I mean how could you possibly feel threatened by a guy who drives a pink car for a living?”

“Without question, the best are the green taxis. The cars are better. They’re Toyotas like the rest of them but the next model up (bigger engine, quieter ride) and consistently cleaner, with white cloth covering the interiors. And the drivers are great!”

“My favorite color taxi is blue because they tend to be newer taxis with plush interiors, owned by the driver. These ones tend to smell of newly bought air freshener, rather than vomit and cigarettes.”

“For service, both the yellow-green and blue-red are usually driven by nice, more knowledgable, older cabbies. Unfortunately, the cabs are often older too.”

“I love the blue ones. I’m not sure if this color is really better than the others or not but orange and pink are just too bright and ugly. It works for bonbons, not for taxis.”

“I don’t have a favorite color. You’ll get equally suckered and ripped off by all of them!”

“Pink ones are by far the worst: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had problems with young punks driving pink cabs.”

Here’s what the colors really mean:

Green/yellow: Privately owned taxi
Blue/Red: Siam Taxi Cooperative
Green: Suvarnabhumi Taxi Cooperative / Howa
Orange: Boworn Taxi Cooperative
Purple: Laemthong Taxi Cooperative
Pink: Sahamitr Taxi Cooperative
Blue: Thai Taxi Cooperative
Cyan: Thai H Leasing Cooperative
Yellow: Samaggitham Taxi Cooperative

Comment on our story and you could win our weekly letter prize!

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