Now that we’ve returned home and have settled back into our routine lives again we find it funny how our travel stories keep coming up. Invariably one of us will look at the other and say ‘Remember That Time…’ I thought it would make a good series; a way to tell these small stories that take us back in the blink of an eye.

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My mother always told me that I shouldn’t cut off my nose to spite my face. I’m guessing that this is one of those times I should have heeded her advice…

We ran out of the expat bar in Amman, Jordan and jumped into the first cab we could see. With the rain coming down like it hadn’t since Noah built his Ark we didn’t stop to first inquire about the price as we normally would.

The cab set off down the road and then I asked how much to our hotel on the other side of town.

He quoted some ridiculous fee that was twice what I was expecting.

I acted suitably outraged and said that there was no way that it should cost that amount.

He explained that he worked for the bar and this was the fee that he was required to charge. I looked over and realized that he was very well dressed for a local taxi driver but I still thought we were being taken.

I countered again with a fee half his asking price. He wouldn’t budge.

Believing that if you’re in, you’re all in I demanded that he pull the cab over immediately and let us out.

This will usually do the trick and the stalled negotiation can continue.

He pulled over, let us out, and drove away.

And there we stood in the pissing down rain, in the middle of the night, with no other cabs in sight.

As we walked passed where we had started to a taxi stand another 2 blocks down to hail a cab, we realized that we had indeed cut off our noses to spite our faces…over 50 cents.

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