My friend: the Cab Driver

I'm thoroughly convinced that cab driver convos are the best way to get an inside look at a new place if your crunched for time. Absorbing the culture of both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur didn't happened through tour maps and major attractions, but instead through my taxi ride convos to and from them.

There's a few tricks to the taxi game, simple, but crucial. The first and most important question to ask yourself: Is this a real cab?

This brings me to lesson learned number one: If you're hassled by 5 different equally sketchy "cab drivers" for what you are certain is the naive tourist price at an ambiguous transfer hub of sorts, you're not quite sure where you are, and are then taken out back to a black, obscure unmarked car...This is probably not a real cab. If the driver's wife shows up, smirks at the naive tourists in the back seat of her husband's car, this is definitely not a real cab. You have two choices at this point: either kindly remove yourself from the untaxi, or just accept the sad fact that you have fallen victim and suck it up...We shamelessly did the latter.

After you've mastered identifying sketchy uncabs, you want to break down the wall between the cab driver and yourself, which is tougher for some drivers than for others. Scope out the car. What's this guy about? Background? Language? Religion? Take whatever information you can process from the cab's decorated interior and relate it to a personal experience or story to share with your new-found friend. A language barrier is ok, sometimes preferred. This gives you a chance to pick up some key phrases and prove your interest in their culture. Ask questions, flash a smile, confess ignorance. Show genuine interest. These men are the experts in their city. They know every winding road, every local hole-in-the wall overlooked by the average tourist. Restaurants, sites, and temples not listed in your trusted lonely planet. Don't let their inside knowledge go untapped. Rarely will this experience fail you.

You may even:
-Pick up some Cantonese from a Singaporean who speaks 4 different dialects of Chinese.
-Learn about Thaipusam from a man who hiked the 272-staired temple of the Batu Caves four times in the last 24 hours
-Be invited to stay with a Malay Muslim family the next time you roll into Singapore

Not too shabby for a weekend trip.