“Fixed price: 4 dollars.”
“No,” I said. Fixed price is never better for the passenger. It cost us $2.70–by meter–to get to the beach. Now we wanted a similar rate back to the hotel.
We asked all the taxi drivers within the next block. And they all quoted around $4–fixed price. Sigh. We continued walking.
One ran after us quoting $3.50.
I declined. “Meter!”
But he held his ground.
We walked another two blocks. We found one to give us the meter rate.
“Where you go,” he asked.
“Mutiara,” I said.
“Huh?”
“Mutiara.”
He was puzzled.
“Mutiara Hotel,” I said.
He burst, “Oh, Mutiarrr-a! Mutiarrr-a!”. His R’s rolled like a bowling ball, and the final syllable was hit hard.
OK. OK. I have an accent. I’ll work on it. 
He drove us back, and the metered rate was: $3.00. Told ya so!
