Booking a Taxi

On the back of every taxi in Dubai it says: Call Center 800 90 90 90.

You might think that if you'd like to book a taxi you should call this number. Nope. Don't ask me what they do - maybe they take complaints about the fact that the number on taxis is not the number used for booking taxis.

No, it is a totally different number that you call to book taxis. And the only way I know to find out that number for booking taxis is to call the above number, pretend to try and book a taxi, and then have them give you the other number you need to call. I deliberately say "pretend to try and book a taxi". Because if you call them and try to explain that you know they're not the booking number, but would like to get the booking number - you'll just confuse them and maybe they'll transfer you to another department which also can't book a taxi for you. So, better to just play dumb.

This is SO Dubai.

Obviously, I've now got the booking number stored in my Blackberry.