So I haven't told my mom about this blog, and I haven't said anything for a reason (and, coincidentally, I'd ask you not to as well). There are certain things about Asia that mom would freak out at if she knew. And I'm about to tell you about one of them: the bicycle rickshaw.
Imagine, if you will, riding in a small, open carriage behind a horse. Only now there's no horse, there's a bicycle. And somebody biking on it while you sit in the back. The carriage is fairly open and really flimsy, and not only could you be thrown from it, but the whole thing shakes with every pedal. Further, imagine that this driver is biking not on the sidewalk, not in a garden somewhere, but in the middle of heavy traffic, with cars whizzing by a mere foot or two from the outer edge of the carriage at around 40 miles an hour. Further, your driver is being somewhat unpredictable, sometimes moving out into the middle of a lane, sometimes turning not away but towards cars, buses, trucks...
What you have is something called a bicycle rickshaw. Yes, it actually exists. And a lot of people ride them, surprisingly. Including most recently, me.
You see, Megan's phone went dead because of some bureaucratic issues - some forms that other people didn't turn in on time. So when we wanted to go home last night, we couldn't call EZCab, and instead had to fend for ourselves. We tried to find a regular cab, or an auto-rickshaw (which are gas powered and slightly more closed), but the search revealed nothing other than a great picture of a cow traveling alone down the middle of the road (I'm still trying to get the time to get one of a cow on a really crowded street - and the jackpot would be two cows in "courtship" with cars whizzing by). Anyway, we finally got frustrated because it was getting late and started hailing down the bicycles.
The guy we got was old and out of shape, but only charged us 50 rupees (about $1.25) to get back to the house, and that was without bargaining very hard. We were getting passed, not just by the cars and buses and auto-rickshaws, but by other bikes. I felt so bad for the guy.
Anyway, to make a long story short, we finally got to the house, alive, and got a great experience out of it. Yay!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I won't comment all the time, but for the record, I love your posts!
How's life as a "non-veg" in the land where cows are sacred?
I have been on something very similar to a bicycle rickshaw, and it was the single most terrifying ride of my life, and I felt lucky to have survived.
Would I do it again? Totally.
Hope you're having fun!
That... is... fantastic.
Don't worry, I won't tell your mom :)
Life as a non-veg is actually not all that bad. The vegetarian food is pretty easy to stomach even if you really like meat (by easy to stomach I mean that you don't notice the lack of meat. It's actually very hard to stomach, and there's something called the "Delhi Belly" that even locals get from the food here. There's also plenty of chicken, mutton, and seafood if you know where to get it. The "veg," "non-veg" distinction might be worthy of another post in itself, actually.
Post a Comment