Here is the ubiquitous and I might add indispensable, 'tuk-tuk'. Quick, cheap and available everywhere in the cities, they were my favorite way to get around in the daytime.
Selecting a 'tuk-tuk' is not entirely in the hands of the passenger, although Westerners may at first think so. There does exist an amorphouse but explicit (remember, this is India) heirarchy about which driver covers which area of town, or gets the next customer at hotels. Woe, woe, woe to the driver who tries to jump his place in the pecking order or lures away another driver's potential fare. Having had this experience first hand I can attest it gives new meaning to the expression 'being pulled from both ends!!'
Taxi's are Ambassadors, these wonderful, wide bodied, very English styled cars. The driver of this one had only recently acquired his vehicle and it still had it's new car flavor and smell. While not nearly as fun a riding in tuk-tuk's they did offer the consolation of having bit more between you and the other cars or camels or trucks or buses or rickshaws in case of an accident.
There are few remaining human pulled rickshaws and far more bicycle powered ones. In an effort to improve their image as well as in consideration of the human factor, in Calcutta where the last of the true rickshaws owners ply their trade, the government has been quietly trying to do away with this ancient mode of getting around. The rickshaw owners are furious, for they feel there work is ancient and honorable. Pulling them around is not for the weak and it seems to me that it is only a matter of time before they fade away completely because fewer and fewer people are willing to do it, or ride in them. The bicycle powered ones can carry more passengers and make more money over the course of a day's work. In the end, it may be all about economics.
Here is the ubiquitous and I might add indispensable, 'tuk-tuk'. Quick, cheap and available everywhere in the cities, they were my favorite way to get around in the daytime.
Selecting a 'tuk-tuk' is not entirely in the hands of the passenger, although Westerners may at first think so. There does exist an amorphouse but explicit (remember, this is India) heirarchy about which driver covers which area of town, or gets the next customer at hotels. Woe, woe, woe to the driver who tries to jump his place in the pecking order or lures away another driver's potential fare. Having had this experience first hand I can attest it gives new meaning to the expression 'being pulled from both ends!!'
Taxi's are Ambassadors, these wonderful, wide bodied, very English styled cars. The driver of this one had only recently acquired his vehicle and it still had it's new car flavor and smell. While not nearly as fun a riding in tuk-tuk's they did offer the consolation of having bit more between you and the other cars or camels or trucks or buses or rickshaws in case of an accident.
There are few remaining human pulled rickshaws and far more bicycle powered ones. In an effort to improve their image as well as in consideration of the human factor, in Calcutta where the last of the true rickshaws owners ply their trade, the government has been quietly trying to do away with this ancient mode of getting around. The rickshaw owners are furious, for they feel there work is ancient and honorable. Pulling them around is not for the weak and it seems to me that it is only a matter of time before they fade away completely because fewer and fewer people are willing to do it, or ride in them. The bicycle powered ones can carry more passengers and make more money over the course of a day's work. In the end, it may be all about economics.
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