Oh ye loveliest of lovely modes of transportation. How have you not yet made your wonderful, zigging, zooming way to the United States. This ladies and gentlemen, will be my ode to one of my absolute loves in India - the autorickshaw.
If you've always wanted to ride a motorcycle but wanted to abdicate the respobsiblity for having killed yourself on said vehicle to some third party, well then the autorickshaw is you ride! These guys are professionals in chaos. In winding and wending through an impenetrable maze of cars, cows, pedestrians and trucks. Your first few rides, you're pretty sure will be your last, but should you make it to say your tenth go round or so, your love will be fast and true forever. They're just too much fun. The muggy 115 degree air blowing in your face as you blitz down the main thouroughfares of Delhi or the inspiring Little-Engine-That-Could chug chug chugging as you climb up the backroads of a Himalayan hill station will tickle you pink. Never before have you been this close to the road, and yet, free to look blissfully around while your man up front handles the madness of driving. Feel free to lean out the windowless side and take it all in, but just beware of the next autorickshaw clipping you as you do.
And at around $0.50 - $1 per ride, it's one of the last few great steals. In an era where candy bars are now a buck and coffees are $5, you gotta relish these last finds. It's the 25 cent paper or the $6 diner breakfast that no longer exist. But the.... the autorickshaw, well that's the cheapest, grandest thrill you will ever have! I'll be riding them everywhere I go these last few days in India. And I will miss them dearly when we depart.
In other news guys, we've moved from the hill station of Manali, to the hill station of Shimla. Shimla was the summer retereat of the British viceroys, and it's a great little European relic stashed in the North of India. We're walking like crazy these days and taking in all the last of India we can, before we head on out of here to Thailand. I'll get the map updated as soon as I can. Hope everyone is doing well. Cheers!
Hey guys!!!!! I have returned from europe (garden gnome-less, unfortunately...that thing was invisible!) and just got caught up on your blog of wonders. Favorite things so far: jessica's paparazzi status, "metal detectors", rabid dogs, the nice cool weather, and the fact that you both made it out of that zorbing thing alive. I'm SO jealous of all your adventures and wish I had chosen India over Europe- and I thought trying to decipher czech was difficult. I hope you guys are enjoying your last days in India, if, in fact, you have not left yet, and I can't wait to start procrastinating at my new job by reading your blog (and annoying chris, of course).
ReplyDeleteI miss you guys!!!!!!!!!! (: Ray
The tuk tuks rule, just watch out once you get to Thailand. They will try to swindle you into going into jewelry and clothing shops on your ride. Which, come to think of it, they probably did the same in India so you guys are probably very used to that.
ReplyDeleteAnd fear not, scooters are for rent all over Thailand, so hopefully more opportunities for that to come. Let us know when you get there and what your itinerary is so we can pass some recommendations along!!
Haha, yeah they LOVE to try to take you to shops in India. So far we've manage to avoid that hassle. Sometimes we try to take THEM to a shop of OUR choosing. That throws them off. We've come a long way from Day 1 where our cabbie from the airport tried to light up a doobie while driving us to our hotel. Classic sting operation we later learned, but at the time it was all I could do to ask him to "please smoke that after you drop us off sir."
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I'm stoked about the scooters in Thailand, but hadn't realized they had tuk tuks there too, so this is great news.