Rickshaw ridin'

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This is an Indian rickshaw, commonly called a 'rick'. When one pays for a ride in a rickshaw, one is getting much more than an inexpensive way to get from point A to point B. You are actually paying someone to help you build up your courage, to show you what you're really made of.

The adventure begins when the rick driver almost runs you over trying to get your business, then aftern making sure he knows where you want to go, you hear him say "Ya, ya" and point for you to get in. Shortly after the ride begins, the driver typically turns around to ask (while driving - Brian T, you'd be great at rickshaw driving!:)) where it was you said you wanted to go. Now, because of traffic noise and the constant jarring from the bad roads, you begin to yell at your driver where it is you had already told him, then you start to throw out any signpost you can recall seeing within a five minute walk radius because it's becoming evident that he doesn't have a clue where you want to go. You finally yell out some landmark that he's heard of and that's when the full speed thrills begin!

So far, I've had a woman reach out and admire my shirt from her rickshaw, because our ricks were so close together. I've had a herd of water buffalo storm by as I fell over my friends trying to avoid their horns (the one time when the rick actually came to a full stop in an emergency situation...you'd have thought he'd try to get away from the beasts!). On an especially rainy monsoon day, I had a very cautious driver who was doing such a great job at keeping us as dry as possible (there are no doors on these things). We had just about made it to school and I leaned down to tell my driver a few more directions. At that moment, a car came speeding past us and hit the small lake-sized puddle that we'd just managed to avoid. Street water came splashing up into my face, my opened mouth, and my eyes. We won't talk about what's in the street water. However, it did make me double over laughing when I thought about how worried my mom had been over me walking around during monsoon with open-toed sandals; she didn't want the nasty scum water on my toes. :-)