Forest~Joyce

Thanks to OMY.SG and Radio 100.3 for inviting me to this special Trishaw Night Tour yesterday.

Trishaws（三轮车、人力车） used to be the main transport in the past where taxis（霸王车）was a luxury way of transport.

Nowadays, Trishaws are very seldom seen except for the areas in Bugis and Chinatown. Trishaws are now a business mainly for tourists. Maybe the older generations will reminisce about the good old days when they pass by and saw the Trishaws. But for us, the youngsters, we will not care much for them. At most we will be curious for maybe the first time we see the trishaws.

I am quite excited yesterday as I have never been on a Trishaw before. How will the ride be like? How different will it be compared to being on the usual ways of modern transport or even being on a bicycle?

All I can say is that, it was an unforgettable ride.

You know how often when we take cabs, we will meet drivers who can talk a lot, but usually about how their day is or how the traffic is like, current news and stuff. Things we are often not interested in and will really appreciate a quiet ride. I don't blame the drivers though, being cope up in the car all day, they could only talk to their passengers. I don't mind small talks but not complains about how bad the driver's day is.

On the Trishaw ride, the driver talk to us too. But it's different. As we pass by various streets, the driver will tell us about the history about the place. The driver whose Trishaw Sortie and I was on, shared with us how the Trishaw business is like, his experience with tourists and tell us about fun things on the road. Like how they and taxi drivers aren't agreeable on the roads.

The Trishaw, is not doubt the slowest transport on the road as compared to those running on petrol. A Trishaw moves because of it's driver, peddling hard and bearing the weight of the Trishaw and passengers. The taxi drivers have the air-con to enjoy at the very least. But the Trishaw driver was sweating buckets, although the breeze is quite strong. And it's at night, imagine if it's in the afternoon where the hot sun rays are glaring at them.

Now, more about the ride itself. The route that we took ain't the usual ones. We go though many streets and alleys that we will not go to or even know of their existence. The breeze blowing against the face, the neon lights all around. The ride was very comfortable though it might not seem so. Trishaws are not the safest vehicle at all, hence the driver had a big responsibility. And because of the responsibility, we know we are safe. We are able to look at our surroundings with ease and there's time to process everything. Maybe not slow enough for the camera lens but definitely enough for the human eye. Often in a car/bus, the surroundings looked like they are fast forwarded.

Oh, the Trishaws have speakers on time where the drivers connected to their mp3s and blast music from. The playlist ain't the most modern but there are songs from 草蜢, which I used to listen when I was a small kid while my brothers play them on the CD player.

Alright, I think I have said quite enough. Time for some photos~ XD














And I shall end my post here. But before you leave, do take sometime to watch the video below. It's some footages that I have took on the Trishaw Ride. XD






Thanks for reading and watching! Hope you guys will learn abit of knowledge about Trishaws! XD