24 November 2013

And the Oscar of the best decorated rickshaws goes to

How could I not be fascinated by motor-powered or man-pedaled tricycles? Wherever I go on the planet, they are always different, often funny, certainly interesting, systematically coming in different shapes and colours: from Thailand’s samurai-shaped tuk-tuks, Peru’s “Formula 1” mototaxis and Indonesia’s tall becaks.

I have to say the ones I saw in Malacca, one of Malaysia’s most culturally-diverse city a couple of hours south of Kuala Lumpur by bus, win the decoration contest – by very far. Hello Kitties, red flowers and pink hearts, LED lights blinking at night, butterfly roofs, spiral-decorated wheels, you name it. Some of them even came mounted with loudspeakers, blasting out the latest pop songs at full volume.

It was fun to take pictures of those cycle rickshaws – not sure I wouldn’t have felt a bit ashamed to be transported in one of them though. Gotta take care of my reputation after all! And since I love digressions, here’s a quote by George Bernard Shaw which makes me laugh: “Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.”