Cheap thrills ...
If you enjoy cheap thrills, then ride on a motorcycle taxi in Shanghai is a must-have experience for you. Motorcycle taxi is just that - a public transport for a single person from point A to point B. Its about 30 % cheaper and equally faster than usual cabs. More than half the drivers look like ruffins and appear to have taken driving training directly from F1 car drivers. You don’t get to watch Shanghai passing by but Shanghai watches you being zoomed past itself :-)

The thrill starts at very start when you approach one such group. This tribe usually hangs out together outside place like metro station, a bus station etc. So you approach and ask some member to go to the destination - he would ask details, if language is a problem then ask for the address card and once he knows where you are headed, will nod in agreement and hand you a helmet and motion you to sit - ready to go. The newbies make mistake of clambering up immediately. If you happen to do that mistake, then be sure that your wallet will be lighter than necessary. There are no meters and before getting on the back seat, you have to agree on price and enact all the drama associated with negotiations. That too, in full public view and in front of other drivers, watching with bemused expressions. You have to act as if this is the only mode of transportation you use and that you are just feeling lazy to walk to the destination.

Price agreed, you clamber up and put the helmet on. Helmet is strictly for law-book. It usually won't last even a small concussion! You have to make sure that you have something firm to hold onto - apart from your heart - that is. Because, from the moment you are just settling, the driver is deep into traffic - ignoring ALL the rules and probably violating 10 different rules a minute with a single aim in mind - to take you the destination and get that money from you. I have discovered many situations where I thought that now there will be a crash only to discover that we are successfully into next imminent one. You will find yourself wriggling in between two buses – clear that hurdle and you would be facing an oncoming traffic, because you are in wrong lane. Loud screeches by car drivers because this Brownian-motioned two wheeler are very common – but everyone treats it a sport and move on without as much batting an eyelid. Occasionally if you happen to stop at a signal then this guy would chat with his buddy carrying a similar scared quarry. Both of them have eyes on changing signals, a cigarette loosely hanging from lips, accelerator pressed fully, hands on brake - waiting to outdo each other moment signal turns yellow – sometimes even before. If one can get away – its alright!!

Get to destination, hand over the helmet and money - you invariably get a heartfelt “..xiexie..” (thanks) and “..zhaijian..” (bye) with a yellow teethed big smile. Its time to part ways. You move on - thanking God for safe arrival and he, unruffled - an avatar of Buddha; on the lookout of someone else to give him/her a similar opportunity to remember God.
(C) Abhijit Tongaonkar - 2006