Trishaw Ride

On Saturday we did what I can only describe as one of the most touristy things we've done (apart from Singapore Slings at Raffles), we took a trishaw ride.  You can see the trishaws in all the major tourist spots in the city and as I've been going about my business I've often been approached to take a ride but have always declined.  So I'm not sure what possessed us on Saturday to take one other than we thought it would be fun.

We'd been for lunch and needed to go to one of the nearby shopping malls to buy a couple of specific things.  Feeling incredibly lazy and instead of walking we were debating the MRT or a taxi ride when my fiance spotted the trishaw nearby and suggested we go on it. 

When we visited Bangkok we took a tuk tuk which, despite us having to visit a few of the driver's friend's shops on the way, eventually got us where we wanted to be and was incredibly cheap.  My fiance didn't enjoy that ride much but apart from the fumes that I was conscious of breathing in I actually found it quite fun and definitely a good way to get around the congested streets.  I'm not so sure about the trishaw though as although the air seems a lot cleaner here I was a lot more open to the elements and red traffic lights did not seem to mean much to our driver. 

However the real insult was the cost of what was actually a very short ride - $50 for both of us, approximately £25!  Perhaps you can negotiate with the drivers before you get on and we should have done this and yes I know we were being lazy and could have walked.  I was not expecting it to cost that much though.  He also obviously figured we were tourists (which to be fair everyone using them usually is) and despite our best efforts to tell him we lived in Singapore he proceeded to point out a few sights along the way.  I've never read anything about agreeing a price beforehand or that they should be avoided as they over charge and I'd be interested to know if they have a standard charge regardless of the distance covered or not.  My advice, if you ever visit Singapore though, would be to stick to the MRT and taxis, a lot cheaper and you get air conditioning thrown in too!

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