Auto Rickshaw Ride

Rather than walk the mile down the road with the boys to the supermarket, I decided to take an auto rickshaw. They are not know to be the safest means of transportation, but they are cheap and we didn't have far to go, so I decided to give it a try. Just another part of India to experience before we leave here.

The supermarket is on the main road that runs parallel to the one that we live on so I decided to cut through a narrow side street to get to it. I figured it would be much easier to tell a driver (since I don't speak any Tamil and he probably wouldn't speak any English) to just drive straight down the road to the supermarket than to have to tell him to go around the block. Noah was so excited, he kept trying to flag down every single rickshaw that went past us. We finally made it to the right spot, and almost immediately got the attention of a driver who was across the street. We also got the attention of everyone else on the road when he drove directly across 4 lanes to get to us.

Upon his arrival, I told him we wanted to go to Spencers supermarket. We repeated it back and forth a few times until I was confident that he understood what I wanted. Since rickshaw drivers are know to be slightly dishonest, especially with foreigners, I asked the price before getting in to the auto. The driver replied that it would be 80 rupees. I paused for a few minutes trying desperately to recall what the going rate was from my guide book, but to no avail. It seemed a little high, but I wasn't exactly sure how far down the street the supermarket was, so I decided to go for it.

The driver took off, but turned off the street at the first intersection he came too. This didn't make sense seeing as that I was repeating "straight ahead" over and over again. However, I obviously probably don't know the area as well as a rickshaw driver, so I decided to sit back and enjoy the ride. He probably knew of a nicer or closer one. As we were driving, I kept thinking where all of the grocery stores were and trying to decide which one we were going to, but we kept passing all of the turn-offs.

Meanwhile, I was also busy trying to keep Noah's feet and head inside of the vehicle and Micah from standing up. By the time I looked up again, I really didn't know where we were. I wasn't too worried though, since there is so much traffic, I figured if things got out of hand I would just jump out and find a different driver. A bit further along, things started to fall into place. I began to recognize some landmarks, and realized the driver was not just taking us to the nearest Spencers supermarket, but rather to Spencer Plaza, (which you may remember from one of our earlier posts) to the Spencers Supermarket in there. Quite a bit farther than I had planned.

Luckily for us, the driver was willing to wait outside, so we ran in, grabbed a few things and started the trek home. The driver started off, only to turn onto a side street an stop. I got a little nervous, until he excitedly yelled "Horsey, Horsey!" Turns out, he lives right by Spencer Plaza so he brought us to his house to show the boys his horse. We got back on the road, but only for a minute or two before he pulled into a gas station. I had read many comments about rickshaw drivers pulling stunts like this with foreigners. They go to fill up with gas, but then claim not to have enough money, forcing you to pay for the gas. I had my reply all worked out in my head, only to find I didn't need it, he didn't say a word about it.

Eventually I hope to get past my expectations of everyone here taking advantage of me! However, in my defense, every guidebook I have read is filled with warnings of Rickshaw drivers (not to mention everyone else) taking advantage of foreigners.

We arrived home, finally 2 hours after we started out for our "quick" run to the supermarket. It may have taken a bit longer than anticipated, but it was also much more of an adventure that expected!