CHIANG MAI, June 4 (TNA) – Three-wheeler taxi drivers in Chiang Mai refuse
to abandon their long-held profession, trying to preserve one of the unique charms
of the northern city.
There is a substantial drop in the number of tricycle taxis,
or ‘samlor’ in Chiang Mai. From over 1,000 traditional rickshaws roaming the
city in the past, there are now around 40 three-wheeled bikes available and the
samlor drivers are getting older.
Unwilling to let this local means of transport obsolete,
this group of samlors is determined to conserve the human-powered taxi as a
symbol of Chiang Mai.
One of them is 70-year-old Inkaeo Jaisung who has offered
pedicab ride for over 50 years. Proudly
serving regular customers each day, grandpa Inkaeo, as being called by the
locals, often earns extra income from foreign tourists.
Like other elderly samlors, he appears extraordinarily
healthy while many of his fellow samlors had had to give in to their physical
conditions, he said.
Samlors could one day be present only at tourist sites as
photo props, in other words, extinct, he said.(TNA)
