Jalalabad - Public Transportation

JBad had all these motorized rickshaws everywhere. Someone said that you see them all over India so those, combined with how green it was, reminded them of India. I wish I had had my camera – it’s in the States getting fixed – so I could have taken a picture of them. I’ll have to see if one of my fellow travelers took one. Anyway, they’re painted with brilliant colors, covered with tassles, bells, stickers and anything else you can imagine to make them as striking as possible.

Now they only seat 3-4 but no capitalistic minded rickshaw driver is going to be stopped by seat limitations. You would see people hanging out of the sides of these things everywhere. It was quite amusing to see but I imagine just a little dangerous as well. They drive everywhere and get in the way of traffic. We actually saw one hit a traffic control officer in the street. He was not very happy.

I’ve mentioned the jingle trucks before and JBad had its share. What I had never seen before though was the “seats” that had been built on the grill of the trucks. That was something that I could not believe, seeing men and boys sitting on this makeshift seat on the grill of a big truck. Now that looked quite dangerous. I mean, can you imagine the brakes going out on your “public” transportation and you suddenly becoming the “bumper” on the truck. Quite the thought.

This one is not painted as brightly as some of them so you'll just have to use your imagination.