Thousands of these funny looking three wheeled chariots prey on hapless tourists in every suburb of Colombo like bugs around a lamp.
Powered by a 150cc petrol engine usually mechanically unmodified and perhaps the size of a lawnmower or chainsaw they are often decorated with various bits of chrome and ‘go fast’ stickers.
Not this pale green beauty!
As it pulled up to the red light which for a change drivers were mostly complying with you heard it first. “Tuck… tuck…tuck…tuck…tuck” it idled with a superior sort of attitude. Pulling alongside you could tell the owner was an enthusiast. The starting handle, normally a 2 foot long lever resting on the floor alongside the driver had been modified to include a raised grab handle – the driver no longer needed to reach down to floor level to start the beast, obviously designed for a racing start.
Plastic Barbie clung onto the 6 foot broadcast whip aerial, and mirror foil stuck to the rear window of the black vinyl ‘pram hood’. White vinyl Toyota mudguards had been modified to fit the miniscule rear wheel arches covering the tiny 10” wheels, and matched handpainted white racing stripes.
This machine’s unusual pastel colour (tuk tuks usually come in just the basic primary colours and cream) set it apart from its many relations, but as it dragged its impressive 150cc away from the lights at a breakneck crawl it was the sound it made that really inspired my comments.
To someone who has had to endure many nights of duty on the streets listening to New Zealand’s lost youth patrolling round and round the central city bocks sniffing petrol fumes and attempting to impress goodness knows who with their baked bean tin exhausts, and leaky butterfly exhaust valves, this sound just made me roar with laughter:
“Tik… Tuk…TUK..TUK.TUK.TUK.TUK……..WHheeeeeeze…” (as second of three gears is selected) “Tik… Tuk…TUK..TUK.TUK.TUK.TUK……..WHeeeeeeze…..” (third and final gear) “Tik… Tuk…TUK..TUK.TUK.TUK.TUK”…… off into the distance it ‘tukked’ enveloped in a light blue haze that emitted from the modified chrome exhaust extension that had the diameter of a large ballpoint pen!!
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