Reviews

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All across Asia, the rickshaw reigns--as trusty public transportation, tourist attraction, or both. Tony Wheeler and Richard l'Anson traipsed thousands of miles, from China to Indonesia, to ride, photograph, and otherwise investigate this inveterate Asian taxicab. They visited 12 cities in all, traveling through Agra, Calcutta, Hanoi, Macau, Penang, Singapore, Beijing, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Manila, Rangoon, and Yogykarta, following the wheel ruts of the rickshaw--or trishaw, sidecar, pedicab, cyclo, or becak--depending on which city they were in. The result, other than some callused posteriors, is a splendid homage to a transportation tradition. Wheeler explains the history of the cycle-rickshaw, why it remains such a popular and omnipresent form of Asian transport, and how it varies from country to country. The book is studded with glossy photographs of the various riders (the people who pedal, as opposed to the passengers), and rickshaws put to all sorts of uses. Pictures show rickshaws laden with freight (11 metal containers), or children (10 school-bound kids), as well as a close-up of Mohan, an Agra fellow who, at 65, has been riding rickshaws for 40 years and typically makes one to three dollars a day. We see Beijing rickshaw riders, enthused about their jobs, pleased with the freedom of movement, the decent pay, and the healthy exercise--and the rickshaw men of Calcutta, who are pullers rather than riders. Hand-pulled on wooden wheels, Calcutta rickshaws haven't changed much in a century of use, and they own the streets during monsoons, when the more advanced machinery of the auto bogs down. And Dhaka, the world's rickshaw capital, is populated by more than 300,000 rickshaws. Elaborately decorated and often jammed in downtown rickshaw snarls, they dominate local traffic. And so the stories unfold across the continent. Rickshaws provide more than a focus for the book--they allow for an unusual, educational, and intimate portrait of Asia.

From Booklist , October 15, 1998
Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet publishing house, and outstanding travel photographer Richard I'Anson team up to produce an armchair travel book that takes a unique tack. Their lavishly illustrated account is a self-styled celebration of the rickshaw, the "Asian taxicab." Roaming through a dozen cities, including Beijing, Calcutta, Hanoi, Manila, and Singapore, Wheeler and I'Anson study the diversity of this ubiquitous vehicle, examining individual configurations from city to city. (In some cities, for instance, passengers sit behind the driver, and in other cities, they sit in front of the driver.) They found it was unusual for rickshaw drivers to own their own machines; most rented them from fleet operators. They stopped and talked to not only drivers but also passengers and even repairmen to get the whole picture of the rickshaw world; and it is a world they intimately, even beautifully, share with their readers. Brad Hooper
Copyright© 1998, American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
In CHASING RICKSHAWS, two inveterate travelers to eam up to explore the fascinating world of rickshaws-from the cyclos of Vietnam to the teak becaks of Java-in a dozen cities throughout Asia.

The mystique of the rickshaw has captured the Western imagination since the turn of the century, bringing to mind exotic images of passengers being pulled through crowded markets of the Orient. Recognizing that rickshaws may one day be as rare as horse-drawn wagons in New York City, authors Wheeler and I'Anson journey from Calcutta to Beijing, from Vietnam to the Philippines to document this unique and endangered culture before it disappears completely

CHASING RICKSHAWS tells the stories of the people behind the scenes-including rickshaw pullers, riders, owners, passengers, repairers, manufacturers, and even rickshaw artists. The authors visit the crowded dormitories of pullers in Calcutta, who come into their own when monsoon rains flood the streets and stall other forms of transport. They locate the scrap yard in Hanoi where confiscated rickshaws are destroyed by the police because they lack the proper license. They join the city official in Penang who issues permits to "trishaw" operators who pedal around the block to his satisfaction.

From the Publisher
This October, in celebration of a quarter-century of publishing, Lonely Planet Publications offers its first large-format illustrated gift book, CHASING RICKSHAWS, with text by Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and 238 full-color photographs by Richard I'Anson.

The perfect gift for the world traveler or armchair explorer, CHASING RICKSHAWS is a quirky look at a surprising subject, lavishly photographed and presented in Lonely Planet's characteristic, down-to-earth style.

The publisher, Lonely Planet Publications , October 5, 1998
From the Los Angeles Times:
Lonely Planet, pioneering publisher of guides for the have-backpack-will-travel set, has remade the vacuous “gift” book genre to survey an exotic subject with intelligent curiosity, bright design and colorful photographs that get right in the thick of things. “Chasing Rickshaws” (192 pages) takes a look at the taxicabs of the developing world, powered these days by guys on bicycles. Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler and photographer Richard I’Anson hung out in 12 cities, from Agra, India, to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, chatting with rickshaw riders, owners, makers and repairers, and even taking the disconcertingly wobbly vehicles for test runs....

Read review from Destination: Vietnam

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