SAMLOR
an icon of Thailand destined to disappear
an icon of Thailand destined to disappear
Pedal vehicles with three wheels, used as public transport, are very common in all countries of Southeast Asia.
In Thailand, during a recent stay, I came to know that the authorities stopped licenses for these vehicles many years ago.
The latest license has been granted, as I have been reported, 32 years ago. This means that drivers who are still on the streets of Thailand, who are riding looking for customers, in a few years, once too aged or deceased, are the last we can see.
Also their “Samlors”, tricycles that give them a living income, will become museum pieces or scrap thrown in some of the many landfills.
I thought to dedicate a moment of “photographic attention” to this little “cultural-anthropological” phenomenon in order to keep a memory of these objects and these people.
A small detail that made me smile is that I already met the “protagonist” of my story a year before, one evening in an alley in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and, since I had my Nikon ready to shoot, I “stole” a “on the fly” portrait of his face, marked by age and fatigue. With that picture then I participated in a few exhibitions.
I was pleased to meet him again and spend with him a few days during which he told me about his life, his work, going together to visit his house and family.
Although it was very difficult, if not sometimes impossible, to communicate with him, since I do not know a word of Thai, I think we managed it somehow, using a very basic English and a gestures alphabet.
The shots that I propose have been made in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, in January 2015 and portray him, Manit, the “protagonist”, and some of his colleagues and friends, all, of course, with their samlors along the streets of the city.
My name is Manit. I am 76 years old and I was born in Chiang Mai, in Thailand, where I always lived.
I am married and I have three children. We all live together in a very old house, though very modest. I think he has more than 200 years and it’s entirely made of wood. My daughter works at home, as artisan and she makes copper plates hand decorated and then sell them at the market.
It was the first time that a “farang” (we call like this the “white man” in Thai) asked me if he could photograph me and ask me some questions about my life and my work.
I gladly accept and I was even a little curious.
What could be so interesting about an old man who rides all day, I wondered.
I asked him some money, more than what a earn in a day of work but, you know, all the farang are rich, why not take advantage.
The farang was interested in my work: I have and I lead a samlor which, literally translated, means “three wheels”, basically a taxi pedal I bought a few years ago, second hand, paying about 250 of your euros. A good deal considering that new would cost me almost 500.
Pedal vehicles with three wheels, used as public transport, are very common in all countries of Southeast Asia.
Actually I started to do this work when I was about 37 years old. At that time I had no money to buy one of my own but there was a gentleman, a rich one, that rented me one and which poured every night 5 baht. Also I paid every year 2 baht of taxes to the state. In those years here in Chiang Mai the samlor was the main means of getting around, there were no cars or tuk tuk and traffic did not exist. The town was very small, almost unknown and we lived very quietly. It was all so different from today.
The farang tells me that he is fascinated by my samlor because it is aware of the fact that the driving licenses to do my job have been blocked and therefore we are the last ones who can do this job.
In fact, I tell him, as far as I know, the last permitted to conduct a samlor goes back about 32 years ago. This means that my profession is destined to disappear in a few years. We are about hundred here in Chiang Mai to drive samlors and now we are all very old and shabby.
The city has grown tremendously over the years and the traffic is terrible as well as pollution. I pedal all day between old trucks and billions of motors that make the air unbreathable.
People here, except a few, does not have the money to afford new and environmentally friendly cars, the smell of diesel and burned gas by thousand of motor tuk tuks devastates the lungs.
My day starts at six in the morning. After I washed I go out with my samlor and go to the center, in the district of the city that is famous in the evening because here there is the Night Bazaar.
I choose a place a little quiet and wait for some tourists ask me to accompany him for a ride to the city center. More than half of my customers are, in fact, foreigners who are attracted to this ancient means of locomotion typical, by the way, of all the Asian countries.
Perhaps because it is much slower than modern tuk tuks and still retains a certain charm, you can take pictures as we pass through the narrow streets of the old town and you can stop to see the Temples. I can earn about 200 baht per day, almost 6 of your euros.
If I need more money then I have to go close to the Chinese market where my other friends with their samlor work too. The road is very busy at any hours, and the competition of the tuk tuks and also songthaew (red machines with benches for passengers) is strong, if I’m lucky, I get even 1000 baht.
The problem is that now the age is what it is and I cannot work all day and I need to make long pauses between a customer and another.
I like very much, in spite of everything, this work.
I would first of all still useful to my family, since I can contribute with my own money, meet many people every day, I do not speak English but I would like so I could speak with the tourists I carry around.
Really, I cannot stop working even if my children want because they say that I have a disease that makes my hands shake and it is dangerous at my age. But if I stop working what could I do all the day? And then I had only one accident in my life and no one was ingiuried…
I go back home around 5 pm and I rest a few hours sitting in the street passing by old friends, maybe we get a shot before going to eat and then to sleep, early because at six in the morning I’ll be in the streets again with my samlor.
