As there is hardly any interest in using them for actual transport, Choo's finished orders end up as decorations or collectibles.
In a rustic Malaysian workshop about a century old and cluttered with racks of tyres, a stoic, white-haired man dressed in a t-shirt and shorts inspects his nearly finished trishaw. – Photos: Mohd RASFAN / AFP
Choo Yew Choon is a veteran craftsman of pedicabs and is said to be the last one still plying the disappearing trade on Penang island -- north of Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.Trishaws, or pedal-driven taxis, were once common in Malaysia and elsewhere in the region. The fourth generation in a family of trishaw builders dating back about a century, Choo took over in the late 1980s after his father suffered health issues.Already acquainted with fitting tyre tubes as a teenager, he picked up the art of building frames from scratch.
Choo said that when he works at full steam he can build a trishaw in about 20 days, but most of his creations take roughly six weeks."I've no feelings. It's just a job," Choo, a man of few words, said when asked how he feels after completing a trishaw.There are just over 130 trishaws in Penang, where they differ in style from the few dozen found in the southern state of Malacca, where the vehicles remain popular among tourists.
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