Rickshaw to the rescue

Reporters on the Job: I landed in Bangladesh to chase down a story about corruption. Instead, I found myself in the middle of a national crisis. (Read the Monitor's story here.)

The day after I landed, I woke up to news of the crisis. I rushed out of my friend’s house to find out what was going on. But it wasn’t easy getting to the area where the violence had broken out.

I hired a taxi, which charged me double the normal fare but still would only take me half way. I found a cycle rickshaw driver, and pleaded with him to take me the rest of the way. He was reluctant, but we settled on a price that he liked. He got me to the scene of the action, where soldiers had already lined up on the streets. Kudos to pedal power in Bangladesh!