The Human-powered Wheel Of The Fearless

We were traveling around Myanmar and decided to travel al the way to the south. We made a stop in a little town called Ye. A quiet town not yet discovered by tourists. At night we took a walk around town and were attracted by a lot of noise and music. We ended at a fair where the locals had a good time. Soon the attractions were getting our attention. These attractions aren’t run on electricity but only on human power.

They are young boys who give their lives every night to put the fair on fire. It requires no electricity or generator (only the lamps operate electrical), just a bunch of fearless chaps and passengers. First we were flabbergasted, later terrified. This wheel was bigger and higher than any we saw before. This is how they roll in Myanmar.

Unlike other human powered ferris wheels we had seen (like the smaller ones in India), this one was bigger. This wheel has fourteen open air cages that can, and at a certain point did, carry 14 x 4 = 56 adults. Fully loaded it has a weight to carry of about 3500 kilograms, if you take 60 kilo as the average weight of Myanmarese people. We were already flabbergasted by looking at the moving wheel from a distance. You should have seen the metal of that thing and how it was welded from up close. You would have been as frightened as we were. Sitting in the wobbly cage, we were sweating like crazy!

Those guys who put the wheel in motion, however, risk their lives every day. With a full load we counted six daredevils who climb to the top of the wheel. The height of the wheel must have been about 12-15 meters. From the top they would let gravity do its job. When the guys, hanging on a bar, reached the surface, they would jump off and keep running for a few meters to cope with the speed. As if that wasn’t enough spectacle, certain guys let themselves take up (while the wheel was in full swing) again, to perform some show elements!