How Time Gets Spent

As we prepare to climb into the van and head out on our journey, I was looking back through travel memories and was reminded of the many ways people have to and also chose to spend their time. Mostly I was thinking about the different ways we have seen people working in places around the world and being thankful that I was born here and never did jobs like this but knowing that we purchased some of the items created in these circumstances. Strange love-hate feeling!

In Saigon we visited a factory where beautiful inlay was done.  Can you imagine squatting on a small stool over a running canal of water and gluing tiny pieces of stones and mother-of-pearl onto a vase. And we bought a lovely vase for $10. There were only men working in this factory.

Making a Coolie Hat in Saigon

We also saw women by the curb weaving the coolie hats that were so often seen on the news during the Viet Nam war. This was the only place we saw people making or wearing these hats. Hard, hard work!

In every country we have ever visited the markets are fascinating. Such different things are sold in each place. In the market in Manaus, Brazil in the Amazon you can buy natural medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, infections and also most anything you could think of....and the vendors know how to prescribe what a person needed.

Fresh veggies and fruit in Mekong Delta 

In Vietnam and in India the markets were filled with vegetables, fish, some meat, clothing, toys, plants....name it and there was  section for that!

Cooking rice in Saigon

People were cooking rice and other unidentified things by the side of the road and doing a big business. Made me think about so much of the world where sanitation grades are not even on the radar screen but people eat much healthier that we often do. I remember being in Shanghai and seeing side-by-side a Starbucks where the signs inside looked familiar but the Chinese writing advertising the products did not and the a small kiosk where you could buy a fried bird on a stick....and yes, it looked like a fried bird on a stick. 

Market in Goa, India

In Mumbai there is a big business of delivering hot lunches via bicycle to workers in the many offices in that large city. The guide said most of the people can't read but they pick up the home cooked food at someone's home just as it is prepared, take to a central location, resort and then deliver to the offices. Rarely do mistakes get made.

Delivering Food in Mumbai

We also saw people down by the riverside doing the laundry for others as their way of earning a living.




Can't imagine riding a bicycle in the midst of all the traffic and trying to balance the heavy and large loads.

Safety didn't seem to be of much concern. The guide said there were not many accidents....but he did suggest that if we planned to cross a street in India we should find a cow to walk with. People would hit a person walking but NOT a sacred cow. 





In the Mekong Delta our canoe paddler was a young woman who had done this job since she was about 12. She was kind, smiled a great deal and spoke a few words of English....way more words than we spoke in her language.

Rowing on the Mekong

Most shocking of all that we have seen around the world was in the countryside in India . We drove by a large field and women wearing beautiful silk sari's were busy collecting cow dung that had been formed and left to dry. These large, dried cow pies were then used at home for fuel to cook the food and heat the house. Another strange contrast. 





At this stage of life I am happy to not be doing any of these jobs and grateful to be traveling. But I am always mindful of those who work hard just to survive. 

So we journey on to see what we see on Alligator Alley or the many islands in the Caribbean. One never knows what adventure awaits!