Paved Roads

The few paved roads in the countryside are where it's at. People live clustered along them with the countryside beyond nearly empty. Villages huddle along them. Towns crowd them.

People are walking along them on foot in both directions, scooters - the primary mode of transport here, everyone who can possibly afford a scooter has one - are everywhere, some going the wrong direction. Cows and water buffalo are pulling loaded carts. There is the occasional horse.

Everyone is carrying something. Those on foot, wood for home fires or foodstuffs. Yesterday when we were coming back down the hill from the River of a Thousand Lingas, girls were coming up the hill toward us, each carrying one concrete slab to build roped fences to prevent tourists from getting to the water. They were in pain and sweating profusely, and it was heartbreaking.

Those on scooters are hauling huge hay bales on the back, ice lockers, beds, pillows, huge piles of wood, clothes, bananas, fish, rice, huge dead hogs on their backs across the seat, their legs flapping with the bumps in the road. Some pull carts with even more goods or combinations of the above, and sometimes additional people riding on top of those.

Trucks are even greater commodities and are always hauling large amounts of whatever. Vans are packed to the gills, cars are stuffed. Buses are filled with workers and tourists.

Nothing goes to waste. Everything is used, the trash is gone through by children to dig out and re-use. The canvas is recycled. Bottles are filled again. The pig intestines are eaten, the duck bladders are consumed, the grasshoppers and spiders are fried and chewed.