Roadside Country Store and Shopkeeper

[The_Traveler]

 

[timor]

Nice, colourful shot. What country is it ?

 

[The_Traveler]

My guess, Myanmar.
Do you know what those foil packets are that are draped over the lid?

 

[timor]

My guess, Myanmar.
Do you know what those foil packets are that are draped over the lid?

Not a clue. Probably something surprising, if you mention this.

 

[The_Traveler]

The packets are shampoo or laundry soap or similar things.
Many people here don't have the ready cash for entire bottles of things so they buy the packets as needed.

 

[PhotoriousMe]

He doesn't have much to sell, hard life. Nice image though.

Dave

 

[timor]

The packets are shampoo or laundry soap or similar things.
Many people here don't have the ready cash for entire bottles of things so they buy the packets as needed.

Not as surprising as I thought.
This might be also sort of "portability" of their life, poor and not having sometimes a place to keep any belongings. It's sad.

 

[k5MOW]

Great looking shot.

Roger

 

[The_Traveler]

The packets are shampoo or laundry soap or similar things.
Many people here don't have the ready cash for entire bottles of things so they buy the packets as needed.

Not as surprising as I thought.
This might be also sort of "portability" of their life, poor and not having sometimes a place to keep any belongings. It's sad.

I have been in several homes, of different types according to their tribe and even a couple of city homes. Most of them are very unlike what we are used to or consider normal.
In ethnic villages walls are one board thick, as are the floors and rooms may be divided only by a fabric curtain.
There is nothing much extra and really no place to put it if there was.
There are not closets that I remeber, there might be open shelving and any possessions are hung on hooks or nails.
There might be a water spigot but that is usually water draining from a large metal drum on a high platform.
It is difficult to explain the difference in their lives because, from the very basic items, it is differently arranged and constructed.

Even the home of most wealthy is rather sparely furnished, floors might be tile and there might be stucco inside walls but the furnishing is rather barren. If there are 'easy' chairs they are large and wooden and quite uncomfortable.
My son was just in Yangon and had dinner at the home of very distant, very wealthy acquaintances.
There were 4 people and 8 or 9 servants to attend them - and several armed guards around the house which was surrounded by a high cement wall with glass shards embedded on the top.

I will show another example in the following message to illustrate how close to the bone these people live.

 

[The_Traveler]

I was on Inle Lake, a mjor tourist destination, and we went into a silversmith's house. These are the Intha people who live in stilt houses and farm on floating, man-made islands on this shallow lake. They are also silversmiths and make beautiful stuff for the tourist trade.

I liked a particular bracelet and wanted to buy 6 of them. The manager was a bit dismayed but then said that they had enough bar silver to make them if I gave them 3 hours.
So she allowed me to wander around the actual workroom.

Over the next couple of hours, I watched them draw wire thin enough to braid.

Then braid that into a mesh for the strap on the bracelet

solder the mesh into a sold piece

and end up with 6 gorgeous bracelets, made from bar silver right in front of my eyes in 3 hours. Except for a hand cranked metal press and a tank of gas for soldering, this was all hand work. (actually some of the less-crucial soldering was done over a charcoal fire.)

Life is soooooooooo different.

 

[jcdeboever]

Very nice composition. Interesting. Makes me feel like I take simple things for granted. The penny candy is a good example in that this is an item I walk past daily and never give it much thought... Until seeing this photo. The immense joy it could bring to someone who has not the opportunity I am overwhelmed with. Single packet of soap to wash your hair with may be purchased here for a major event as opposed to an every day one with me. The mileage on the inventory box tells me it is a prized possession... where I may take it to a dump. There is no fat in this photo but an immense reality of simple pleasures for the spoiled rotten American (blue plastic chair) that I am. Thank you for sharing.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[The_Traveler]

Great looking shot.

Thank you, Roger - and welcome.

Very nice composition. Interesting. Makes me feel like I take simple things for granted. The penny candy is a good example in that this is an item I walk past daily and never give it much thought... Until seeing this photo. The immense joy it could bring to someone who has not the opportunity I am overwhelmed with. Single packet of soap to wash your hair with may be purchased here for a major event as opposed to an every day one with me. The mileage on the inventory box tells me it is a prized possession... where I may take it to a dump. There is no fat in this photo but an immense reality of simple pleasures for the spoiled rotten American (blue plastic chair) that I am. Thank you for sharing.

Not much gets thrown away before any last bit of use is squeezed out of it.
In some of the poorer rural villages, kids make do. (This is from 2005 on my first trip there.)

 

[timor]

This is a GREAT essay ! Top shelf photography. Thank you for sharing.
What is frustrating, this are very skilled craftsmen, who would be making very good living in the West. But politics, business and 5000 years of "tradition" makes it, what it is. Still, Trotsky comes to mind...

 

[The_Traveler]

What is frustrating, this are very skilled craftsmen, who would be making very good living in the West. But politics, business and 5000 years of "tradition" makes it, what it is. Still, Trotsky comes to minde...

Thanks,
They seem to be quite happy and satisfied with their craft.
Of course most of these people haven't been more than 50 miles from their home village in their lives.

If I have time this week, I'll put up pictures of a 5-day market near the lake.
All sorts of local tribes come there to sell.
It's quite enlightening.

 

[andramaxy]

great looking pictures, and love all the detail pictures you take during the making of the bracelets, i wish i can be as sharp as you when it comes to detail shots. Also if may i know, are you a journalist or just a normal traveler? just curious