Basket vendor

A vendor is someone who sells something. In most Asian countries you can see many vendors in the streets. Some set up stalls and sell to people who pass, just like a little shop on the side of the road. Some vendors walk carrying whatever it is they are selling.

This vendor has a motorbike with a sidecar. He has all different kinds of baskets that he sells to people. The baskets are used for many different purposes.

In this picture you can hardly see the vendor. The men wearing orange vests are motorcycle-taxi drivers. If you take a bus home it stops along the main road. Perhaps you live a long way from the main road and it is too far to walk. You can take a motorcycle taxi. They will drive you to your home.

I don't know what kind of baskets the motorcycle-taxi drivers bought but they look very interested in these baskets.

PS. At the moment I live just around the corner from this spot.

love from Grandpa

Free the birds

When we visited Wat Sala Loi in Korat there was a man who had these birds in a cage. They were for sale. When people buy them they don't take them home. These are not pet birds, they are wild birds. People buy them to set them free. They think that by setting the birds free they will make merit.

The next day the man will be back at the temple selling wild birds again. He has caught some more. Maybe they are even the same birds. I don't think there is any merit from buying these birds. If people stopped buying the birds the man would stop catching them and selling them. The birds would always be free. What do you think?

Spiky and smelly

Have you ever seen this fruit? It's called durian. It's also called the king of fruits and it's very popular in Thailand and other Asian countries. If you want to eat it, first you have to peel it. Those spikes are sharp. You need gloves and a sharp knife to cut it open. Usually I let the vendor who sells it to me peel it for me. When it is cut open it has a very strong smell. Some people don't like the smell. Me? I like it. Some people don't like the taste either. Me? I like the taste too. There is a lot of durian around in Thailand now. Come to visit me and you can taste it for yourself.

love from Grandpa John

Dangerous weapon

I saw this for sale in a street stall in Mahasarakham the other day. It sounds really dangerous. Would you like to be shot by a pooh squirt gun? I'd hate someone to squirt pooh on me. Yuk!

It didn't smell too bad. I guess it wasn't loaded so I decided to take a closer look.

Hey, it doesn't squirt pooh after all. It's a water pistol with a reserve tank in the shape of Pooh Bear. I'm so glad. I don't mind being squirted with water. But pooh? No way!

love from your Granddad

Please mister, buy a paper

This girl is maybe just a couple of years older than Ben. We were in a taxi in Delhi. When the taxi stopped at the lights she came to the window with a newspaper to sell. She pressed her face against the window and did not leave until the lights changed. Maybe she thought that the foreigner would like to buy a newspaper more than the Indian people in the other cars.

At many of the traffic lights in Delhi there are kids, often younger than this girl, who are selling something: a newspaper or magazine, a toy, some incense. Some kids will do acrobatics. Some kids have nothing to sell and nothing to do. They just hold their hands out and beg. They do this because they need money to buy food for themselves and their families. Some of them never go to school.

Bangkok street vendors

Hello

Just want to show you what some of the streets in Bangkok look like because they are quite different from streets in Australia.

On this street there is not much room to walk along the footpath because there are people who take up most of the footpath to sell things. You can see in this picture that people walk down the road instead of on the footpath. Do you think it is dangerous? But sometimes when you are walking on the footpath someone will ride a motorbike along it. You have to be very careful all the time.

These people are vendors. They sell things. The first one sells nice smelling flowers that are strung together. People buy them to give as an offering to a Buddha image. The next one is a girl selling hand towels. They are very cheap. I bought a couple. There are more vendors on the footpath on the other side of the road. You can find all sorts of things for sale on the streets of Bangkok.

Talk to you later.

Love from Grandpa.