Commerce

Today, I decided, will be bamboo bicycle day.  Fate decided otherwise, but it was a good walk to the shop and back.

Cart vendors are becoming an endangered species in KL, but they're everywhere in PP. I remember my friend Allison describing someone as being too old to buy green bananas. This banana man has it covered -- green, yellow, red, in all sizes and shapes.  (Another vendor sells roasted bananas from his pushcart, but I didn't get a photo of him, and his bananas aren't very photogenic, though they do smell wonderful.)

Here's a more prosperous, motorised banana man.

I took this photo for the yellow-blooming tree, and it just happened there was a coconut vendor beneath it. I don't know what species the tree is, but this one and its relatives are blooming profusely all over the city.

The classic cyclo, or bicycle rickshaw, is still in business here, too. A fleet of them work the riverfront, catering to tourists who think this is a fine way to see the city (and it is!), but they work elsewhere as well. Especially the older Cambodian ladies tend to take them home from the markets, which is what the lady in this one was doing. Notice the grey pullcarts on the side of the street.  Their owners will pull them here or there, and then open them to sell snacks and drinks. Some of them will stay in one spot, say outside a school or business, and others will haul them up and down streets, calling out or blowing small horns to attract business.

Outside a construction site is a lucrative place to bring such carts.  Note the scaffolding on these two new "high rise" apartments -- bamboo!

They seem to have well-dressed cattle down under. I had no idea.

I was really pleased to see three different organic local veggie stores along Street 63.  When I get that elusive bicycle, they'll be more easily accessible, and their prices are not at all exorbitant.

When I finally got to the shop that's selling the bamboo bicycles, it was closed. No sign, no explanation.  It's normally open seven days a week, so perhaps there was a special event.  I saw through the window that they don't have the frame that I want in stock, so they'll have to order it from Hanoi, where the bikes are made.  Looks like it will be a few weeks before I'm on wheels.