Transporting Food to the Fields

These young woman are taking food to the family working in the fields. You can see that they learn to balance baskets on their heads at a young age.

It seemed like goods of all kinds were transported either by baskets on the heads of men and women, or by some kind of boxes or baskets on a motorcycle. And, yes, we did see some delivery trucks too, but people everywhere were carrying things on their heads.

More rice is drying on the tarp in the background.

Drying the Rice Along the Road

From the fields, the rice was moved to be spread out on tarps on the roadside for drying.

Occasionally we would see a woman with a rake turning the rice so it would dry evenly. Our guide told us it would take two or three days for the rice to dry.

Sifting the Rice

The woman are removing the chaff from the rice by shaking it in these baskets.

The amount of manual labor it takes to harvest the rise is incredible. Even though it is hot, you see that these people have the heads, arms, and legs covered.

Harvesting the Rice

As we drove to the mountains, we saw a colorful sight as whole families worked in the fields harvesting the rice. The men used machetes to cut the stalks, men and women beat the stalks to remove the rice kernels.

The haze you see in the photo is smoke from the stalks being burned.

Our bus driver pulled over so we could watch and take photographs.