Toil

toil

verb

1. work extremely hard or incessantly "we toiled away"
synonyms: work hard, labor, exert oneself, slave (away), grind away, strive, work one's fingers to the bone, put one's nose to the grindstone

noun

1. exhausting physical labor "a life of toil"
synonyms: hard work, labor, exertion, slaving, drudgery, effort, industry, 'blood, sweat and tears'

Walking through the rice paddy fields in central Bali close to Ubud you can witness the simple, rural way of life with the local people living directly from the land. Their daily life consists of incredible physical hard work and toil in the fields, tending their rice paddies, clearing the drainage ditches as well as looking after their livestock. In the heat of the intense tropical sun and wading through deep muddy pools of water and drainage ditches this is back breaking work and is certainly no easy idyllic tropical island life that we all imagine on an island such as Bali.

However what is clearly apparent is how well these local people look. They may be old, perhaps in their sixties or seventies or even older (it's sometimes hard to judge) but they are physically fit, slim and able bodied. In contrast our puny, overweight city-style bodies struggle in this climate and would not last long in these conditions.

Perhaps it is they who have it right and our modern society with all its apparent modernisation and technology have it all wrong. One thing is for sure; if there was a calamitous world event that would wipe out our existing technology and infrastructure then it would be folks like these that would be the survivors.

Yima - Rural Village

Just outside Yangshuo, China is a small village called Yima which sits in a rural area surrounded by beautiful karst hills, paddy fields and a river which is a tributary of the main Li River. Rice, vegetables and many fruits are grown in the rich soil close to the river. The river provides good transportation and you can see many bamboo boats moving up and down the river.

In this small village of Yima is a wonderful Qing Dynasty house, known as the Pan House as the household here are the descendants of General Pan, a great hero of the Qing Dynasty.

Here you can view what life was like many years ago, water being pulled from a hand pump in the yard, a grinding millstone and a simple log-fired kitchen.

The main room of the house with wonderful old carvings and Chinese pictures decorating the bare stone walls.

Bungamati, Nepal

10km south of Kathmandu stands a small village called Bungamati where hundreds of master wood carvers and sculpture producers live and work. Visitors often encounter the smiling teeth and welcoming hand of artisans working in their houses, offering their artifacts. Regardless of the rapid changes in lifestyle of the urban population and the globalized way of living, the Bungamati locals have remained untouched by modern waves and are living the simple, rural life that they know best.

Visiting there in the late afternoon when the light is soft and subdued is best for photography and the locals are generally very amenable for portraits to be taken as they work on their weaving or wood carvings. There is also the Temple of Macchindranath in the centre of the village which provides a central focus.