Traveling around the countryside and to small towns and markets in Asia, in this case Southern China, I’m constantly amazed at the ingenious solutions people come up with to take care of their transport needs.
Many of the bicycles are customized for personal use, some with enhanced people-carrying capabilities and some outfitted for commerce. There are boats large and small, factory produced and hand-made. And the tractor-type vehicles, which I first noticed years ago in Laos and have seen all over Asia since, carrying goods and passengers. One rarely sees 2 of any the same and, as far as I can discern, fashion plays no part, although it’s certainly possible I’m missing some subtleties. It seems to be entirely utility that counts and I greatly admire the results.
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I’m surprised beasts of burden don’t seem to be used more.
What an amazing variety! I like to look around in Europe for “oddballs” like small pedal-powered trucks and other small delivery vehicles, but these take the cake. I’m especially fascinated by the front-wheel drive truck that appears to be friction-driven (power applied to the surface of the tire, rather than to the axle).
Don’t mistake this lot for an encyclopedic compilation. Buffalo are common and do you remember this? https://www.travelgumbo.com/blog/pod-baganw-oxen