Boats and Boat Women

A small digression about the women who rowed us through Ha Long bay and their equipment. Vietnam is full of low tech solutions. Labor is so cheap that it makes sense to have people do things we would buy machines to do. For example, people think nothing of throwing their trash out on the street because they know that other people will come along shortly to pick it up. There are no street sweeping machines, just people who literally sweep the streets. Lots of them.

So while there were rudimentary power boats in the fishing village (nothing like the shuttle boats attached to our junks with their huge Yamaha outboards), they're used for important things like fishing, not hauling tourists around. There are plenty of women with strong backs available to do that.

She's been doing this for a while.

There is time to rest while the tourists shop.

 

 But soon it's time to work again.

 

 

I was also fascinated by the low tech construction of the boats themselves.

The hull is a woven basket coated with sealant. 

 

 Here's the underside of one without the decking.

 

 The decking is simply a few planks bolted together and attached to the hull.

 

Detail of the inside of the woven hull.

Like most of the low tech solutions here, they work fine to accomplish the task at hand.

P.