We've been amazed at the way people carry things on the back of their bicycles (picture piled-high bicycles dodging traffic 4 "lanes" wide, potholes 3 feet deep, pedestrians carrying things on their heads ...). So we started a list, which I'm sure we'll add to.When Bill mentioned this to his driver yesterday the driver was perplexed about why it was unusual. He just couldn't believe it: "You mean people don't do this where you come from?"
Things carried on bikes:
- Pineapples in bunches on the handlebars
- Pineapples in huge crates piled behind the seat
- Long (6-8 feet) poles
- Huge stuffed sacks (6-feet wide) of wood shavings
- Truck-sized tires (4 per bike)
- Sacks of charcoal
- Large wooden crates (one, we were told, carried by a meat vendor)
- A huge collection of large yellow jerry cans (used to carry water) roped together, presumably empty
- Sugar cane
- Sacks of cabbages
- A collection of brooms, mops, sponges and welcome mats, all piled high in a sort of mobile store
- Huge burlap sacks wrapped around giant bunches of banana leaves
Many of these things are so heavy that you regularly see several men pushing a single bicycle up one of the steep hills.
