It's a dog's life, or is it?

Living in Bali certainly has it's perks. Take a peek back through some of the posts here and you'll see it's a pretty cool place. Many is the time I get responses to wall posts over on the facebook page like, "Oh, it's so cool that you live in Bali" or "Man, you got a cool deal". Yeah, I'll have to agree that on the outside it looks pretty darn great, but the things that brings everything back to reality with a resounding 'Thwumpf' is that even bills need paying in paradise. Now yep, it's true that life here is cheaper than in the western World, but still not that much of a difference when it comes to basically just living.

In the west we look at disdain toward people going through trash cans and garbage. Imagine what it must be like for the society class who are publicly recognized as scavengers. I recently read a story in a Newspaper from Jakarta where it mentioned a fracas at a snack bar between a Street Cleaner and a Scavenger, I tried to picture that one but couldn't. So I'm not really sure what this blog post is about really other than the fact that to get by out here some people have to put up with some pretty unsavory working conditions.

Take the ladies in the above image. I took this photo at the Cucukan Beach region of Bali. I'd never seen the micro industry before but at low tide the whole village would come out on to the pebbled beach and sit huddled at the waters edge filling up bucket after bucket of pea sized small black pebbles worn smooth and shiny by the constant wave actions. Once filled it would be the ladies who then ferry the bags of stones back to the processing points in the village. These pebbles are then used in ornamental bathroom tiles and fixtures. It seems the term "It's a Dog's Life" doesn't resound true as it seems the dog in this photo may have been dealt the best hand.

Camera: Canon EOS 5DMkII fitted with a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L IS Zoom lens.

Cheers, and catch up tomorrow for more Ocean memories.
Mark
liquidmocean