Walk to work

It's a beautiful day today. Clear blue skies. I have been getting into a daily routine, starting with my journey to work. Each morning I walk along the main road through the market. I usually walk through at 7.30 and it is in full swing. It is mandarin season at the moment and on the approach to the market the road is lined with women selling the oranges. They are stacked in piles of about 5, which is how they are sold. After these are the chickens, held in groups in upside-down basket constructions (alive). Then comes the fruit and veg department on the right. Densely packed and fixed tables fill the covered area, spilling out their displays onto the pavement. On the left are household items, books, pans and bits of bicycle. I nip down a road to the right to buy bread for my breakfast. The bread is baguette style (in looks if not exactly in taste) evidence of the French colonialists. Continuing back along the main road I pass an enclosed section for more vegetables and another road branching off to the right. This is where to go for woven mats and baskets, or meat and fish. It can be quite potent later on in the heat of the day. It's not unusual to see a group of men pulling a wooden cart laden with a zebu carcass or two along the road. The last bit of the market is frip heaven (that's the second hand clothing in case you'd forgotten). Finally another stretch of oranges, then charcoal and then the market is past and I take the right hand turn, winding up the hill to the office.

But it's my last day of this because I'm moving house at lunch time! I'll put up some photos tomorrow. So excited!