VIETNAM--Part 4

If you've indeed been following my travels, you've seen MANY different uses for that most common and useful of plants in Southeast Asia, the bamboo tree. Besides being of so many uses, a great thing about bamboo is that it's a renewable resource: you HAVE to cut it back regularly to make sure it keeps growing and stays healthy! Seems to me bamboo holds one of the keys to keeping our environment healthy while meeting our needs for natural resources. Unfortunately, bamboo is becoming one of the casualties of the destruction of the rainforests -- and, as it becomes scarcer, it becomes more expensive, and people begin to turn to less expensive products made artificially that ultimately create other problems (for example, as waste once they deteriorate). What can we do to save bamboo?

Stands of Bamboo Like This Line The Shores of Canals Throughout the Delta

One Use of Bamboo: Workers Split It Into Smaller Slices...

...Then Into Smaller Slivers That Are Used to Make Incense Sticks!

A Worker Like This Woman Can Individually Hand-Roll Up to Seven Thousand Sticks of Incense Each Day -- for One Dollar

Bamboo Is Also Used to Build Bridges Like This One; I Can't Imagine It Holding My Weight, But Vietnamese Walk Across Carrying Heavy Loads As If They Were on Solid Land

Here's a Little Sturdier Bridge Made From the Magical Wood