Bamboo, bamboo everywhere

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I posted a photo of a Thai Karen tribesman with his big knife. I thought you might like to see another photo of a building from the village. This is a family's house. You can see trays of rice drying on the roof of the lean-to. The thatch roof is made of banana leaves. When you lie in bed at night you can see the stars through the gaps in the thatch. The windows are open to the outside. There is no glass. A ladder of bamboo leads up to the living level. Under the house are cages for chickens and pens for the pigs. The bamboo there grows very big and strong and the steps of the ladder are strips of bamboo cut in half. The steps would creak with our weight but were certainly strong enough for the light, wiry tribespeople. A weaving loom would be situated under the lean-to roof. Every morning we would be woken by a rhythmic thumping of the women grinding rice for their meals. Our smoked meat was kept in bamboo baskets and hung from hooks out of reach of the dogs. It seemed everything was made of bamboo. It was the experience of a lifetime.