Since we're traveling all over Asia for 6 months, we've been trying to budget and keep our backpacks full of emptiness. Sadly, we have been badly bitten by the shopping bug... things are just so cheap and sparkly!
To fund this dangerous consumerist habit we've been discussing various solutions to make money while traveling
(it was suggested that we work as geishas in Japan. We may have tossed around the idea during a desperate moment of hard bargaining for way too many pashminas.... ). After discussing the many possible methods of gaining an income while abroad, we've decided the easiest solution is to open our own business in India. From our observations of the local markets, restaurants, and stalls, we've discovered that all you really need to do is stake out a small area on the side of the road, put up a table or blanket, and display all you've got!
Now onto the restaurant industry. Seriously, to open a restaurant you simply need a table and a tiny gas grill.
Here I am practicing my Indian cooking skills, making dal, aloo gobi, chapati, and suji for dessert.
There are also various services offered at stalls along the road, from shoe shining to ear cleaning and everything in between.
To fund this dangerous consumerist habit we've been discussing various solutions to make money while traveling
(it was suggested that we work as geishas in Japan. We may have tossed around the idea during a desperate moment of hard bargaining for way too many pashminas.... ). After discussing the many possible methods of gaining an income while abroad, we've decided the easiest solution is to open our own business in India. From our observations of the local markets, restaurants, and stalls, we've discovered that all you really need to do is stake out a small area on the side of the road, put up a table or blanket, and display all you've got!
Women selling flowers from bags or at a tiny pop-up table on the side of the road.
Beautiful pashminas, silk scarves, bed sheets, and hand made duvets are sold from a cart on the side of the road or in huge local stores piled high in every colour and material imaginable.
Towers of books line the streets of Mumbai.
There are stalls outside all the temples overflowing with kitchenware, colourful kids toys, and kitschy Hindu god and goddess pictures.
People selling small colourful windmills and beach balls along the boardwalk in Pondicherry.
There are the most beautiful, fresh, and juicy fruit and vegetable stands all over India!
Fish stalls all along the beach full of fish, people, and flies.
Someone was even selling these sweet antique gramophones on the side of the road in Chennai!
A sugarcane juice stall in Kolkata. It's actually pure sugar, no added water!
My favorite stall with the best sweet milky chai ever.
My second favorite guy to visit... the watermelon guy! They even arranged the cut melon in beautiful towers of sweetness!
Now onto the restaurant industry. Seriously, to open a restaurant you simply need a table and a tiny gas grill.
Here I am practicing my Indian cooking skills, making dal, aloo gobi, chapati, and suji for dessert.
There are also various services offered at stalls along the road, from shoe shining to ear cleaning and everything in between.
You can have a massage on the side of the gangas river.
Blessings from a sadhu or holy man are even for sale!
Stop by the local roadside barber for a nice close shave.
So far, we haven't decided what to sell from our roadside stall, but anything goes in India so it's "no problem"!
wow what an experience of a lifetime! Let me know if you need a sales rep for your street business. :-)
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