PEOPLE spend a fair bit of their days and lives at work. The five day work week is still a dream for much of the world’s workforce.
Maybe that is why I have so many pics of people at work?

Our taxi driver stops to say hello to what ust be the loneliest hotel owner in the world, on the Pamir Highway a long way north of Murghab (3650m ASL) on the way to Kyrgyzstan.

A shephard in the isolated Yagnob valley, 120km from the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. That is the main, in fact only road into town.

A Yanobi farmer in Margeb, Tajikistan, where isolation has preserved traditions, culture and language.

Squeezed between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the 2500 year old Tajik city of Istaravshan has a fascinating bazaar, where blacksmith work the forges, and knives are made by hand.

A trip to the barber shop is more than a haircut. It's a cultural insight, and I try to go in every country I visit. I didn't need a cut or shave in Istaravshan, Tajikistan, but this old guy really needed to be photographed.

At the Sunday livestock market in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan, a primitive looking rack holds a horse in place.

Traders, buyers, sightseers, gossipers, cows, horses, sheep and goats crowd the Karakol Sunday livestock market. If in the area, time your visit around it.

Laos' Luang Prabang is where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong river. It experienced a tourist boom in the 2000s, but most people still farm and fish as they have for generations.

Birds' nest collectors rest in Niah Cave, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The huge cave is home to swallows, whose nests are collected by these guys climbing bamboo ladders to the ceiling.

Malaysia's highest peak, Mount Kinabalu can be easily climbed, but guides are mandatory. Unusual protective clothing for guides.

Sri Lanka's tea country is a picturesque carpet of rolling green, and the estates welcome visitors. Picking tea is hard work. Most picker live on the estates, which have schools and clinics.

Stilt fishermen working their patch of ocean in the little Sri Lankan town of Mirissa. Apparently the stilts locations are passed on to children.

A bartender at Sri Lanka's grandest old hotel, The Galle Face Hotel, which opened its doors in 1864.

The bazaars of central asia are wonderful for wandering and wondering. Sampling fresh honey in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The smell of grilling lamb is the smell of central asia. Serve it up with some fresh bread, maybe a salad or soup. Uzbekistan.

Traidtional carpet weaving was revived in Uzbekistan after the Soviet Union broke up. Read "A Carpet Ride To Khiva" about the NGO these ladies are employed by.

A 16th century silk road madrasah in Bukhara makes a great backdrop to rehearse traditional Uzbek dance.

Smiles as big as the bazaar itself, at one of the great silk road markets, Margilon, in Uzbekistan's Fergana region.