The Royal Visit

Well, the royals are in Bhutan and are, at this moment, climbing up to the Tiger's Nest. A monastery perched on top of a rocky out-jutting on a mountain.

We were there trail blazing for them the other month

It's a bit of a hike but not too bad.

 

Well I thought my back garden was on a bad slope, but compared to that it's dead level

 

The postman leaves their mail at the bottom.

 

They're now off to the Taj Mahal. A very impressive structure.

 

The colour of the white marble that the Taj Mahal is made from changes depending on the time of day and the lighting.





Everyone is so friendly and they all want to have their photos taken with someone who has white skin. We've found this happens in a lot of countries.

Queuing up to get into the building (as foreign visitors we were allowed to bypass the queues ).

 

I can think of at least 30 countries that I have visited where the working conditions for both adult and children are atrocious according to our way of life. Unfortunately, there's very little, if anything, that can be done about it.

Most of the time it's overpopulation, lack of will to do anything within the country and tradition and social divides.

Once, when I was on Madagascar, I asked our guide (needed one for the places we were going) if it was OK to take a photo of one of the girls with her baby. He asked her and she was quite happy for me to do so. I then asked whether I should tip her and he said that I didn't have to but it would not insult her. Instead of giving her some local money I gave her two dollars. You should have seen the beaming smile on her face. The guide told me afterwards that it was equivalent to a month's pay for her!