ACCOMMODATION FOR STUDENTS

To all the family and friends who would have been expecting a postcard from Cuba, I apologise, but as most of you now know I had some other matters to deal with.

I've had a quick browse through the shots I took and this one actually reminded me of some of the cards on sale there.

I was standing on the steps of the Capitolio building (a replica of the one in Washington D.C.) watching the world go by and the opportunities for panning were just too tempting to resist. I'm not a car nut by any stretch of the imagination - cars have two wheels too many - so I have no idea about makes or years of the cars I was shooting. But they looked fantastic.

How they're still running after all these years is beyond me, but that's because of the education system I was subjected to. Some of the people I met in Cuba were greatly amused to hear that I am, in my own estimation, feckin' useless. I don't know how to make things, or fix things. There was a time when I could have chaired a meeting, had some brainstorming sessions and looked at strategies for repair before inevitably deciding that 'buying a new one' was the simplest option. See? Feckin' useless.

Cubans don't have the option to 'buy a new one' so they have to learn how to fix things. When I was in hospital and had access to the national tv, which isn't the same as is broadcast in the hotels, I was astounded and greatly heartened to see programs on things like how to make parallel circuits and add variable resistors - things I'd long since forgotten since my school physics classes.

It was also amusing to me, as a former Health & Safety officer, that I was watching this show on a television which had a different sized plug from the wall socket. In Ireland they'd just say 'sorry about that - we'll try to get another one.' In Cuba they reach for the copper wire and make their own version of a makeshift adapter.

Explore #66

I took a boat from Mandalay on the Ayeyarwady River for a 10 hour cruise to Bagan. When we arrived in Bagan we were met at the dock by many souvenir vendors and taxi drivers. In this case, the taxies were horse drawn carts. I bought a package of post cards from a young girl who would not take no for an answer, and hired a cart to take me to the hotel. I got up early for a sunrise view of the temples; unfortunately it was raining, and would rain all day. I decided to just take a tour of a few of the main temples by hiring a cart and driver. The first person I ran into was the post card sales girl, Pan Ei Nwe. I bought some more postcards and asked her if she know the best temples. She said of course, speaking reasonable good English. I told her I would give her $5 to guide me today. She rounded up a horse cart and driver for another $15 for the day and we were off to tour stupas, along with her younger brother and a friend.

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