A major distraction

Lately, my weekends have been very busy, with lots of trips away from home. I had almost nothing planned for this weekend, and anticipated spending my time on all those routine household tasks that seem to get out of control when neglected for a few weeks. I had a minor distraction when I went hunting on my computer for an old photo I needed and realised while searching that not only did I have a mess of unsorted and unlabelled photos from a trip to South India that I made more than three years ago, but that some of the photos were missing.

You can anticipate the rest of this story. The hunt became a major distraction. I didn't ever find the missing photos (maybe something went wrong in downloading them from my camera?) but I ended up spending ages sorting the remainder, trying to label at least some of them - those I specifically remembered - and loading a selection of them to Flickr. But I guess for once the photos served the purpose that such mementos are meant for - refreshing visual memories, prompting recollection of events and sights that were half-forgotten and making me yearn to travel again.

So indulge me by sharing some of these photos with you.

We saw busy and chaotic cities



and traveled the timeless Kerala backwaters in a houseboat.



We visited innumerable temples



exquisite decorated palaces



and grand public buildings.



I was particularly fascinated by Cochin with its layers of local tradition, colonial history and modern development. For example, there is a centuries-old tradition of fishing using 'Chinese' nets whose pulleys are weighted by huge stones, and a sixteenth century synagogue that has been continuously used.



And of course, there were the people...



You can see why I want to travel again.

And I don't have long to wait. My travelling friend and I are in the last stages of planning a trip to Malaysia, leaving in a couple of weeks. I'm already making all sorts of resolutions to sort and label my photos as I go!