Warning – this is long – you might want to grab yourself a cup of tea!!!  Finally I’ve had a chance to sit down and go through some of our holiday photos – I can’t believe it was back in November that we went to India – wow. I was intending to put these into a series of posts as there are so many, but cos it’s been so long I think I’ll do it all at once. They’re just a few (seriously I could have shared hundreds it was such an awesome trip) of our snapshots – I don’t take my big pro gear on holidays – I have enough to carry with two small children!!!

I’m borrowing this idea from another photographer, but I thought I’d make a list of some of my most unforgetable memories about the trip – the good, the bad, the things that made it what it was….

21 memories of our trip to India….

1. a 2am flight on an Indian budget airline perhaps wasn’t the most restful start –no sleep on broken chair, with baby on lap… plus turbulence – not a good mix for me – I felt like I’d been on a merry go round (which the kids were later on)!
2. Cochin – the most adorable chilled, laid back little place – with fishermen, and islands and churches and people celebrating Eid
3. the girls looked like street urchins by day two – grubby faces, dirty fingernails and scuffed knees – but huge toothy smiles through it all
4. gardens – staying in homestays meant space for our garden deprived children to run around to their hearts content – making Mummy’s heart sing
5. The three generations of this family who took us under their wings and made us part of their family for the few days we were with them – you don’t get hospitality like that just anywhere. Within half an hour of our arrival Saffy had had her hair brushed and re-plaited. Indy’s face had been washed and they’d been introduced to all the extended family
6. falling into bed at the end of the first day – all four of us in one huuuuuuuuuge bed and just before drifting off to sleep, realising it was actually only 7pm back home in Abu Dhabi!
7. food – homecooked, homegrown, fresh, healthy, tasty = singing tastebuds! (not to mention that Indians TOTALLY get vegetarianism!)
8. colours – everywhere – India hits all 5 of your senses full on in the face and nothing more so than the vibrant colour everywhere, everywhere.
9. water, water everywhere – which made everything lush and oh, so, green, greeeeeeeen….
10. Transport – Part 1: auto rickshaws – we took more of them than any other mode of transport and every time we got in one Saffy sang for the whole journey – she loved them! And nothing is more wonderful than your child singing with joy when they enjoy something so much.
11. Transport – Part 2 – Busses: the bus from Cochin to Aleppy – me, 2 girls on my lap, and 4 other women, all squashed onto a 3 person seat, and the way there are no barriers – food gets shared, songs get sung, chat is exchanged about destinations and journeys – no one complains – it is what it is…
12. Transport – Part 3 – Trains: he trains – I’m a train junkie and love to take train journeys – there’s something so wonderful about train travel – so soothing – that you don’t get with any other mode of transport – I can sit and watch the world go by from a train window all day long
13. Transport – Part 4 – Ambassador cars: the feeling of being transported back to the days of the Raj (I know they’re probably not that old) – I feel like a little girl going in an old car!
14. backwater boat trip – one of the best AED500 spent – ever! Peaceful, relaxing, stunning, restful, and all while being waited on by 3 boatboys who really could not have been more helpful. If you ever go to Kerala, you must NOT miss a boat trip!! Go to sleep having seen the sun go down like this….. and wake up to this…. Bliss….
15. Relaxing with a beer on the balcony or the beach listening to the waves of the Arabian Sea / Indian Ocean – and watching the girls do their sun dance as they waved goodbye to it.
16. hammocks big enough for the whole family, or swings for the girls – made to make you relax…
17. Shopping for textiles and handmade items at cooperatives where you knew the money was actually going to benefit the people that made the things you bought.
18. Time – just having 8 uninterrupted days to spend together – with no email, no facebook, no work, no TV, no…. nothing but US time for the four of us.
19. Watching Saffy climb a tree for the first time – simple pleasures which we had as kids that apartment living children don’t get
20. ankle bells that the girls got for being good on the boat, and not requiring us to jump overboard on a life saving mission – their giddiness as they jingle jangled as they ran around with their new anklets
21. Smiles – everywhere – welcoming people – I can’t wait to go back…..

Kirsty xx