Pick of Pick of Pics

One other thing… I’ve decided to have a very small number of photos from the trip printed up on stretched canvas.  And I’m finally going to settle in somewhere properly by hanging things on the walls. But as you can imagine picking six photos out of more than 12,000 is a daunting task.  So I’ve narrowed it down a bit – here are my thoughts about good options.  Please let me know what you think.  Or point me back to favourites you might have seen in the Flickr feed that I’ve long ago forgotten about.

In the order in which they were taken:

Woman on the road, Suzdal

The Grand Canal, Venice

View from the Galata Bridge, Istanbul

Old Man in a sunny spot, Jerusalem

Old Man in a sunny spot close up, Jerusalem

The Dead Sea with chairs, Israel

Kids, Kampala

Fish market, Stone Town, Zanzibar

 
Good luck charm, Delhi

 
Carpet weaver, Agra

Boatman, Varanasi 

Old Man, Bahkatpur

Soldier, Beijing

 
Monk at work, Luang Prabang

Young monks, Luang Prabang

Tourist maiko, Kyoto

 
Tatami Mat Man, Takayama

Pic of Pics: Plymouth

Me and the fambly, on the water taxi in Plymouth. (To mollify Rob H, and to show everyone that I'm still hanging in there with the Longer Hair Experiment.)

And, for those not plugged into the Twitter feed, I GOT THE JOB. I'm now working full time, and have just finished Day 3. It's good, and busy, and frustrating (already) and yet all feels eerily familiar. If I had time to catch my breath I might be able to blog about it, but I'm suddenly too busy working, searching for a long term flat, and generally trying to remember how to function when 8-10 hours a day is taken up with... work. It's been a looooooong time.

Pick of Pics: Kyoto

These are "tourist geisha", visitors to Japan who pay to be made up as maiko and wander around the streets for a few hours. They're much more amenable to photography than the real thing.

Pick of Pics: Miyajima

This is one of my favourite of the Rakan staues at Daisho-Inn Temple

Pick of Pics: Luang Prabang

Well you KNEW it was going to be monks, didn't you? These are some more young men watching the Pi Mai celebrations in the streets of Luang Prabang.

Pick of Pics: Yangshuo

I know the focus on this is a bit off, but I still really like it. It's a random bit of graffiti carved into a stand of bamboo on the way up to the top of Moon Hill. Huang says it's someone's name, but I like to think it's a fragment of poetry or something.

Pick of Pics: Emei Shan

Thoughtful monkey on Emei Mountain

Pick of Pics: Xi'an

The Xi'an Bell Tower (which is actually in the middle of a giant traffic roundabout) as seen in an arty fashion through a blossoming tree.

(This Pick of Pics was included at Kathryn's suggestion. I wasn't immediately taken with it, but maybe that's because I was disappointed to discover that the blossoms and possibly the whole tree, were fake.)

Pick of Pics: Beijing

One of the incredibly young Chinese soldiers guarding the perimeter of Tiananmen Square

Pick of Pics: Varanasi

One of our boatmen, lighting the floating candles we released onto the Ganges

Pick of Pics: The Ganges

Sunrise on the Ganges. One of our crew having a short break before we push off for the day.

Pick of Pics: Orchha

A stack of the paper they made at the Taragram paper factory in Orchha. (Ok, I admit now I'm just getting hopelessly arty and pretentious with the new camera, but come on! This looks cool!)

Pick of Pics: Agra

Man hand-knotting a carpet at the place we visited in Agra.

Pick of Pics: Delhi

This is a typical good luck charm hung outside shops in Old Delhi. They are composed of a black thread (always black, or sometimes dark blue) strung with 7 chilies separated by one lemon. Shopkeepers will often replace them daily before the start of business, or have them renewed by people in the neighbourhood who might also deliver the morning paper, or chai. (My old camera never could have got this shot!)

Pick of Pics: the Dead Sea

I'm not backtracking to Israel - the tour I'm on included a visit to the Dead Sea, so I went there again, to the Jordan side. I didn't go in this time, but I did take lots of pictures for other people, and a few for myself. I have no idea why these chairs were in the sea, but I thought they were interesting.

Pick of Pics - Zanzibar

The fish market, Stonetown, Zanzibar

Pick of Pics: Uganda

This little guy was one of the ones hanging around at the end of the rafting trip. He LOVED the camera.

Pick of Pics - Jerusalem

Two-for-one today. I couldn't decided which of these two I liked better. You are, of course, welcome to render your opinion.

Sunny spot in Jerusalem, the long shot.

Old man in a sunny spot in Jerusalem, the close-up

Pick of Pics - Istanbul

Mosques in the mist, Istanbul

(And can I just add here that I can't believe I actually took this photo. It might be my favourite of the trip so far...)

Pick of Pics - Delphi

The Temple of Apollo at Delphi