Tipperary reader Betty Gleeson, a member of Nenagh Writers' Group, e-mailed a postcard about her trip to Kerala, in India.
"Kerala, in southwest India, is a land of vibrant colours and breathtaking surprises. Driving through lush green upland countryside, we passed through rubber plantations and hilly tea fields, some dotted with colour, as women worked amid the bushes. One plantation had a large sign up emblazoned 'Connemara Tea' - there must be an Irish connection.
"The next leg of our journey took us southwest again, for 100km, stopping at Kottayam for refreshments and then onwards to Kumarakom, where we boarded a houseboat.
"My reading material was a book created in Kerala, The God of Small Things. Arundhati Roy captured the magic of her homeland in the lines: 'Kerala is an extraordinary place where you can explore, as we four friends did, a whole other world and experience some delights off the beaten track.'"