Kerala Photography: Tea, Backwaters & Wildlife

Route: Cochin International Airport (COK) to Fort Kochi, about 40 km

Your driver meets you at Cochin International Airport. The drive to Fort Kochi takes you across the harbour islands to the old town at the mouth of the harbour.

If you land by early afternoon, rest, charge batteries and clear cards. Walk to the fishing nets along the beach walkway near Vasco da Gama Square about an hour before sunset. The nets stand about 10 metres high, and at sunset they turn into black shapes against the sky. It is the easiest first frame of the trip, and a good way to test your settings after a long flight.

If your flight lands late, nothing is lost. The nets are the first stop again tomorrow morning.

Experience of the Day

• Airport pickup and check-in

• Gear check and briefing on the plan for the ten days

• Sunset at the Chinese fishing nets, if you land in time

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Sunset silhouettes. Expose for the sky and let the nets go black.

• Vantage: The beach walkway near Vasco da Gama Square, looking along the line of nets.

• Lens: 24-70 mm for the row of nets; 70-200 mm to isolate one net against the sky.

Food

• Recommended: Seafood grilled to order at the stalls by the nets: you choose the fish, a nearby kitchen cooks it.

• Must-Try: Karimeen pollichathu, pearl-spot fish cooked in banana leaf.

Activities to Do

• Rest after the flight

• Evening walk along Fort Kochi beach

Route: Fort Kochi, Mattancherry and Jew Town, local drives and walks

Start at the nets again, this time around 6:30 am, when they are working. Each net is a cantilever. Stones about 30 cm across hang from ropes at the back as counterweights. The balance is so fine that one man walking along the main beam tips the net into the sea. It stays down a few minutes, then the crew hauls it up with the catch. The cycle repeats, so you can compose once and wait for the net to rise.

Where the nets came from is disputed. Kerala Tourism credits Chinese traders and the explorer Zheng He, whose fleets reached this coast in the early 1400s. Other historians think the Portuguese brought the design later from their colony at Macau. Both stories are told locally.

Mid-morning, drive to Mattancherry. The Paradesi Synagogue dates from 1568. Its floor is laid with hand-painted tiles brought from Canton in China in the 18th century, and its glass chandeliers came from Belgium. Around it, Jew Town's spice warehouses and antique shops give strong street frames in soft shade. Mattancherry Palace, known as the Dutch Palace, holds some of Kerala's best temple-style murals.

Rest through the afternoon heat. At about 5 pm go to the Kerala Kathakali Centre in Fort Kochi, where the actors do their make-up in front of the audience before the 6 pm show. Colour tells you the character: green for noble heroes, red for warriors and demons, black for the wicked.

Note on opening days: The Paradesi Synagogue is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays, and Mattancherry Palace is closed on Fridays. Photography is not allowed inside either. BizareXpedition sets departure dates so that Day 2 falls between Sunday and Thursday; if it cannot, the Jew Town visit moves to Day 1 or Day 3.

The Human Story

The fishermen on the nets work in teams of up to six, and many of the nets are run by the same families year after year. They are used to cameras. A word of greeting, or buying fish from the morning catch, goes further than a tip for a photo. Your guide will introduce you.

Experience of the Day

• The nets in action at 6:30 am

• Paradesi Synagogue and Jew Town's spice lanes

• Murals at Mattancherry Palace

• Kathakali make-up and performance

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Soft early light at the nets; open shade in Jew Town's lanes by mid-morning.

• Vantage: Stand beside a net to show the counterweight stones and ropes; step back along the beach for the full lift.

• Lens: 35 mm or 50 mm for Jew Town street work; a fast prime (f/1.8) for the Kathakali stage, which is dim.

• Settings: Kathakali faces move slowly during make-up. Shoot at 1/125 s or faster in the show itself.

Food

Recommended: Lunch at a Mattancherry café near the spice warehouses.

Must-Try: Appam with vegetable or chicken stew, a Kochi breakfast staple.

Shopping

Jew Town for spices, tea and antiques; buy spices from shops that let you smell and weigh them first.

Activities to Do

• Guided walk in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry

• Kathakali make-up session and show

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Kalaripayattu martial-arts demonstration at the same centre after the Kathakali show (about 7:15 pm)

Route: Fort Kochi – Kothamangalam – Adimali – Munnar, about 140 km

The road climbs from the plains into the Western Ghats after Kothamangalam. Two waterfalls sit right beside the road past Adimali: Cheeyappara and Valara. Both are easy stops. They are at their fullest after the monsoon, from about August to November.

Munnar's tea estates date from the 1880s, when British planters cleared the hills. The rows of bushes follow the contours of each slope, which is why the hills look combed from above.

Check in, then head out about 4:30 pm for the first tea-hill sunset from a roadside viewpoint your guide chooses for the day's cloud.

Experience of the Day

• Waterfall stops at Cheeyappara and Valara

• First views of the tea estates

• Sunset over the tea valleys

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Late-afternoon side light brings out the texture of the tea rows.

• Vantage: High roadside bends above the valleys, chosen on the day for cloud and haze.

• Lens: 70-200 mm to compress the rows into patterns; ND filter for silky water at the falls.

Food

Recommended: Lunch at a roadside Kerala restaurant near Adimali.

Must-Try: Kerala sadya-style rice meal served on a banana leaf.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Munnar with waterfall stops

• Sunset photography in the tea hills

Route: Munnar – Suryanelli – Kolukkumalai and back, then Munnar town, about 32 km each way by jeep from Munnar

The day starts at 4 am. Past Suryanelli, the last stretch to Kolukkumalai is a rough track that only four-wheel-drive jeeps can manage. The estate sits just over the Tamil Nadu border, above 2,100 metres (sources give up to 2,400 m), and is often called one of the highest tea estates in the world.

Sunrise here is the reason to come. The ridge looks east over the plains of Tamil Nadu. On clear mornings, October to May, the valleys below fill with cloud and the sun comes up over it. The tea rows in front give you a foreground.

Afterwards, walk through the estate factory. It was set up in the 1930s and still uses the orthodox method on its old machines, rolling the leaf instead of cutting it. The smell of withering leaf fills the building.

After a rest, visit the Tata Tea Museum at Nallathanni Estate, opened in 2004. It shows machinery from a 1905 tea roller onward. Spend the late afternoon walking the tea rows near town with your guide.

Note on Kolukkumalai: The jeep ride is bumpy for about an hour each way. It may not suit guests with back or neck problems; tell us before booking and we will replace it with sunrise at Top Station.

The Human Story

Tea pickers in Munnar are mostly women, many from families who have worked the estates for generations. Ask before taking portraits. Your guide will help, and many pickers are happy to be photographed at work.

Experience of the Day

• Sunrise over the clouds at Kolukkumalai

• The orthodox tea factory

• Tata Tea Museum

• Tea pickers at work in the rows

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Blue hour from about 5:45 am, sunrise around 6:15 to 6:30 am depending on month.

• Vantage: The ridge edge above the estate; the tea rows make the foreground.

• Lens: 16-35 mm for the wide sunrise; 100-400 mm to pick out ridges in the cloud.

• Gear: A light tripod, a jacket (it can be 10 °C at dawn) and a rain cover.

Food

Recommended: Tea and snacks at the estate after sunrise; dinner at your hotel.

Must-Try: Freshly made orthodox tea at the factory where it was processed.

Shopping

Tea from the Kolukkumalai factory and the Tea Museum shop.

Activities to Do

• Kolukkumalai sunrise jeep trip

• Tea factory visit

• Tata Tea Museum

• Tea-row walk

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Top Station (about 32 km), a viewpoint over the Tamil Nadu side, as an alternative sunrise

Route: Munnar – Rajamala (Eravikulam National Park) – Munnar – Kumily/Thekkady, about 15 km plus about 105 km

Be at the Eravikulam gate for the park's 7:30 am opening. Private cars are not allowed inside. Forest Department buses take you up to the Rajamala tourism zone. The park was Kerala's first national park, set up in 1978, and Anamudi, at 2,695 m the highest peak in South India, rises inside it.

Eravikulam holds the largest population of Nilgiri tahr in the world. This endangered mountain goat lives only in the Western Ghats. On the grass slopes of Rajamala you often photograph them at close range from the path.

Then drive south to Thekkady, arriving early afternoon. Take the 3:30 pm boat on Periyar Lake, the last of the day.

Note on Eravikulam closure: The park closes for the tahr calving season for about 45 to 60 days, usually from 1 February into March. On departures in that window, Day 5's morning moves to Top Station or the Mattupetty valley, and we tell you when you book.

Experience of the Day

• Nilgiri tahr on the slopes of Rajamala

• Drive through the Cardamom Hills

• Afternoon boat on Periyar Lake

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Morning light on the Rajamala grass; late-afternoon light on the lake.

• Vantage: The walking path in Eravikulam; the upper deck of the Periyar boat.

• Lens: 70-200 mm is enough for the tahr; 100-400 mm on the boat.

• Fees: Eravikulam charges a small camera fee and a higher video fee; both are covered.

Food

Recommended: Lunch on the road in the Cardamom Hills.

Must-Try: Kerala parotta with beef or vegetable fry.

Activities to Do

• Eravikulam National Park

• Drive to Thekkady

• Periyar Lake boat, 3:30 pm

Route: Periyar Tiger Reserve boat landing and Kumily, local drives

The first boat leaves the landing at 7:30 am. In the morning, mist often lies on the water around the dead trees. These are what is left of the forest that stood in the valley before 1895, when the Mullaperiyar Dam was finished and the river filled it. The lake has kept its drowned trunks for over a century. Darters dry their wings on them, and the reflections on still mornings are the classic Periyar frame.

Periyar was made a tiger reserve in 1978. About 40 tigers were counted across its 925 square kilometres in 2017, in thick forest. Tigers are rarely seen from the boat. Elephants, gaur, sambar, wild boar, otters and about 266 species of birds are the real subjects here. March and April, the hottest months, bring the most animals to the water.

In the afternoon, walk a spice garden near Kumily with cardamom, pepper and vanilla on the vine. In the evening, watch Kalaripayattu, Kerala's old martial art, at a local kalari.

Note on tigers: Periyar is a forest reserve with a lake, not an open grassland park. A tiger sighting from the boat is rare, and we do not promise one. Elephants and gaur on the shore are common.

The Human Story

Many of the guides in Periyar's walking and rafting programmes are former poachers and sandalwood smugglers. After the arrest of a poaching leader in 1994, the reserve formed them into India's first eco-development committee made up entirely of ex-poachers. They now guide tourists, run bamboo rafts and patrol against poaching.

Experience of the Day

• The 7:30 am boat among the drowned trees

• Elephants, gaur and water birds on the shore

• Spice garden walk

• Kalaripayattu in the evening

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Mist and soft light on the first boat; flat light by 10 am.

• Vantage: Upper deck, side rail. Boats fill up, so board early.

• Lens: 100-400 mm or a 150-600 mm; image stabilisation on, since tripods are not practical on the boat.

• Settings: Kalaripayattu is fast; use 1/500 s and a high ISO.

Food

Recommended: Lunch at a Kumily restaurant.

Must-Try: Kappa (tapioca) with fish curry, a hill-country staple.

Shopping

Kumily's spice shops for cardamom and pepper straight from the plantations.

Activities to Do

• Periyar Lake boat, 7:30 am

• Spice garden walk

• Kalaripayattu show

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Bamboo rafting: a dawn-to-dusk trek and raft with a guard and four guides, maximum 10 guests, in place of the morning boat (quoted separately)

Route: Thekkady – Kottayam – Alleppey (Alappuzha), about 165 km

The road drops from the hills through rubber plantations to the flat country around Kottayam. You board your houseboat at Alleppey at about noon.

Houseboats are called kettuvallam in Malayalam. They began as rice and cargo barges, built without nails, with the planks tied together by coir rope. Now they carry bedrooms and an upper deck, and more than 400 of them work the Alleppey waters.

The boat cruises through the afternoon into Kuttanad. This is farmland on the edge of Vembanad, India's longest lake. Nearly 400 square kilometres of Kuttanad lie below sea level. From the deck you look down on green rice fields held back by earth dykes, with the canal running higher than the crop. Farmers here grow rice below the level of the sea beside them.

Boats must moor by dusk, around 6 to 6:30 pm. The sunset falls while you are still on the water.

Note on houseboat timings: Houseboats may not cruise after dark. Check-in is about noon and check-out 9 am. Cruising restarts about 7:30 to 8 am, so the dawn canoe on Day 8 is how you get onto the water at first light.

Experience of the Day

• Boarding at noon

• Afternoon cruise into Kuttanad

• Rice fields below the waterline

• Sunset from the upper deck

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Low sun from about 4:30 pm; the water goes gold before the boat moors.

• Vantage: The upper deck for height over the dykes; the bow for leading lines along the canal.

• Lens: 24-70 mm for the scene; 70-200 mm for people on the banks and kingfishers on the wires.

Food

Recommended: All meals on board, cooked by the boat's crew.

Must-Try: Karimeen fry and Kerala fish curry made in the boat's own kitchen.

Activities to Do

• Drive to Alleppey

• Houseboat cruise

• Sunset on the backwaters

Route: Kuttanad canals – Alleppey – Kollam bypass – Kovalam, about 158 km

A small canoe collects you from the houseboat at first light, around 6 am. It slips into side canals too narrow for the big boats, past washing steps, small churches and houses at the water's edge. The water is still at this hour, and the village is just waking.

Back on the houseboat for breakfast, then check out at 9 am and drive south along the coast to Kovalam.

In the evening, walk up to the Vizhinjam Lighthouse above Lighthouse Beach. The 36-metre tower started work in 1972. From the rocks below it, the curve of the beach runs north toward the other headlands.

Experience of the Day

• Dawn canoe through the narrow canals

• Village life at the water's edge

• Drive down the coast

• Sunset from the lighthouse headland

Photographer's Notes

• Light: Blue hour and first light on the canals; warm side light at the lighthouse at sunset.

• Vantage: Low in the canoe for reflections; the rocks south of Lighthouse Beach for the tower.

• Lens: 35 mm prime in the canoe (keep it simple and dry); 16-35 mm at the lighthouse.

• Gear: A dry bag for the canoe.

Food

Recommended: Dinner at a beach-front restaurant on Lighthouse Beach.

Must-Try: Fresh catch of the day, grilled with Kerala spices.

Activities to Do

• Dawn canoe

• Drive to Kovalam

• Lighthouse sunset

Route: Vizhinjam fishing harbour, Kovalam and Poovar, about 40 km of local drives

Vizhinjam fishing harbour, a few minutes from Kovalam, is busiest at first light, when the boats come in with the night's catch. Crews unload onto the quay, the auction starts and the colours of the boats and the fish give you a very different set of frames from the rest of the trip.

Rest through the middle of the day.

In the afternoon, drive to Poovar, where the Neyyar river meets the sea. A boat takes you through the mangrove channels to the sandbar that divides the river from the Arabian Sea. Stay for sunset over the water.

Note on the harbour: This is a working harbour. Keep clear of crews carrying catch, ask before close portraits, and follow your guide's lead on where to stand.

The Human Story

Vizhinjam has been a fishing and trading port for centuries. The men who land the catch at dawn have often been at sea all night. Your guide knows many of the crews, and a short conversation before the camera comes out makes all the difference.

Experience of the Day

• Boats landing the catch at dawn

• The fish auction on the quay

• Mangrove boat ride at Poovar

• Sunset where the river meets the sea

Photographer's Notes

• Light: First light at the harbour; golden hour on the Poovar sandbar.

• Vantage: The harbour quay; the boat in the mangroves; the sandbar looking west.

• Lens: 24-70 mm at the harbour; 70-200 mm for details of hands, nets and fish.

Food

Recommended: Lunch at your hotel or a Kovalam café.

Must-Try: Kerala prawn curry with red rice.

Activities to Do

• Vizhinjam harbour at dawn

• Poovar estuary boat

• Sunset on the sandbar

Optional Nearby Excursions

• Varkala's red laterite cliffs, about 50 km north, for a late-afternoon cliff-top sunset (quoted separately)

Route: Kovalam to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (TRV), about 15 km

A last morning on the beach, or a final walk to the lighthouse, depending on your flight time. Your driver takes you to Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Experience of the Day

• Free morning

• Airport drop

Photographer's Notes

• Light: A last sunrise from the beach if your flight allows.

• Gear: Back up your cards before you fly.

Food

Recommended: Breakfast at your hotel.

Must-Try: Puttu and kadala curry, a Kerala breakfast.

Activities to Do

• Airport transfer