Vivid Photography: March 2010

Up in the much cooler Western Ghat mountains

Impressions of India - 4:

I’m currently travelling for 3 months in India, from Goa to Kerala and then Rajasthan, with a pretty hot and hectic schedule of boutique hotel reviews. The galleries below are my online photojournalist diary of scenes caught, people met and things found along the way. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did and am still.

Up in the much cooler Western Ghat mountains:

Sunset above Munnar, where the views are breathtaking.

Wild elephants live in the Western Ghat hills, though you’ll be lucky to spot them. Here’s proof that one passed by not that long ago.

A cardammom plantation, high in the hills above Munnar, reached by a car-wrecking hairpin road.

Unfortunately cardammom pods grow right at the base of the plant, next to the ground.

This apparently tends to mean terrible arthritis and bent bones for cardammom pickers after the age of about 30.

The tea plantations stretch up and down the rolling hillsides, as far as the eye can see. I never knew they were such a vivid green, though it was hard to capture on camera given the harsh light. Nor that, thanks to their careful plucking every 15-18 days, they look so wonderfully velvety from a distance.

This is the new growth of the bush the pickers pluck.

Most come from Tamil Nadu, where the minimum wage is 150 rupees (about 2 British pounds) a day. In Kerala, the minimum day wage is 300 rupees.

The mountain sun is very bright and strong from around 10am to 4pm, meaning most wear headscarves and have sun-blackened faces. Almost all tea and cardammom pickers are women, thanks to their more delicate hands.

They have ready smiles and pick deftly through the narrow channels, with large sacks hanging from their heads, shoulders or draped on the bushes

And, down in a little open-fronted convenience shop in Munnar, I met this joyful lady and her son, just 2 of the many strikingly beautful, happy Indians I’ve seen.

Next post: A Walk on the Wild Side

Animal-spotting in Periyar Nature Reserve, monkey-watching in Thekaddy, and playing with bright-eyed children in the fishing village at Mararikulam beach.

On the night train to Cochin, coach class

Impressions of India - 3:

I’m currently travelling for 3 months in India, from Goa to Kerala and then Rajasthan, with a pretty hot and hectic schedule of boutique hotel reviews. The galleries below are my online photojournalist diary of scenes caught, people met and things found along the way. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I did and am still.

On the night-train to Cochin, coach class:

Getting on the 9.30pm train, braced for crowds, I found my reserved seat was in this front 8-berth section of the very first carriage, completely empty.

I was mostly alone, though a few people quietly came and went during the night. I also might have slept straight through had it not been for a chai-wallah shouting 'offee offee offee offee OFFEEE!' at 3 in the morning. Tiny things were biting, the diesel and nearby toilet did not smell good, and the metal screeches were often deafening. But it felt like my second little Indian adventure and the rollocking motion rocked me to sleep.

With the dawn came the chai-wallahs, all having little breaks before turning round and doing another breakfast sweep through the train.

As it was still early, the platforms were pretty empty.

My lower berth looked a lot prettier in daylight than under nighttime neon. The backrest cleverly lifts up, on thick chains, to become the middle bed, and there's a third bunk above.

And this is the lovely Bhowani, an 8-10 year old who came through the train begging with her worn-down, harmonium-playing father. When she skipped back into my carriage on her own, as if to keep me company and no longer flinty-eyed or demanding, we briefly became sign-and-eye-language friends and, when we got to Cochin, I was sad to see her go.

Fort Cochin’s line of Chinese fishing nets are huge and graceful, and a famous sunset-watching draw. However, given that they’re a catch-all mechanism which also kills dolphins, they should probably be kept just for beauty and not for use from now on.

The police car pound, under big old banyan trees which are clearly home to many birds.

An afternoon on the waterfront.

Next post:

Up in the cooler Western Ghat mountains, with their stunning views and endless tea and spice plantations.

Just a night and a day on pretty Palolem Beach

Impressions of India - 2:

Just a night and a day on pretty Palolem beach:

This seemed wonderfully Indian – possible, like a cheap room, but don’t count on it.

Palolem Beach is famous and popular as a chilled-out tourist destination, and its picturesque crescent looks just beautiful when almost empty and seen in the rapidly-changing, soft dawn light.