Kerala, India, Part 3.

It was only about 140 km from Kumarakom, but 5 hours later we arrived at Munnar, in the heart of tea country. The Tea County Resort was very comfortable but the succession of curries on the buffet menu at night a bit hard to take - fortunately there was enough to choose from the menu.

Part 3, Tea country in the Western Ghats.

Munnar is a relatively small town at an altitude of around 1,800m (6,000 feet) and quite cool and much drier than the coast of course.

Munnar

It was the middle of November when we were here, there was plenty of cloud and heavy rain showers. The monsoon had eased off but was still lingering around in Tamil Nadu on the other side of the Western Ghats.

Local market

Travelling in India is easy to organise. Make sure you arrange a transfer from the airport to your first hotel, or you can haggle with the multitude of drivers outside the arrivals hall. The hotels can arrange a driver to show you all the sites and transfer you to your next destination if it is not too far away. We had the same driver at Munnar for three days including the trip down to Kochin. Prices are quite reasonable and seem to be set by the local government and advertised at the local bus/ taxi station.

Heading out of Munnar towards Top Station (shrouded in clouds unfortunately) we passed through the tea plantations and several "tourist spots"

Tata tea estate.

Most of the workers live on the estate in company provided housing. The flat land on the valley floor is a huge market garden. We went down into one of the housing blocks after this photo was taken.

Camellia sinensis - the tea bush

Tea plantation



Tea picking in progress.

The green shoots are harvested every 10 - 20 days by armies of women working the steep hillsides. The fresh shoots are sometimes plucked by hand but now most of the harvest is now done using shears like you would cut a hedge with.

A cheerful estate worker who posed obligingly.



Another hard at work.

These women have to pick / cut 25 kg of leaf per day in order to get a pay of 120 rupees. This is equivalent to around $NZD3.40! Slave labour you might think - if they got a decent wage, we would all complain about the price of tea! However the tea companies, like Tata do provide free housing, health care and I think the fruit and vegies grown nearby are supplied free of charge. We were taken to one housing estate where everyone seemed very happy with their lot - probably because they knew no better.

Front doors to row of around 6 houses.



Running water and the "sink" to wash the dishes,
using charcoal to clean the pots.

A westerner in the kitchen!

A dam "tourist spot"

On the way back down to Munnar the driver stops at a couple of dams. The locals flock there to sample the delights of various fruits, spices, drinks and the tackiest souvenirs you could wish for! Needless to say we didn't buy anything as we had a full time job watching where each foot was placed in amongst ..... well everything that would go in a rubbish bin or down a toilet; which were conspicuously absent.

Munnar schools boys parading their trophy. What is for I have no idea.

No stay in Kerala would be complete without a night of local culture!



A traditional face painting job and head gear.



Facial gestures mean something as well as the hand positions.

After 3 nights in Munnar it was time to move on to Kochin. We only had a few hours there but checked into the Reds Residency Homestay for a few hours, 750 rupees - cheap but very nice.

Kochin was and maybe still is an important port city. It has been variously occupied or controlled by the Portuguese followed by the Dutch, who built the fort and then the English who eased them out until independence.


St Francis Church, Kochin

 Vasco de Gama was buried in the church yard here in 1524 but his mortal remains were exhumbed and transferred to Portugal in 1539.


Kochin rainbow

(Canon 450D, EF-S 10-22mm lens at 10mm. f/4, 1/40s, ISO-200.
0 exposure bias.)



Kochin sunset

(Canon 450D, EF-S 17-85mm lens at 61mm. f/5.6, 1/15s, ISO-800. -1⅔ exposure bias. For sunset photos, play with the exposure bias down to -2 f stops, the results are amazing. For this one I rested the camera on a rail to help improve the sharpness even though the image stabilization was on. A good result I think.)

As the sun set on this day it was time to head back for a short sleep before heading to the airport just after midnight to catch the plane back to Abu Dhabi.

Where to next? Wait and see. There are 2 weeks holiday starting on 17 December.

Kerala, India, Part 2

Leaving the lovely beach resort of Tavancore, it was a long slow trip of about 120km to the shores of Lake Vembanad near Kumarakom. This lake rose to prominence as the main transport route of rice to the port of Kochin about 100 km from the end of the lake. Rice boats still ply their way lazily along the backwaters, now mainly involved in the tourist trade.

(Check on the blog archive, November 2010 for Part 1.)

Part 2: Kumarakom, Rice boat country.

Arriving after a hot humid trip from the beach at Kovalam, it was time to check in to our resort on the shores of Lake Vembanad.



Waterscapes Resort.
A rather tired 3 star resort but perfectly clean, comfortable 
and in a wonderful setting.

Rice boats on Lake Vembanad

Being on the lake edge there was plenty of boats plying back and forward all day and night. The next morning we went for an explore with the camera and found a number of different species of dragon fly. The photos below are all centre crops from the images taken by my Canon 450D.


Dragon fly 1, Canon EF-S 55-250mm at 250mm, f/6.3, 1/100s, ISO-200

Dragon fly 2, Canon EF-S 55-250mm at 250mm, f/8, 1/160s, ISO-200

Dragon fly 3, Canon EF-S 55-250mm at 250mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, ISO-400



Dragon fly 4, Canon EF-S 55-250mm at 250mm, f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO-400

This is the closest we got to any wild life in India in their natural habitat. We did see elephants but they were working and lumbering along the road with heavy chains around their legs and feet. There were a few birds around as well but we were there at the wrong time of the year to see those that migrate and rest on the backwaters around the lake.


Rice boat tours right up to the hotel

 A water hyacinth, which apparently came from Thailand is slowly spreading through the lake and will eventually choke off the lively-hood of local villagers who rely on fishing. The rice boats have to stop when they reverse and clear the weed from around the rudder and propeller.

One way of controlling the hyacinth is to open the gates (the lake is at sea level) and let salt water infiltrate. The hyacinth doesn't like salt, but this only has a limited effect near the outlet. Huge quantities of freshwater pour in during the monsoon to complicate things as well. There is talk of a spraying campaign as a last resort. An ecological disaster already in the making, what damage will spraying do?


You can stay overnight on these.

A rice boat tour is the thing to do in this part of India. We opted for a four hour tour but the last two hours were out in the lake and as result didn't see too much. A two hour trip would do.

One of the backwaters



Typical backwater scene. Hundreds of kilometres like this.



Backwater taxi.



Backwater transport

No electric washing machines here.

Threshing rice

Chinese fishing nets. Not in use because of the weed choking the lake.



Kerala dancer.

Back from out lake cruise we were entertained before dinner by some Kerala dancing.  Not understanding Indian music and the use of hands to express feelings during the dance, the show didn't do much for me - been there, seen that .........

Two nights at Kumarakom and it was time to move on.

When planning this trip we had heard about the Periyer Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve. We meet up with several people who had been there and seen no animals at all, a few birds and as far as tigers are concerned, there are some but very elusive. I am pleased we decided not to stop there on the way as the next trip was 5 hours and 140 km with hardly any stops.

Next stop was tea country around Munnar in the Western Ghats.

India, Part 3: Munnar, Tea country

Kerala, India. Part 1

The second Eid holiday saw an opportunity to go across to Trivandrum (or Thiruvanathapuram if you can get your tongue around that), southern India and travel up to Kumarakom and into the tea country of Munnar before heading back down to the coast at Kochin to fly back to Abu Dhabi.



A crowded street in Trivandrum

Part 1: Fishing Kerala style.

Flying into Trivandrum and its rather antiquated airport early in the morning we were fortunately greeted by our pick up driver to take us the short distance down the coast to Kovalam where we checked into a rather nice resort at 5.00 am!



The Travancore Heritage Resort - we highly recommend it.

After a few hours sleep it was time to explore and head off down to the beach.



The view from the balcony.



Kerala beach with net hauling in progress.



Loading the net before heading off about 300 metres from shore
and 300m along.

The actual fishing operation is relatively simple. 6 paddlers and several others head off out to sea paying out the rope at one end of the net. After the net has been floated off the boat heads back to shore a few hundred metres from where it started. Both ropes are then slowly hauled in and the net and catch taken up onto the beach as the following photos show.



Taking the strain



Wonder how much they have caught?



Crows waiting for a free feed.



A coordinated approach to use the waves to get the catch ashore.



Removing fish caught up before the net is set again.



Sorting the catch.

The job of the women is to sort the fish and fill the containers and take the fish away. They also leave piles of fish out in the sand to dry as well.



The end of a 100% manual fishing process. Total people power involved! Sunday is a day of rest.

After a few days on the beach it was time to head up to Kumarakom, see part 2.  Not far but a 4 hour drive along crowded pot holed roads.