Arakkakudi Kulam(V)

• Thomas Paine.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Sorry for being absent from flickr for a while, due to some unforeseen complications at work I was forced to take a quick trip back to India. Even though I had plans for extensive photo trips across the country, reality intervened and I had to settle for just one trip.

This is a pano shot I made at Munnar, which translates to three rivers, is a popular hill station in the south western state of Kerala. Its known for tea and spices like cardamom and is also home of the tallest peak in India outside of the Himalayas. This shot was taken close to sunset when the setting sun gave the thick fog a tobacco glow. Thanks for visiting hope everyone likes the shot..

Tea Plant Garden in Kannan Devan Hills near Western Ghats, Taxi Journey from Munnar to Coimbatore, Munnar, Kerala, India

• Jim Rohn.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

The wonderful Kannan Devan hills of Munnar, Kerala. These are the tea plantations which the western Ghats of India are famous for. Even though this area is close to the Equator and generally have a tropical climate the hills tend to be cool and crisp because of the altitude. This makes the hills stations of Kerala a hot spot of tourist activity as warm tropical beaches are only about 70 miles away.

Hope you all like this shot, thanks for visiting..

Tea Plant Garden, Top Station Taxi Trip, Munnar, Kerala, India

• Georgia O'Keeffe.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshots |

Its been a while since I posted an image from my home state of Kerala. During our last trip, I went and visited a nearby town famous for their tea plantations. The name of the town is Munnar, and in the past couple of decades, it has transformed from a sleepy little village in the mountains to a thriving holiday destination. Unfortunately, this is not a story of mindful development, but commercialism running amok destroying a lot of the pristine nature around the area. I had to drive a bit away from the popular tourist spot to find a scene untouched by huge billboards, random “tourist resorts,” motels, restaurants that seems to pop up everywhere.

The tea plantations and the fog seems to confuse the auto white balance on the D800. I had to do quite a bit of finagling to get the white balance accurate. I visited during the off-season, and usually, you only get a few hours of clear view a day before fog rolls in and blocks everything. The fog here is quite extraordinary, its so thick you will not see another person standing six feet away from you. The local name for the fog is kodamanju, and it is romanticized quite a lot in our literature. While it’s challenging, I think the offseason reveals the true beauty of the mountains. The layers of rolling hills and mountains play nicely with the fog. Plus, the tea picking is slow during the off-season, allowing us to see the light green foliage, which is not the case during peak tea picking season.

• Robert Smithson.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Another face of Munnar, these are the valley villages where the tea plantation workers live. Often under horrible conditions, called "layams". It's no wonder the word is also used to call horse stables, only recently did these workers got their due increase in salaries. After strikes by women who work these tea plantations which bought Munnar to a standstill as they fought both the managements and the political readers who claim to represent them.

More details can be found here 'http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/munnar-tea-estate-workers-end-nine-day-long-agitation/".