Journey 03 · India
Home Water
The backwaters, off season
Published 24 Jul 2026 · Travelled 2–5 Jul 2026
- 7 moments
- 4 days
- 80 km
- Summer
- India
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/1000
- 9.9658° N, 76.2420° E
- Chinese fishing nets, Fort Kochi
- 18:40
- 28°C, humid, sun through haze
I grew up twenty minutes from these and had never once made a picture of them. Off season there are no tour buses, and the men working the counterweights were not performing for anyone. One of them shouted something at me that I couldn't hear over the water and then waved, so I assume it was fine.
- 23mm · f/2 · 1/125
- 9.9635° N, 76.2428° E
- Bazaar Road, Mattancherry
- 06:40
Off Bazaar Road there is a place with four tables and no name on it that starts serving at six. Dosa, three chutneys, sambar, on a steel tray that has been washed so many times it has gone soft at the edges. My aunt ordered for both of us without asking me.
the coconut chutney is the point, everyone knows this
- 23mm · f/1.4 · 1/60
- 9.9662° N, 76.2437° E
- Fort Kochi
- 19:15
The makeup takes longer than the performance and they let you sit and watch it happen, which is the better half. By the time he stood up he had stopped being a man in a room. It is a hard thing to photograph without making it look like a costume, and I am not sure I managed it.
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/500
- 9.4981° N, 76.3388° E
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/500
- 9.4981° N, 76.3388° E
- Kainakary, Kuttanad
- 15:20
- 30°C, hot, building cloud
The wide water is for houseboats. The interesting part is when you turn off it and the channel narrows until the palms meet overhead and you can hear people talking in their kitchens on both banks. We swapped to a canoe at Kainakary. The second picture is just what it looks like from the front of the boat, which is most of what I remember.
Overheard · Champakulam · 16:50
"Is she from here?" — "She says Ernakulam." — "Then why is she taking a photograph of a canal?" I have no good answer. I have been asking myself that for four days.
- 23mm · f/2.8 · 1/125
- 9.5150° N, 76.3480° E
- Punnamada Lake
- 18:55
- 27°C, rain stopped, still air
It rained for most of the three days, which is the whole point of coming in July but does not make it easier. Then on the second evening it simply stopped, the water went flat, and every palm on the far bank got a second one underneath it. I had about twenty minutes.
- Vembanad Lake
- 18:30
- 29°C, clear at last
- Last frame
The last crossing, into a sun the colour of a hot coal, with a houseboat coming the other way and the man at the wheel of ours not slowing down for anything. I have looked at this water my whole life. This is the first time I have brought anything home from it.
- 23mm · f/11 · 1/2000
- 9.6000° N, 76.4000° E
The route
7 stops
Journey completed
Four days, seven stories
- Distance walked
- 14 km
- Frames exposed
- 610
- Rain, hours of
- 31
- Cups of tea
- 19
- Favourite moment
- Sitting in the front of the canoe with the camera in a plastic bag
- Best food
- A dosa at 6:40 in the morning off Bazaar Road, on a steel tray, for forty rupees
