Kadamakkudy Islands

Fourteen backwater islands, fifteen kilometres from the city, laced with pokkali paddy fields, water channels and village lanes that go nowhere in particular. Drone photographs (and a post by Anand Mahindra) turned this into Kochi's favourite sunset drive, though it still looks like somewhere people simply live. Come by scooter or car toward Pizhala and stop wherever the fields open up, or take a country-boat ride through the channels. October to April is the window, and golden hour over flooded paddies is what everyone is here for.

Flooded paddy fields catching the last light, twenty minutes out of town