From India, with love

Bride writer Karen Heinrich and her husband Angus Fontaine went to India for their honeymoon. Karen shares the tale of how they fell in love with a country known for wearing its heart on its sleeve.

It was almost midnight when, fresh from a 14-hour flight from Sydney, Angus and I stumbled across an Indian wedding reception.

We checked into a New Delhi hotel that looked like a set from Arabian Nights and were welcomed into the wedding that had been on for hours, perhaps days. We wandered around the huge reception hall, our senses bedazzled by the hundreds of saris, the aromas wafting from the trays of delicious food and the sense of joyous celebration suffusing the sultry night air.

The wedding was the perfect introduction to this exotic land, because it showed us that Indians share happiness and sorrow with everyone they know – and even those they don’t.

Some western and Japanese tourists visit the world’s second most populous country just to see the weddings, toting their camcorders from celebration to celebration. But there was something higher on our must-see list - the Taj Mahal, one of the eight wonders of the world and arguably the greatest monument to love ever built.

Taj Mahal
Described as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of time’, the Taj Mahal was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1630, in tribute to his favourite wife (he had three), Mumtaz Mahal.

Before Mumtaz died giving birth to their 14th child, she requested three things of the emperor: for him not to marry again, to take good care of their children and that he build her a final resting place befitting their love.

Having read these tales on the four-hour drive from New Delhi, Angus and I were ready for something spectacular. But no matter how many pictures you’ve seen or stories you’ve heard, nothing prepares you for the first glimpse of the white-domed marble mausoleum that took 20,000 masons, craftsmen, sculptors and calligraphers 22 years to create.

On the water
Disembarking from a six-hour flight from New Delhi to Cochin in the southern state of Kerala – our noses buried in Shantaram, an Australian novel that’s part adventure story and part ode to India – Angus and I were ready for rest and relaxation.

We spent two nights at a heritage guesthouse in the laid-back town of Alappuzha before taking a houseboat cruise on the Keralan Backwaters, a 900km network of waterways that fringe the coast and wind far inland.

We arranged the cruise with Sunil, the owner of a boat designed like a kettuvallam (rice barge). Being low season, we struck a deal of 5000 INR (A$145) for two nights, which included all meals.

Barely two hours into our cruise, it was time for lunch. Salas, our chef, laid out two glossy green banana leaves and dished up authentic Keralan vegetarian and chicken curries, spiced blackfish and garlic chapatis he’d made from scratch.

Our houseboat had a double bedroom with a basic en suite, kitchen and living area replete with a double-sized day-bed at the bow of the boat. We spent many an hour on the day-bed, watching rural India drift by.

Each evening, about half an hour before sunset, Sunil would dock the boat so we could sit on the deck with a drink and watch the sun melt into the watery horizon. During the day, he steered it through shallow, palm-fringed lakes and along narrow canals studded with small villages. We watched and waved at people going about their daily chores – washing clothes, fishing and bathing.

We wandered around some of those villages, struck by the openness and friendliness of the locals. Indians are gentle, lovely people; the great majority of them are poor by western standards but rich in the things that matter. They seem to live by the Indian proverb that says: ‘A smile you send will always return.’

Fort Cochin
We spent the last three days of our honeymoon in Fort Cochin, home to the oldest church in India, a palace built by the Portuguese in 1555, and giant cantilevered Chinese fishing nets.

We stayed at another heritage guesthouse and spent our days wandering through the narrow streets of Mattancherry and Jew Town, and eating at the huts near the fishing nets where you can buy fresh seafood from the fishermen and have it cooked to order.

We also had traditional Ayurvedic massages. The lady at our guesthouse booked us in at a local clinic, far from the tourist trail, and we each experienced the sensation of being slathered with herbal oils while two masseuses work in tandem with each other for an hour.

Before heading to the airport, we watched a performance of Kathakali, a centuries-old form of ‘story play’ with elaborate costumes. With its music, colours, dancing and revelry, it was reminiscent of the wedding that marked our first hour in the country.

It is impossible to experience India without feeling moved by the love and spirituality that permeates the land and its people, just as cardamom and ginger permeate masala chai. As the early pages of Shantaram warn: 'Surrender is at the heart of the Indian experience.' And so that’s exactly what we did. It’s impossible not to.

FACT FILE
Visa: Six-month tourist visas for Australians cost $75. www.indianconsulatesydney.org
When to go: October to January is relatively cool and an ideal time to visit, but it's also high season – when crowds and prices increase. From February to May, it’s hot and steamy but not unmanageable. Avoid the monsoon rains that last from June to September.
Currency: A$1 = 34 INR (Indian rupees)
Flights: The 14-hour flight from Sydney and Melbourne to New Delhi costs from $1299, plus taxes of about $250.
Expenses: You can live as cheaply or as lavishly as you like in India, with hotels and restaurants catering to almost every budget. It’s safe to budget for about $50 per person per day for everything – accommodation, meals, entry fees to monuments, etc.
Before you go: Get immunised against tetanus, diptheria, polio, typhoid and hepatitis A.
Pack lightweight, modest, cotton clothing that covers your shoulders.
Reading: Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram – the story of an Australian man’s adventures in Bombay.
Websites: www.incredibleindia.org
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

Images courtesy of India Tourism