Unforgettable India: beauty, chaos and a trip to hospital in a tuk tuk

I’d never been more relieved to see a nun, which is surprising for someone leaning towards agnostic on the religious spectrum.

But when you’re suddenly very unwell in a developing country, the sight of a Catholic hospital with serene-looking nuns in habits floating through the grounds makes you want to kiss the earth in gratitude.

I recently went on a holiday to India with one of my oldest and dearest friends. I’ve had a fascination with India for years, since first reading The Namesake, a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. It remains one of my all-time favourite books and set off a curiosity about Indian culture, and, more generally, the friction people feel when they’re from one country but living in another.

So off we went to India, to stand before the Taj Mahal and experience all the colour and chaos of a country with 1.4 billion people.

The trip was going beautifully. Debbie and I were on a 17-day tour with a fabulous group of people and we’d covered a lot of territory – from the famed Golden Triangle in the north to the Arabian Sea and tea plantations in the south.

And then, illness struck. Not the dreaded Delhi belly, which we’d done a good job of avoiding, but a nasty chest infection that knocked me off my feet, exacerbated by the poor air quality and less than ideal ventilation in our accommodation.

It’s a scary feeling to be sick so far from home in a country with poor infrastructure and questionable healthcare. With five days left of the tour, and then a long journey home, I knew I needed to find a doctor pronto.

Catching a tuk tuk to hospital was not on my travel bucket list, but the St Augustine Hospital in Kerala was a welcome sight.

As my driver climbed the hill and rounded the corner to the main entrance, I could have cried with relief. A proper hospital with actual nuns. Maybe I wasn’t going to quietly die of sepsis on a tour bus.

St Augustine’s was adorably quaint, like something from a TV show set in the 1950s. But the doctors and nurses were the real deal, and they did their jobs calmly and efficiently, smiling politely at the strange blonde woman who wouldn’t stop coughing.

By the time I left, I’d been assessed, given airway nebulisers, and was armed with a bunch of medications, prepared and wrapped in a piece of newspaper by the sweetest pharmacists in the world. Total cost: about $13.

As an ICU nurse, it was an interesting exercise to see healthcare in action in another country – the equipment, how people worked, how they dressed. It lacked Australia’s modern technology, but it was clear that they’re trained just the same.

The thing that most struck me during our time in India was the contradictions.

Total chaos on the roads, but no road rage. Beautiful women in stunning silks, but impoverished mothers with babies begging on the streets. A culinary paradise, but palpable poverty. Breathtaking monuments, but rudimentary housing.

Even the Taj Mahal, one of the great wonders of the world, is its own contradiction. It was commissioned by a heartbroken emperor in 1632 to honour his late wife and was so grand in scale that it took 22 years and 20,000 workers to build.

But the subtext to this epic romantic gesture is that she died at the age of 38 giving birth to their 14th child. And she wasn’t his only wife, she was his favourite wife. So this magnificent marble mausoleum is also a symbol of women’s servitude and suffering.

Our tour guide, Nadim, was an Indian man deeply proud of and loyal to his country. He held a Masters degree in tourism and spoke five languages and yet, in another contradiction, the tip we were expected to pay for his service was less than $5 a day.

He spoke beautifully of family, religion, history and progress in his beloved “incredible India”.

Whenever he needed to round us all up, he’d put up his hand and yell “Aussie Aussie Aussie!” in a thick Indian accent to get our attention. It was funny and effective.

We just adored him and his stories about his new wife through an arranged marriage, and his brothers and sisters and parents, all waiting for him to return home from another tour.

He’s away a lot during the busy tourist season, before the heat and monsoon wash away his income as a tour guide and he works on the family farm instead. It’s unthinkable for Nadim not to live with and support his family, or to marry the person his parents have chosen.

“In India, we respect our parents. They are the guiding light of our family. It’s not a law, it’s respect, it’s a custom,” he said.

“Our families are very connected and we become the backbone for each, we rely on each other and help each other. My family is my social security.

“I’m a very proud Indian. I love India, this is my first love, this is my mother land.”

TRAVEL TIPS:

• As first-time travellers to India, we chose to do a tour. It’s an intense country and not easy to get around, but with a local tour guide and bus driver, we were safe, comfortable enough, and got to see and do a lot. We could focus on soaking it all in while the experts managed the logistics. This was our tour: 2 for 1 Heritage India | Tour Package | TripADeal
• You don’t need to be super fit, but you do need good mobility to navigate busy train stations, getting on and off buses and tuk tuks, lots of stairs and uneven terrain. Having said that, most of the people on our tour were in their 50s, 60s and 70s and the eldest was 81. They were an inspiration and testament to the saying “use it or lose it”.
• We didn’t need any special clothing or head scarves. The only place that required full coverage was a mosque in Delhi and everyone was provided with a robe on admission.
• The toilet situation. The sanitation standards are obviously not what we have in Australia, and we gave some facilities a hard pass. But our tour guide gave us ample opportunity to use adequate bathrooms and plenty of warning about what to expect everywhere we went. Toilet paper is in short supply though, so you need a stack of tissues in your day pack and hand sanitiser everywhere you go. But it’s really that simple – tissues and hand sanitiser and you’re set.
• A visit to your GP well in advance is essential to update your vaccinations and get any prescription that you’ll need, including malaria tablets. In hindsight, I should have taken broad-spectrum antibiotics and I wouldn’t have been so worried about being sick.
• Other traveller essentials: analgesia such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, cold and flu tablets, throat gargle, electrolytes in case of gastro, insect repellent, sunscreen, wet wipes, masks for high-density areas, tissues and hand sanitiser.
• It’s best to pack light and leave plenty of space in your luggage for shopping. You might get plied with rum and sucked into making expensive purchases (looking at you Vernon). Plus, the silks and pashminas are irresistible.
• You can use regular credit cards, but it makes life easier to arrive with some local currency. Cash is still preferred and tipping is necessary. We ordered Indian Rupee through Travelex, for pickup at the post office before we left. Currency Exchange & Travel Card at Great Rates | Travelex
• Travel insurance with unlimited medical cover is obviously essential for your safety and peace of mind. We got Covermore’s International Comprehensive insurance. It was less than $200 and the app helps you find pharmacies and hospitals. Travel Insurance Quote – Get Cover in Minutes | Cover-More Australia
• One of our travel buddies had something that I’m planning to buy: a compact, pegless washing line that suctions onto any sized space. You can wash clothes in your room and hang them up properly to dry quickly. We didn’t see a washing machine or dryer, so this would have been handy.
• India is not easy or luxury travel, but the Taj Mahal alone is worth the effort. It’s absolutely mesmerising. To be fully immersed in such as a different country and culture is a truly unique experience – watching artisans make rugs and fabrics, visiting ancient temples and forts, walking through bustling bazaars, the frenzy of Delhi and the peace of spice plantations, an Arabian Sea sunset, masala tea and naan for breakfast. It really is Incredible India.