A JOURNEY TO INDIA:
Emma Clifton spends a whirlwind week with supermodel Rachel Hunter in India, where the temperature soars, the food delights and a trip to the Taj Mahal at sunrise feels like a beautiful dream.
history meets a heatwave
The late, great UK travel writer AA Gill once said that India was such a polarising location to visit that it was best to lie and say you were going somewhere else, because people would immediately bombard you with warnings about all the bad things that would befall you: illness, scams, filth, rubbish, heat. And it’s not that those things don’t exist, but they exist alongside a whole bunch of magic as well. India is a lot to take in – it is the best and worst of humanity. It requires patience, generosity and a good sense of humour. If you can practise all three as best you can, you will be rewarded greatly by some of the most beautiful sights the world has to offer. Recently, The Australian Women’s Weekly was in Rajasthan for a whirlwind week – the temperature hit 47˚C and daily life seemed to grind to a sticky, sweaty halt, just as we were
running around trying to pull off a cover shoot with Kiwi icon Rachel Hunter on an intense schedule. Mad dogs and magazine people go out in the midday sun.
Full bellies in Delhi
Before the week of the cover shoot began, the Kiwi contingent of three had one weekend to do a whirlaround trip through Delhi. Because we a) had very limited time, and b) knew next to nothing about India, we decide to try out Airbnb Experiences, which are tours and activities hosted by locals. We opt for a food tour, run by two 20-somethings Sarthak and Sonal, and we know we’re in for a treat when Sarthak texts an hour before we meet, warning us to arrive with very empty stomachs.
A seven-stop Indian food tour sounds like heaven – with one caveat that it’s already a breezy (!) 42˚C as we get started. But you can be sure we represented our country well. Our first meal was chhole bhature, a Punjabi dish typically served for breakfast, which combines a mix of spicy chickpeas served with fried bread and a glass of badam milk, a spiced saffron and almond drink the colour of sunshine. Despite the fact that it is so hot that sitting down on the metal benches elicits an almost audible sizzle from my thighs, my first foray into Delhi food is just fantastic. And it continues to be so – the next meal is raj kachori, which is a delectable mix of unlikely ingredients. A puffed-up sphere made from lentils is stuffed with spicy chickpeas and vegetables, then smothered with yoghurt, about five different chutneys and pomegranate seeds. It’s rich and spicy and yet blessingly, blessingly chilled.
Next is a plate of chicken tandoori momos: small, succulent bits of bite-sized crumbed and fried chicken, covered in spices and herbs and served with one minty sauce and one chilli sauce. Given that I’m so hot it feels as if my soul is starting to melt, I skip the latter. Then it’s time for the full curry lunch. I mean… you’re getting your money’s worth, is what I’m saying. After lunch, and in preparation for dessert (send help), we roll ourselves around a nearby park, trying to linger in the shady parts as long as possible, until Sonal makes a comment about snakes.
I, a naive New Zealander, laugh at this obvious joke – “You don’t have snakes in India, right?” – until it becomes clear that actually, I am very naive. Turns out there are 36 types of snakes found in Delhi, but don’t worry, only four of those species are venomous. I quickly leave the shade.
Life-saving cold marble
Given our limited time in Delhi, we’ve taken a break from hotels to stay in a small, super-arty Airbnb in the quirky area of Hauz Khas. Run by Nalini, a local fashion designer, it is a two-level apartment filled with antique
treasures and is right next to a leafy park including a 13th century tomb. It also had – and this was perhaps its most important feature – an incredible powerhouse air conditioning unit, which meant I got to do my absolute favourite activity in India during a heatwave: take off all my clothes and lie on the cold marble floor with the aircon blasting over me. Being in a car-free zone in the city, it also meant a quiet night away from the constant bustle that fills the streets of India 24/7.
The house that love built
For our tiny travelling trio, the most audacious day trip involves a six-hour return car ride starting off in the wee hours of the morning: 2am. Two hours into our trip we stop on the side of the road for a masala chai – the mainstay beverage that keeps roughly 1.3 billion Indians going. It’s milky and spicy – notes of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg; it’s Christmas in a mug.
The roadside set-up is absolutely bustling with locals – kids, adults, grandparents… there’s music playing over a loud speaker and it has a kind of neighbourhood barbecue feel to it, only it’s 4am and the side of the road. We pile back into the car and drive for another hour and a half in the pitch black. At around 5am, the morning light starts to creep in around the edges and soon we are all awake and silent as we make our way to the entrance of the sprawling scenic area that includes the grand Taj Mahal. Because it’s just after 6am, there is hardly anyone else around and we walk straight through empty chained areas, meant to keep the usual horde of tourists in line.
Eventually we walk into an immaculately maintained garden before we catch a glimpse of the curved dome of the Taj from over the roof of another building. The entire situation feels, to the jet-lagged three of us, like a mirage. As one of the
Eight Wonders of the World, it is as well-known as landmarks get and yet to see it in person is truly overwhelming. In the early morning light, the marble structure shimmers in the sun. The difference between three awe-struck Kiwis, blinking in disbelief at the base of this amazing work of art, and our deadpan driver, is very funny. He estimates he has been to the Taj Mahal about 60 times as a tourist guide. Which means he knows exactly where to stand to get the perfect photo. “Stand here for the symmetrical shot with the water… stand here for the ‘Diana’ pose.”
After we have taken our requisite photos, we move towards the masterpiece itself. The Taj Mahal was built in the 1600s as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan, who died in childbirth. It is filled with beautiful Islamic design details – soaring arches and minarets, passages from the holy book of the Koran written in calligraphy on the outside of it. Intricate flowers, made of semi-precious stones, are inlaid into the marble and as the sunlight hits them, they twinkle. “A vision, a dream, a poem, a wonder,” is just one of the many ways the Taj has been referred to over the years and, by God, it’s an understatement. It feels like a miracle that it exists at all.
“In the early morning light, the marble structure shimmers in the sun. ”
A palace!
India is not short of impossibly beautiful locations and the next one, Tijara Fort Palace, is located two to three hours out of Delhi. Traffic flow, as you would imagine, is an unpredictable beast in a country of billions.
Perched on the top of a hill, this 19th century fort sits in the middle of an unpopulated area and looks like something out of a movie as it appears in the distance. This isn’t an exaggeration – once we arrive, we find out that a movie is actually being filmed there and there’s a beautiful moment where the movie cast, all in full traditional Indian costume, meet our small team of Kiwis, plus our fantastic guide Anshul Gupta and, of course, Rachel Hunter.
We are also lucky enough to meet Aman Nath, who is the brains behind the renovation of the heritage fort.
As a mega-star hotelier, author and general A-lister, Aman is famous in India for being the foremost expert in restoring the crumbling ruins of past Indian splendour and yet low-key enough to literally lend us the shirt off his back to use in our cover shoot later on. He invited us all to lunch
(the perks of travelling with a famous supermodel are consistently excellent, I’ll be honest) and we sit in a gloriously air conditioned lunch room and are treated to the kind of feast that you dream about when you know you’re travelling to India. Piping hot dish after piping hot dish of exquisite curries, both vegetarian and meateater friendly, piles of fresh vegetables and then masses of different spice pastes and sauces to pick from. For someone who has loved the western interpretation of Indian cooking all her life, it is truly the most extraordinary experience to be eating the actual food, cooked in actual
India, sitting high on a hill surrounded by some of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen.
The fact that Aman is also deeply handsome and speaks in the kind of calm, wise manner that makes you feel as if everything is going to be okay also doesn’t hurt. During our 24 hours in the fort for the photo shoot, we are given the run of the place, and like a gang of over-excited children, take to every corner of the palace to shoot our very beautiful cover star.
We start in the evening, up in a turret – yes, an actual turret, living out the princess dreams of our childhoods. We have a sweeping view of the land around us and as the light fades, the fairy lights that line the silhouettes of each of the buildings start glowing. It
The Tijara Fort Palace was a beautiful backdrop for the Rachel Hunter shoot – it’s been painstakingly restored.
is total magic, another pinch-me moment in a country that is filled with them.
To top it off…
The final perk of travelling with a supermodel means we are upgraded on our Cathay Pacific flights home. When the lovely lady behind the counter tells our sweaty, tired team this, it is hard to keep a lid on our enthusiasm and I can’t help but tell her I love her (she takes it well). As someone used to travelling economy for my entire life (and for the future to come), experiencing a whitecloth meal and a lie-down seat, drinking champagne with a cheese platter as a pre-dinner snack is… part of the fairy tale. Name me another time in your life when you can eat freshly cooked lobster while watching a Friends marathon and then have an eight-hour nap surrounded by other people. In the Hong Kong Cathay Pacific lounge, The Pier, in between napping on the day bed and moving my sleepy body between the noodle restaurant and the tea house, I decide to pay one final tribute to the “namaste” nature of our fever dream trip by sitting in the lounge’s yoga sanctuary and doing a guided meditation, because why wouldn’t you? In that jet-lagged state of fug, it feels like a perfectly normal and bonkers thing to do.
The bustling nature of Hong Kong airport seems like nothing in comparison to the straight-up insanity of a typical street in Delhi. I’m not the first traveller to tell you India isn’t for the faint-hearted. But it should be a required life experience for everyone, simply because it is like nowhere else in the world. During our lunch at Tijara Fort, Aman said: “In one day, you can see the very worst of the world and then the very best of the world.” This is true – India is half magic, half madness. But to go through life without ever going there? That would be the biggest mistake of all. Rajasthan is a once in a lifetime trip for any kind of traveller – just know that, sadly, the supermodel usually comes separately.