Don’t go to India simply to have a look. Switzerland is better for that. In India, dive right in.

Leave behind your notion of how things ought to work. India calls for heart travel, not head. In India — experience and accept.

Sightseeing’s abundant and spectacular, gloriously colorful and teeming with people steeped in stories far grander than the tales I’ve been taught.

It’s all holy.

“Show me anything in India which isn’t sacred,” epic storyteller Sanjay challenged my first morning of a two-week exploration of South India.

Coast-to-coast was my physical route in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, from the Bay of Bengal to the Indian Ocean and on to the Arabian Sea. Crossing the Western Ghat Mountains too, a breathtaking ride on steep, narrow switchbacks.

Crossing from this world to the next, or a previous one, was my emotional route. Monuments, temples, altars on sidewalks, sculpture, festivals, candles, carvings in rock all abound at every turn, each holding faith-journey promises for somebody.

In India, people expect to find enlightenment a little bit along, all day long. Helps to have that frame of reference when you go.

Impossible to recall the grand epics heard everywhere, but I figured out early on that everybody is venerating the many gods and goddesses, expecting inspiration and life lessons.

Listening in India is fantastic: incantations and instruments in the worship places plus in your inner ear once you learn that demons speak rudely, humans politely and the gods in poetry.

I had to know and accept local truth like that to really experience India. Otherwise cows on the sidewalk, fingers not forks to eat lunch, barefoot in the temples, elephants giving blessings and constant hustle and bustle might have been off-putting.

“If the silence is not in you, you will not find it,” Sanjay taught. Seems if you grow up in India, you learn how to have it inside. I saw plenty of people in focused prayer or meditation, sitting or standing, solo or with family, in the midst of huge throngs in every temple I visited.

American me felt distracted. Kept looking every which way, following sound and light, color and motion. Indians focused.

Worship in South India is not Sunday 11:00 a.m. American style. It’s all the

time, any time. Visit a temple, see worship, participate. Always.

Places of worship here have many spaces—hallways, big rooms, little rooms, sections within rooms. Always in India, many options.

However, don’t count on entering every temple’s inner sanctum. Some are Hindu only. That’s because a sacred vibration occurs through those with the faith, and those without might break the energy.



Colors are as remarkable as the energy and the silence. Sometimes temples and their art are bold primary colors and sometimes pastels. For certain every inch contains a carving, a symbol, the potential for deep meaning to the beholder. This isn’t about worshiping a carving or epic tale but rather about believing opportunity exists for inspiration and enlightenment.

When I got it—this opportunity for inspiration means me too—I transformed from sightseeing to simply being, from watching to participating. More present in the moment than planning my next event.

That’s the way to do India. Makes it vastly different from other trips.

Temples, monuments and World Heritage sites in India are well described in guidebooks. Weaving them together on a journey to make sense of their connections to past and present India is a different story.

“India adapts,” says Mark Hennessy of Magical Journey, the trip designer I selected. “Modernity is not new here; it’s just happening side by side with ancient wisdoms.

“Cultural, technical, industrial, agrarian revolutions are all happening side by side in India, not one after the other as in the west,” Hennessy said.

“Philosophy, science and religion share a life here while we separate them in the west. Westerners think truth can be found. Merging as one is India’s way.”

Hennessy lives in South Africa and brings memories of vast reading to discussions along the way. He’s a bonus to the reason I chose Magical Journey to explore India as fully as possible — Carol Cumes.

I stayed in Cumes’ guesthouse in Peru’s Sacred Valley in 2008 where I observed her remarkable gift for meeting, accepting and admiring people as she finds them. No need to improve, transform or enlighten others according to her worldview as many try to do.

Her genuine friendship with the Quechua people of Peru told me I should take the opportunity to go with her if I learned of a spot on the bus. Certainly hers is a spiritual gift to connect with people in their places, and honor the invitation to come on over.

Cumes’ journeys are practical too, like finding a guide with impeccable pronunciation, easy and entertaining to listen to. Straining to catch the words on a tour, and missing many, is not a happy holiday.

Cumes and Sanjay guided the 18 of us to some overnight places small enough to chat with owners over meals and walks around their property — reliably clean, interesting and informative.

City hotels in Chennai and Kochi offered fine what-I-expected five star quality, but Windermere Estate in Kerala and The Bangala in Chennai delivered community too.

I like getting closer to people in the places they live.

“The decoction is best when we serve you,” Dr. Simon John says of his coffee at Windermere Estate. “No pots in the room on purpose.”

The very congenial Simon, as he is known, calls his 19-room plantation a retreat, not a hotel. He fell in love with the 60 tea and cardamom growing acres 23 years ago.

“Good things have to be shared,” he says, so he added guest houses, a dining room, library and thatched roof tea hut.

Ginger, masala and cardamom teas are served every afternoon from 3:30 p.m. on, poured from a samovar into glass tumblers. Walks with a naturalist through the spice fields shows off the shade-loving cardamom, and the tea and coffee.

Banyan trees, along with red cedar, ironwood, rosewood and cinchona fill the grounds too, easy to walk through and spectacular with a huge view from Simon’s high rock promontory.

“Stay 10 days and the dinners will all be different, with each containing two vegetables, a protein, one red meat, one fish, clear soup, rice, pudding and coffee or tea,” Simon says.

Breakfast was abundant too, fresh and local. A six hour trek to the top of the mountain gives views on both sides of this plateau and a national park, tea museum, paper-making business and interesting downtown offer plenty of diversion.

“Everybody from the U.S. should slow down,” Simon says, so maybe just stay put at Windermere Estate. “The staff are aware of you; nowhere do you have to sign in. Just receive.”

Meeting Mrs. Meenakshi Meyyappan at her boutique hotel in Chettinad is an altogether different kind of community. Hers is a merchant family, dealing in teak from Burma for more than a century.

Business transactions took place on the verandahs of the very gracious homes lining the once prosperous street, now under consideration for restoration to attract tourists.

I’m willing to wait if I can sleep and eat in The Bangala. It’s ready, brimming with century-old charm, a feel of India an era ago. Furnishings of that teak fill each of the large rooms, air-conditioned with full bath. Charming shutters, plenty of light and Chettiar family photos.

Men in crisp white shirts and dhotis, the South Indian long skirt that hikes up into a short one with a clever flip of the wrist and one tuck in the waist, choreograph the serving of the meals.

Guests sit on both sides of a long table, covered but outdoors. The men appear all of a sudden, at least five of them, serving simultaneously in perfect rhythm.

Celery soup my first of two nights there, sailfish from the Indian Ocean, rice with carrots and lemon custard were among the many wonders.

Mrs. Meyyappan and her staff teach cooking classes; I learned how to do almond halwa (need ghee and saffron), tomato rice, potato masala, chicken pepper fry and prawn masala. This is India’s spice country and we used plenty of ginger, turmeric, cardamom, aniseed, cumin seed and coriander.

Afternoon wanderings or day trips work well from The Bangala to antique shops, temples and silversmiths.

India is bigger than time allows. Pick a part and take your heart.