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The good things in life

Mimi Spencer

Wednesday, 15th October 2008

Mimi Spencer on Punjab

There are few more fashionable pursuits these days than detoxing. It’s a pastime perfected by people like Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Aniston, along with paddle surfing and looking fabulous in shorts. It is now, of course, a keen diversion of the masses too. We are a nation enthralled by herbal teas and cleansing tinctures, wedded to Pilates and Down Dog, ever on the lookout for a new celebrity tip to rid ourselves of the foul toxins of modern life.

Rather than struggle against the tide, I’ve generally found that the best option is to get the hell out every now and again, leaving the demands of urban England behind for a spell. So it was that I found myself in the emollient lakelands of northern India, in one of the world’s most peaceful, magical spots.

To get to Basunti (www.basunti.com), an informal guest-house lying like a dream on the banks of the vast Pong reservoir, you must first drive through the furious entertainment of Punjabi streets, weaving round brickworks, potholes, burning fields and the jumbled chaos of Indian street life. Before long, though, you reach the hillier, cooler domain of Himachal Pradesh.

Basunti takes its name from a delicate local flower that grows prolifically in these parts; the simple building, with its marble floors and dusk-pink walls, was built by expat Dave Butterworth, a man clearly adept at teasing out the good things in life. Butterworth is a local historian, archaeologist, horticulturalist (he is, perhaps, the only person in northern India to be growing olives) and adventurer, who knows the area back to front and is more than happy to chat and refill your glass as you flop contentedly in a wicker chair on the veranda. Basunti, you see, is an escape, but it’s not ascetic in the manner of classical Indian ashrams; instead, it is a peaceful place to stretch and laugh, to sleep late or wake early and catch the sun as it rises over the water’s edge.

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