I’ve seen the sun rise in the Himalayas!
During the long overnight flight to Delhi, I remembered how, at the age of 16, I was set my first-ever journalistic task – interview the scary old groundsman ‘Sonny’ Clarke for our school magazine.
Former army officer Sonny got surprisingly emotional as he told me about the best moment of his life: ‘Seeing the sunrise over the Himalayas.’
Over the years that phrase ‘the sunrise over the Himalayas’ became fixed in my mind as a metaphor for all that is fabulous but unreachable. I started travelling in the 1970s, but India and the Himalayas were never considered. Warnings of unhygienic, chaotic travel with a risk of disease and accidents always deterred me.
Until now. Almost half a century after that interview with Sonny, I was persuaded that there is a clean, safe and luxurious way to visit India. I put myself in the hands of Western & Oriental, a tailor-made travel company. It promised to take me to see the real India… and return in one piece.
My trip involved stays in Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla. Western & Oriental arranged a trip that involved five-star hotels and travelling in chauffeur-driven cars. I was even given a ‘minder’ for all my public excursions.
But this wasn’t a sanitised view of India. I was taken to see the real India. I loved dodging the wild, random traffic of a 14-lane highway in a motorised tuktuk and a cycle rickshaw ride through the smelly, noisy mayhem of Old Delhi market. I saw temples, palaces, colonial buildings and parks, but also got close to the squalor of life for so many.
Then I boarded a historic, narrowgauge train. It twisted spectacularly up into the Himalayan mountains. The route links the hot Indian plains with the mountain city of Shimla.
I stayed at Wildflower Hall, on a peak above the city. It’s more than 8,000ft above sea level and I set my alarm for 5am and rose in a chilly, breathless dawn. Standing at my window, I watched as the sky turned orange over distant snow-capped peaks to the east. At last, I’d seen the sunrise over the Himalayas.
n Western & Oriental (westernoriental. com 0044 20 3588 6130) offers a sevennight tailor-made journey to India from €3,345pp, including all B&B with transportation by train and private car.