Yes, thank you. And they are spoiled rotten, as all dogs should be.
Side note: There are a lot of street dogs in India. I'm sure they have a hard life, but they are not starving. Every one I saw had good body condition, meaning that their ribs were not showing. They were not fat, but their body condition was fairly normal. The HIndu religion teaches respect for all living things. For example, cows that roam free are fed by people. I expect it's the same thing with dogs.
The dogs seem to have learned how to live with traffic, but the drivers go out of their way to avoid the dogs (and other animals). There does seem to be a lot of respect for animals.
Diwali started yesterday (India is one day ahead of the US) but we're down south in India and our Tour Director said that the southern people do not celebrate Diwali very much. I did not see any significant lights yesterday. That's too bad - I would have enjoyed seeing how Diwali is celebrated.
[Added note: It's hot here in southern India.]
But Happy Halloween to people in the US reading this note. It's 6am Pacific time as I write this.
If you Google "diwali 2024" the results say October 31.
[Update: researching further, I found some listings for October 29th. Confusing...
I'll ask people here which date is correct. When we were up north in India people seemed to be focused on October 31st.]
Mike - October 31 / November 1 is the singular Diwali day, but the overall celebration is a 5 day activity as shown in my post above. If I recall the celebration of each of the events during the 5 days don’t align with a normal day - midnight to midnight.
The local people here say October 31.
Reading the Wikipedia article it appears you are correct. The third day is the date people celebrate, and what they call Diwali.
I've wanted to go to India but probably won't get there so I'm grateful for your travel blog, Mike. Your photos and words of all your trips make for great reading. Thank you for taking the time.
ps: it sounds like the itinerary has caused you to be more tired than on other Tauck tours.
We're in Mumbai right now at the Oberoi hotel. Wow, that's some hotel - the most luxurious of the tour. Our suite is bigger than some (expensive) condos or apartments in Los Angeles.
Tauck offers a couple of tours of India – the “Portrait of India” (this one) and “India’s Golden Triangle” which appears to be a shortened version of “Portrait of India”. The difference is that the shorter one does not go to the southern part of India.
In discussing this with my wife, we decided that if we were going to go halfway around the world, we’d do the full one. But after doing the tour, I might recommend the shorter one to people.
Looking at our days in the area:
Day 1: Full day of travel from Udaipur to Kochi
Day 2: Excursions in Kochi, but not that much interesting to see, and fairly hot weather.
Day 3: Full day of travel to Kumarakom – 2.5 hour bus ride and 2.5 hour boat ride.
Day 4: Resort day.
Day 5: Full day of travel from Kumarakom to Mumbai.
In the short tour, you’d do the travel from Udaipur to Mumbai, do excursions in Mumbai, and then go home.
That just seems to me to be a lot of days of travel for one day of excursions and a resort day. Additionally, it’s uncomfortably hot in southern India. That’s okay for a resort day but it gets uncomfortable for anything else. Mumbai is fairly hot, also.
We still have a day left in Mumbai but that’s my observation so far.
Mike - Additionally, it’s uncomfortably hot in southern India.
It's not as bad (still warm, but maybe not uncomfortably hot) if you travel later in November, December, or January. Even one or two weeks later than you traveled could make a difference in those temperatures.
Excursions in Kochi, but not that much interesting to see, and fairly hot weather.
Compared to the Taj Mahal or the other spectacular sights up north yes, but I still found the sights in Kochi worth seeing. Again perhaps if you had traveled a bit later in the year you would have enjoyed the southern sights more.
Having done the Singapore/Bali tour recently I know how 'uncomfortably hot' weather can put a damper on your desire to walk around and see the sights.
Full day of travel to Kumarakom – 2.5 hour bus ride and 2.5 hour boat ride.
Long bus rides are never fun, but I enjoyed the boat ride. I can understand how it wouldn't be much fun if the temperatures were so hot/humid to make it totally uncomfortable. Again, I think my comment about doing the trip later in the year applies.
My opinion on which tour to take would be a bit different. My preference would be driven more by your comment, "if we were going to go halfway around the world, we’d do the full one.". I'd just recommend doing it later in the year than you did to try to get some cooler temperatures in the south. If people can't or don't want to commit the additional time to see the south, then the Golden Triangle is a good fall back.
Mike - Did you research the temperatures in the south prior to selecting your tour date and just had poor luck with getting hotter than normal temperatures per your research? Or did you get the temperatures you expected and they just were such that they put a damper on your enthusiasm.
In our case on the Singapore/Bali trip I had done research and the TD even concurred that we had selected the 'best' time from an overall weather perspective. That said the heat/humidity in Singapore still put a bit of a damper on the urge to do extra explorations.
Weather/temperature is always a big factor in ones enjoyment for any tour. I think it pays to do the research in advance so that you can maximize (you can't assure) your chances of getting the weather/temperatures that you prefer. Regardless of your research, weather is weather and you can always get temperatures much hotter or colder than averages or much more rainfall than averages.
You just do the research, pick what looks the best, and cross your fingers. 😀
Mike - Thanks for your continued blog. I'm doing this trip Dec into Jan and chose that time as it's a bit cooler per the often-quoted weather sites, though of course there's no guarantee.
A favor, if you don't mind: I'm staying an extra day in Mumbai at the end. If I PMed my email address to you, would you be willing to send me imges of the TDs handouts on what to do during free time in Mumbai?
We took the Spotlight on India tour some years ago because my husband was working so the Portrait tour was too long. Back then, the Spotlight tour did not end in Mumbai which was my only regret. It’s obviously been changed in the newer Northern Golden Triangle. If you recall, there was a Tauck customer killed in the terrorist attack at the Mumbai hotel. We had read comments carefully about the longer tour and spoken to people who had been on it. They basically said the same, it was low key and relaxing rather than site seeing heavy. I would think it would be a little cooler December January.
@BKMD - sure, I'll be happy to send you whatever I have. Since you're not leaving for a while, I'll wait until we get home.
While I try to remember things, it might help if you send me a private message to remind me in a few days. I'll be home by then. I think I can attach things to a private message, but otherwise, include your email in the private message.
Regarding heat, I'm probably more sensitive to heat than many other people. Although I was raised in southern Louisiana and acclimated to the heat and humidity, I was always the first person to have a sweated out shirt.
When I went to Vietnam in 1970, the heat and humidity did not bother me too much because I went there from Louisiana. (I wrote to my parents: “Vietnam isn’t bad. It’s hot, it rains a lot, and everyone eats rice. Just like home!)
But now, I’m living in southern California. It’s rarely ever hot there and almost never humid. When I go to a hot and humid place I’m affected more. [Added note: Of course, I'm 55 years older than I was back in Vietnam.]
When we went on the two hour excursion in Kumarakom, my shirt was wet at the end of the excursion, sweat was dripping into my eyes, and I was not feeling well. Others on the excursion reported feeling bad from the heat, but only one other person was sweating like I was (and he was also a Vietnam veteran – go figure).
We did a walking tour of Mumbai yesterday and a number of people reported feeling “affected” from the heat. Hard to describe the feeling, but you’ve probably experienced it at one time or another.
Anyway, I'm just trying to convey my experience for your consideration. We're all different and your reaction to the heat may be much less than mine.
Re heat, I'm like you. I hate hot/humid weather. On VCT, North and central Vietnam was fine (in Jan), but South Vietnam as well as Cambodia and Thailand were awful, IMO. I potentially had Singapore/Bali on my list, but removed it after returning from VCT.
Our Tour Director did a good job. She had done this trip many times before and knew all the details that had to be handled. But that also made her a bit jaded.
The weather was warm in the north and hot in the south. If you have problems with heat, the shorter version of this tour - which skips the southern part - might be right for you.
It's 18 days in length and by the end we were a bit "trip fatigued".
The most interesting part of the tour is the beginning part in North India, especially the Taj Mahal. The trip got less interesting as it went along.
The hotels were all very good, with the last hotel in Mumbai being outstanding.
You will get a lot of Indian food, and a fair amount of Indian food is hot (spicy). Non-hot dishes usually contain other spices that may not appeal to you. Indian food in India is quite a bit different than what you may get in an American Indian restaurant.
Mike, I read the book about the Siege of the hotel some years ago, I have it somewhere. The book was recommended by someone on the forum, and i also recommend it, it was published in 2013 but is available.
There was also a movie called Hotel Mumbai which I saw, it came out in 2018 and Dev Patel was one of the stars. It was also good.
We did not find the food spicy in India and we are not lovers of very spicy foods. When we had a cooking lesson with the chef of the Oberoi in Delhi, he was from Southern India. The next morning, he had specially made a Southern Indian breakfast for us which he presented to us himself. That was a fantastic hotel, but I’m not sure Tauck uses it now.
Mike - Loved the blog, although I could sense that you seemed ready to get home for most of the time in Mumbai (perhaps even before). I think the continued heat and humidity had taken its toll. The pictures for that section of the blog didn't have their normal panache. A large portion of the pictures were simply taken from the web to allow you to paint a more complete story of your trip.
@Smiling Sam - Thanks for you comments. Yes, I think both Judy and I were trip fatigued towards the end of the trip.
I'm not clear what you meant by "that section of the blog" but assume you meant our time in Mumbai. There were about 80 pictures of that part of the trip on the blog, including those pictures taken from the web. About 15 of those 80 were taken from the web, which I would not categorize as "a large portion".
I generally try not to use pictures from the web, but sometimes the pictures I have aren't very good, or I don't have pictures, as at Elephanta Caves or Dharavi, and want to give the reader a more complete view of the trip. I always try to identify any photos that are not my own, or my wife's, work, although I may not attribute the creator by name. There were a larger number of web photos in this section than I would normally have on the blog.
I hope readers will accept the pictures in the spirit they are offered.
@British - I bought the book "The Seige" in Kindle format and started reading it. The author obviously did a lot of research on the incident, and has a lot of detail on the people involved/affected. I have not seen the movie "Hotel Mumbai" but will look for it. Might be easier than plowing through the book. While the book seems very complete it's fairly long and has a lot of detail. The Wikipedia article on the attack gave me a good overview.
I did get the impression that it will not be one of your favorites trips. I was surprised Annie is still there, she was jaded when we went with her years ago and ours wasn’t even the long trip. We prefer longer more inclusive tours these days, but they are tiring. We rarely miss any of the excursions. Clearly we won’t miss many meals because we always gain weight and bloat up with so much salt in the food.. that’s especially true with Indian food.
Mike - Yes, I meant the Mumbai section of the blog where you skipped excursions to the top of the Elephanta Caves and the slum. Through most of the blog it seemed like you had a heavy content of portraits, with very expressive people. I didn't sense that same style during the Mumbai section.
It was probably just me but you commented on web pictures in the Elephanta Caves, the slum, the laundry area, and discussed links to more web pictures. Perhaps it was the commentary that gave me the impression about the blog. I still enjoyed it though. 😀
Thanks again, Mike - both for the photos and the commentary. Regarding the TD, I was shocked to see that it was Annie. We had her when we went to China. After our group she was supposed to go to India for one more tour and then retire. Her attitude screamed that she could hardly wait to get out. Just before the tour ended she said she was trying to go home rather than do the India tour. I'm not sure what happened but she left the hotel before we did.. Luckily, Tauck's China tour was absolutely fascinating and helped to overcome a mediocre tour director.
I guess I don’t need to make any further comment, she left us before the end of the tour too in India Because her flight to the US was early, she changed our time leaving the hotel very early morning to Delhi where the tour ended instead of a relaxing morning to enjoy a gorgeous hotel. Everyone was annoyed. We were left in Delhi and it meant we were all awake for over 24 hours before we got on our flights home. We did complain to Tauck.
Yes, I’m wondering where you mean in Asia, it’s a massive area and going at the wrong time f year, you could experience even hotter weather than your time in India.
When we took our second trip to Cambodia and Vietnam this year with a large group of friends, my husband and I knew it was going to be much hotter than our previous trip…but others, including the organizers did not. Of course the price of the tour, so reasonable, was a good clue that it was not the most optimum time to visit. We warned everyone and advised extra hydration and adding hydration salts to water bottles. Being primed to expect the heat really helped my husband and I cope. In addition, the cruise part was less formal than a Tauck tour, so we did not have to waste space in our suitcase packing dressy clothing and instead could be sure we had plenty of changes of sensible clothing which for me is so important so I can feel fresh each day. In addition, the air conditioning everywhere we stayed, boat and hotels was excellent and the boat even had a big though shallow shaded pool.
We're going from Hong Kong to Tokyo early in 2025 - we may encounter cold weather. We have a pre-cruise excursion to Xi'An to see the terracotta warriors. I have to get China visas for that portion of the trip. I'll probably use a visa service to do that.
I expect the cruise ship is not full - I received an email from the cruise company to bid on a higher category cabin (actually several higher categories). I made a low bid on each category - I'm actually satisfied with the category of cabin we have reservations for so I'm indifferent as to whether we get an upgrade or not.
I thought it was a good idea for the cruise company to do that auction. There’s nothing quite as perishable as an airline seat or hotel room. The incremental cost of selling that seat or room is small so anything they can get for it over that amount is profit.
Comments
Yes, thank you. And they are spoiled rotten, as all dogs should be.
Side note: There are a lot of street dogs in India. I'm sure they have a hard life, but they are not starving. Every one I saw had good body condition, meaning that their ribs were not showing. They were not fat, but their body condition was fairly normal. The HIndu religion teaches respect for all living things. For example, cows that roam free are fed by people. I expect it's the same thing with dogs.
The dogs seem to have learned how to live with traffic, but the drivers go out of their way to avoid the dogs (and other animals). There does seem to be a lot of respect for animals.
Diwali started yesterday (India is one day ahead of the US) but we're down south in India and our Tour Director said that the southern people do not celebrate Diwali very much. I did not see any significant lights yesterday. That's too bad - I would have enjoyed seeing how Diwali is celebrated.
[Added note: It's hot here in southern India.]
But Happy Halloween to people in the US reading this note. It's 6am Pacific time as I write this.
Didn’t realize that Diwali wasn’t celebrated in the South. Perhaps the celebration will still being going on when you get back to Mumba
@Smiling Sam - all the research I've done says that Diwali starts on October 31st in 2024. Here's one from the Times of India - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/religion/festivals/diwali-2024-date-laxmi-puja-shubh-muhurat-puja-rituals-and-significance-of-festival-of-lights/articleshow/114759023.cms
If you Google "diwali 2024" the results say October 31.
[Update: researching further, I found some listings for October 29th. Confusing...
I'll ask people here which date is correct. When we were up north in India people seemed to be focused on October 31st.]
Mike - October 31 / November 1 is the singular Diwali day, but the overall celebration is a 5 day activity as shown in my post above. If I recall the celebration of each of the events during the 5 days don’t align with a normal day - midnight to midnight.
The local people here say October 31.
Reading the Wikipedia article it appears you are correct. The third day is the date people celebrate, and what they call Diwali.
The next installment of this trip is now available at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2024-3India-04.htm
We're heading to Mumbai tomorrow and only have a few days left.
I hope you enjoy traveling with us.
I've wanted to go to India but probably won't get there so I'm grateful for your travel blog, Mike. Your photos and words of all your trips make for great reading. Thank you for taking the time.
ps: it sounds like the itinerary has caused you to be more tired than on other Tauck tours.
Thank you for your kind comments, the Moores.
We're in Mumbai right now at the Oberoi hotel. Wow, that's some hotel - the most luxurious of the tour. Our suite is bigger than some (expensive) condos or apartments in Los Angeles.
Tauck offers a couple of tours of India – the “Portrait of India” (this one) and “India’s Golden Triangle” which appears to be a shortened version of “Portrait of India”. The difference is that the shorter one does not go to the southern part of India.
In discussing this with my wife, we decided that if we were going to go halfway around the world, we’d do the full one. But after doing the tour, I might recommend the shorter one to people.
Looking at our days in the area:
Day 1: Full day of travel from Udaipur to Kochi
Day 2: Excursions in Kochi, but not that much interesting to see, and fairly hot weather.
Day 3: Full day of travel to Kumarakom – 2.5 hour bus ride and 2.5 hour boat ride.
Day 4: Resort day.
Day 5: Full day of travel from Kumarakom to Mumbai.
In the short tour, you’d do the travel from Udaipur to Mumbai, do excursions in Mumbai, and then go home.
That just seems to me to be a lot of days of travel for one day of excursions and a resort day. Additionally, it’s uncomfortably hot in southern India. That’s okay for a resort day but it gets uncomfortable for anything else. Mumbai is fairly hot, also.
We still have a day left in Mumbai but that’s my observation so far.
It's not as bad (still warm, but maybe not uncomfortably hot) if you travel later in November, December, or January. Even one or two weeks later than you traveled could make a difference in those temperatures.
Compared to the Taj Mahal or the other spectacular sights up north yes, but I still found the sights in Kochi worth seeing. Again perhaps if you had traveled a bit later in the year you would have enjoyed the southern sights more.
Having done the Singapore/Bali tour recently I know how 'uncomfortably hot' weather can put a damper on your desire to walk around and see the sights.
Long bus rides are never fun, but I enjoyed the boat ride. I can understand how it wouldn't be much fun if the temperatures were so hot/humid to make it totally uncomfortable. Again, I think my comment about doing the trip later in the year applies.
My opinion on which tour to take would be a bit different. My preference would be driven more by your comment, "if we were going to go halfway around the world, we’d do the full one.". I'd just recommend doing it later in the year than you did to try to get some cooler temperatures in the south. If people can't or don't want to commit the additional time to see the south, then the Golden Triangle is a good fall back.
Mike - Did you research the temperatures in the south prior to selecting your tour date and just had poor luck with getting hotter than normal temperatures per your research? Or did you get the temperatures you expected and they just were such that they put a damper on your enthusiasm.
In our case on the Singapore/Bali trip I had done research and the TD even concurred that we had selected the 'best' time from an overall weather perspective. That said the heat/humidity in Singapore still put a bit of a damper on the urge to do extra explorations.
Weather/temperature is always a big factor in ones enjoyment for any tour. I think it pays to do the research in advance so that you can maximize (you can't assure) your chances of getting the weather/temperatures that you prefer. Regardless of your research, weather is weather and you can always get temperatures much hotter or colder than averages or much more rainfall than averages.
You just do the research, pick what looks the best, and cross your fingers. 😀
Mike - Thanks for your continued blog. I'm doing this trip Dec into Jan and chose that time as it's a bit cooler per the often-quoted weather sites, though of course there's no guarantee.
A favor, if you don't mind: I'm staying an extra day in Mumbai at the end. If I PMed my email address to you, would you be willing to send me imges of the TDs handouts on what to do during free time in Mumbai?
We took the Spotlight on India tour some years ago because my husband was working so the Portrait tour was too long. Back then, the Spotlight tour did not end in Mumbai which was my only regret. It’s obviously been changed in the newer Northern Golden Triangle. If you recall, there was a Tauck customer killed in the terrorist attack at the Mumbai hotel. We had read comments carefully about the longer tour and spoken to people who had been on it. They basically said the same, it was low key and relaxing rather than site seeing heavy. I would think it would be a little cooler December January.
I took the longer "Portrait of India" tour and loved it, even though it was hot I loved it, I think I went in September or early October.
@BKMD - sure, I'll be happy to send you whatever I have. Since you're not leaving for a while, I'll wait until we get home.
While I try to remember things, it might help if you send me a private message to remind me in a few days. I'll be home by then. I think I can attach things to a private message, but otherwise, include your email in the private message.
Regarding heat, I'm probably more sensitive to heat than many other people. Although I was raised in southern Louisiana and acclimated to the heat and humidity, I was always the first person to have a sweated out shirt.
When I went to Vietnam in 1970, the heat and humidity did not bother me too much because I went there from Louisiana. (I wrote to my parents: “Vietnam isn’t bad. It’s hot, it rains a lot, and everyone eats rice. Just like home!)
But now, I’m living in southern California. It’s rarely ever hot there and almost never humid. When I go to a hot and humid place I’m affected more. [Added note: Of course, I'm 55 years older than I was back in Vietnam.]
When we went on the two hour excursion in Kumarakom, my shirt was wet at the end of the excursion, sweat was dripping into my eyes, and I was not feeling well. Others on the excursion reported feeling bad from the heat, but only one other person was sweating like I was (and he was also a Vietnam veteran – go figure).
We did a walking tour of Mumbai yesterday and a number of people reported feeling “affected” from the heat. Hard to describe the feeling, but you’ve probably experienced it at one time or another.
Anyway, I'm just trying to convey my experience for your consideration. We're all different and your reaction to the heat may be much less than mine.
Mike - Will do, thanks.
Re heat, I'm like you. I hate hot/humid weather. On VCT, North and central Vietnam was fine (in Jan), but South Vietnam as well as Cambodia and Thailand were awful, IMO. I potentially had Singapore/Bali on my list, but removed it after returning from VCT.
We made it home safely. I just released the final installment of the blog of this trip - https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2024-3India-05.htm
Some comments on the trip:
If I think of other things, I'll edit this post.
Mike, I read the book about the Siege of the hotel some years ago, I have it somewhere. The book was recommended by someone on the forum, and i also recommend it, it was published in 2013 but is available.
There was also a movie called Hotel Mumbai which I saw, it came out in 2018 and Dev Patel was one of the stars. It was also good.
We did not find the food spicy in India and we are not lovers of very spicy foods. When we had a cooking lesson with the chef of the Oberoi in Delhi, he was from Southern India. The next morning, he had specially made a Southern Indian breakfast for us which he presented to us himself. That was a fantastic hotel, but I’m not sure Tauck uses it now.
Mike - Loved the blog, although I could sense that you seemed ready to get home for most of the time in Mumbai (perhaps even before). I think the continued heat and humidity had taken its toll. The pictures for that section of the blog didn't have their normal panache. A large portion of the pictures were simply taken from the web to allow you to paint a more complete story of your trip.
Glad you made it home safely.
@Smiling Sam - Thanks for you comments. Yes, I think both Judy and I were trip fatigued towards the end of the trip.
I'm not clear what you meant by "that section of the blog" but assume you meant our time in Mumbai. There were about 80 pictures of that part of the trip on the blog, including those pictures taken from the web. About 15 of those 80 were taken from the web, which I would not categorize as "a large portion".
I generally try not to use pictures from the web, but sometimes the pictures I have aren't very good, or I don't have pictures, as at Elephanta Caves or Dharavi, and want to give the reader a more complete view of the trip. I always try to identify any photos that are not my own, or my wife's, work, although I may not attribute the creator by name. There were a larger number of web photos in this section than I would normally have on the blog.
I hope readers will accept the pictures in the spirit they are offered.
@British - I bought the book "The Seige" in Kindle format and started reading it. The author obviously did a lot of research on the incident, and has a lot of detail on the people involved/affected. I have not seen the movie "Hotel Mumbai" but will look for it. Might be easier than plowing through the book. While the book seems very complete it's fairly long and has a lot of detail. The Wikipedia article on the attack gave me a good overview.
I did get the impression that it will not be one of your favorites trips. I was surprised Annie is still there, she was jaded when we went with her years ago and ours wasn’t even the long trip. We prefer longer more inclusive tours these days, but they are tiring. We rarely miss any of the excursions. Clearly we won’t miss many meals because we always gain weight and bloat up with so much salt in the food.. that’s especially true with Indian food.
Mike - Yes, I meant the Mumbai section of the blog where you skipped excursions to the top of the Elephanta Caves and the slum. Through most of the blog it seemed like you had a heavy content of portraits, with very expressive people. I didn't sense that same style during the Mumbai section.
It was probably just me but you commented on web pictures in the Elephanta Caves, the slum, the laundry area, and discussed links to more web pictures. Perhaps it was the commentary that gave me the impression about the blog. I still enjoyed it though. 😀
To MIke and/or British - What do you mean by Annie being jaded?
@BKMD - I’ll answer in a private message.
When I get back to my computer. On my cell phone now.
Thanks again, Mike - both for the photos and the commentary. Regarding the TD, I was shocked to see that it was Annie. We had her when we went to China. After our group she was supposed to go to India for one more tour and then retire. Her attitude screamed that she could hardly wait to get out. Just before the tour ended she said she was trying to go home rather than do the India tour. I'm not sure what happened but she left the hotel before we did.. Luckily, Tauck's China tour was absolutely fascinating and helped to overcome a mediocre tour director.
I guess I don’t need to make any further comment, she left us before the end of the tour too in India Because her flight to the US was early, she changed our time leaving the hotel very early morning to Delhi where the tour ended instead of a relaxing morning to enjoy a gorgeous hotel. Everyone was annoyed. We were left in Delhi and it meant we were all awake for over 24 hours before we got on our flights home. We did complain to Tauck.
MikeHenderson, thank you for the blog of your trip. I enjoyed reading it. Question: you said your next trip is a cruise to Asia. Where is it going?
Yes, I’m wondering where you mean in Asia, it’s a massive area and going at the wrong time f year, you could experience even hotter weather than your time in India.
When we took our second trip to Cambodia and Vietnam this year with a large group of friends, my husband and I knew it was going to be much hotter than our previous trip…but others, including the organizers did not. Of course the price of the tour, so reasonable, was a good clue that it was not the most optimum time to visit. We warned everyone and advised extra hydration and adding hydration salts to water bottles. Being primed to expect the heat really helped my husband and I cope. In addition, the cruise part was less formal than a Tauck tour, so we did not have to waste space in our suitcase packing dressy clothing and instead could be sure we had plenty of changes of sensible clothing which for me is so important so I can feel fresh each day. In addition, the air conditioning everywhere we stayed, boat and hotels was excellent and the boat even had a big though shallow shaded pool.
We're going from Hong Kong to Tokyo early in 2025 - we may encounter cold weather. We have a pre-cruise excursion to Xi'An to see the terracotta warriors. I have to get China visas for that portion of the trip. I'll probably use a visa service to do that.
I expect the cruise ship is not full - I received an email from the cruise company to bid on a higher category cabin (actually several higher categories). I made a low bid on each category - I'm actually satisfied with the category of cabin we have reservations for so I'm indifferent as to whether we get an upgrade or not.
I thought it was a good idea for the cruise company to do that auction. There’s nothing quite as perishable as an airline seat or hotel room. The incremental cost of selling that seat or room is small so anything they can get for it over that amount is profit.