Portrait of India Blog

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  • edited November 1

    dwannand - PS your dog is adorable!!

    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.

  • edited November 1

    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.

  • edited November 1

    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

  • edited November 1

    @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.

  • edited November 1

    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.

  • edited November 4

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • edited November 5

    @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.

  • edited November 5

    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.

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