India Diwali Festival

The very auspicious festival of India Diwali 2011 is around the corner, only 2 days to go! its the celebrating event of the year for the Indians Living in India and abroad!

What is Diwali ?

The word "Diwali / Deepavali", came into existance from the Sanskrit word Dīpāvalī (दीपावली) and Englis meaning is "Row of Lights". This festival is also known as "Festival of Lights".

About Diwali

The Diwali Festival is celebrated to the victory of Good over Evil and Light over Darkness. Diwali has a major religious significance for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains alike - not only in India, but also for Indians living abroad. In the western (gregorian) calendar, Diwali falls on a day in October or November every year - just after the monsoon season in India. The exact date of Diwali festival varies and is based on Hindu Luni-Solar calendar (according to the positions of the Sun and the Moon). The day of Diwali falls on Ashvina Amavasya (the lunar day of new moon) on 15 Ashvin (Hindu month). This date also marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year, and many businesses in India starting a new accounting year on the Diwali holiday. People on this day buy new commodities or household things inexchange of old things.

On this auspicious day people worship Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Rama. Devotees visit Temples for worshipping Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and wisdom with Laxmi Poojas and also pray to Ganesh, the 'Lord of Beginnings' and 'Remover of Obstacles'. In the evening during Aarti, oil lamps with a cotton wick are placed on a Puja Thali and offered to the deities, praising the deity by singing wonderful Aarti songs. At night people light up little oil lamps called Diyas, colorful candles or Ghee Lamps and place them around their houses and lightening up the lamps in their houses, later they enjoy firework displays or blasting firecrackers. On Kartika day next day to Diwali in the Hindu calendar and is also known as Govardhan Puja or Annakoot. It is believed that Lord Krishna defeated the god of rain and heavens Indra on that day. Lord Krishna lifted Mount Govardhana to save people's life from the endless rain. According to another legend followed in South-India, Vishnu defeated the demon-king Bali on this day. 'Bhaiduj' ('Bhai Dooj') comes after Kartika Day and also known as 'Yama Dwitiya'. This is the day for brothers and sisters to strengthen their relationships.

On the eve of Diwali, families, friends and relatives gather and exchange sweet dishes with each other and send Diwali Greeting Cards. But nowadays sending E Cards is more in trend. Apart from India, Diwali Mela (Fairs) takes place in many countries of world. Sellers of handicraft and artworks like to rent a booth on a Diwali Mela to offer their items for sale to the general public. The different locations and venues for this event can range from small community halls to the size of a whole stadium like in the case of the Diwali Mela 2011 in Dallas, Texas, USA in the Cotton Bowl Stadium

(This season Date: Saturday, November 5th, 2011/Time: 4pm to midnight) with approx. 100,000 attendees.

Where is Diwali being celebrated ?

The largest groups of non-resident Indians live in the USA, Canada, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi-Arabia, South-Africa and in the United Kingdom (UK). Depending on the origin of the majority of Indians, the festival in those countries is either Diwali (most immigrants from North-India, i.e. USA/Canada/UK) or Deepavali (most immigrants from South-India such as Tamils, i.e. Malaysia/Singapore).

Snow Skiing in Kashmir-India

Thinking of Snow skiing in India, Best places for Skiing in India are Gulmarg in Kashmir and Auli in Uttarakhand. However, most people prefer Gulmarg as it is easily accesible.

Snow Skiing in Gulmarg
Kashmir - One of the jewels in the crwon of India, honeymooner's paradise, heaven on earth and many more praising titles have been given to Kashmir. Any foreign or Indian Traveler thinking of good vacactions in India, i will advise them to must visit the Valleys of Kashmir. All around years, tourist throng to Kashmir after getting suffered from Urban Life Chaos.

Places to visit in Kashmir are Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg, Pahalgam, Leh & Ladakh.

Among these tourist places, Gulmarg is highlighted town in Winters because of Snow Skiing. The best place for Snow Skiing in North India.

Skiing in Gulmarg usually starts from the mid of December onwards till Beginning of March every year. Snow falling during December, January and February is heavy and thus is ideal place to do skiing.

Minimum stay of 3 Nigths in Gulmarg, is best way to enjoy the skiing in Gulmarg. For the freshers or first timers, better to take the services of Snow Skiing Trainers.

Recommended Kashmir Travel Packages For Travelers:

1. Gulmarg Skiing tour package
2. Honeymooners Paradise Tour

Travel to Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir tourism is getting the boost in last few months as One and Half Million tourist arrivals within from India and approx. 21000 foreign tourist arrival to Kashmir till now.

The Peace in Kashmir have attracted foreign travelers to Kashmir.
This time during Amarnath Yatra, the state has received 6.5 lac Amarnath Yatris visited this year, told NN Vohra, Hon’ble Governor of the state.

Sample Itinerary: Kashmir Travel Information

Daily flights by Spicejet for Chennai & Hyderabad from Thiruvananthapuram

There is one good news for Both Foreign tourists and domestic tourists who travel to South India that Spicejet has launched daily flights to Hyderabad and Chennai from Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram.

"Spicejet has been fast expanding its domestic footprint with Q400 Nexgen turbotrop aircraft from Bombardier. Its fleet addition aims at enhancing air connectivity to tier-II and III destinations including Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa, Nagpur, Pune, Rajamundhry, Pune, Tirupati, Trivandrum and Vijayawada," Spicejet CEO Neil Raymond Mills said.

The new services offer "affordable and competitive" rates to travellers, the airline official said. The airlines had recently announced the addition of Tiruchirappalli as its 30th destination, he said.
Sample Itinerary : South India Temple Tour

Korean Tourism & Bollywood

Korean Tourism Board (KTB) has got the better idea to promote its country’s tourism throught bollywood movies. For this purpose Korean Tourism Board has tied up with bollywood producer Sajid Nadiadwala to promote the scenic beauty of the country in his coming movie KICK with bollywood actor Salman Khan and Actress Sonakshi Sinha. This great of idea of promoting the Korea as tourist destination to attract Indian Tourists worked when Sajid Nadiadwala received an invitation from Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) president to Korea and thus Sajid signed the agreement to set scenes of his films in the country.

The movie will show the scenic beauty of some really good places in Korea like Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island. Besides, Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan, Kick, the action adventure directed by Shirish Kunder is likely to feature some scenes in the picturesque Gangwon Do too.

Some actions sequences in wild outdoors of Korea have been performed by Bollywood actor Salman Khan. The actor is supposed to start training in martial arts with famous French stunt director, Philip Guegan for the same. The Korean government is expected to offer assistance too, as far as martial arts experts and stunt artistes are concerned.
The Tie up between Korean Tourism Board and Bollywood Producer will bring more chances of Korean Tourist to Travel to India.

Tourists protest against IRCTC

In a rare instance, IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) had travel service complaint from almost 150 tourists. The Tourists have taken the train Trip “Bharat Darshan” by paying INR 18,000/-. The complaint made by tourists contains that the tourists have not been taken to Darjeeling and Sikkim Tourist destinations though these famous travel destinations were the part of the Travel Itinerary.
The tourists stopped the Bharat Darshan Train for nearly 30 minutes and protested to refund their money. The IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) officials asked them to give a written complaint mentioning about the inconvenience they have undergone during the Bharat Darshan Tour.
The tourist of Bharat Darshan Train, also complained about the tourist guides were not sufficient tourist guides at the travel destinations to take care of all tourists. Travellers also complained about the below standard accommodation and food that was provided to them during Bharat Darshan Trip. Most of tourists disembarked the Bharat Darshan Train that left for Mysore. As per the news of Indian Express.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals In India - September 2011

Foreign Tourist Arrivals in India have earned the income of INR 5,748 crore as per the details produced by India Foreign Exchange Earnings. Compared to Last year September Month’s 3.69 lakh foreign tourist arrivals, this year September were 4.01 Lakh details given by India Tourism Ministry. There is a jump of 8.7 percent Foreign Tourist arrivals in India compared last year September month.