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The cliché is that “you can take the boy out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the boy.”

Concluding my seventeenth visit to India, I hope my blogs will impart to my blog readers my interest in this fascinating country. In fact, Susan and I are even thinking of traveling there again in March of 2026. Stay tuned for more blogs!

Welcome to my third blog of my 2025 India trip. Susan and I are now in our third week, with one more week after this one in Mumbai. At the end of next week, we will fly to the city of Madurai in South India for one week, where we will be guided by friends of our dear American friend who previously lived in Madurai.

Currently in the midst of my seventeenth visit to India, I am often asked: Why? Why do I travel to India year after year? This blog will describe my series of India visits and answer why I love traveling to India again and again.

The accompanying photo gallery features flowers and foods. India is celebrating the Diwali holiday, a festival of lights and flowers. Diwali wreaths are shown, specially made for the Diwali holiday.

Welcome Blog Readers Old and New

My blogs are intended to share my international travel experiences for readers who might never visit the places I describe. I try to include historical, political, and cultural observations when I am able to do so without too much background research. Photos are included in the associated gallery.

I first visited Sweden in 1970.  Since that time, I have visited Sweden perhaps fifteen times, including ten years in a row of music tours with the group Mynta.   This current trip consists of a single agenda: meeting my old friends, some of whom I met in 1970. 

For the last twenty years, Dallas has been meeting friends he first met over fifty years ago while a student in Kiel, Germany.  This was the fourth reunion in Greece by the Kieler Old Farts.  Previously, they met on the Greek islands of Poros and Corfu.  This was their second reunion on the Peloponnese Peninsula, where KOF member David has retired.

After spending six weeks in Mumbai, India, we were lucky to spend two nights in Instanbul, complements of Turkish Airlines because we had traveled business class.  We spent one full day at the fabulous Topkapi Palace.

As Susan and I conclude our sixth and final week in Mumbai, India, I will attempt to relate the cultural impressions rather than just recounting the events.  Readers of my previous blogs will know I’ve been visiting India for many years, playing music in various settings.