My mom and I flew out to Istanbul on the evening of the 23rd, with plans to meet my brother in Delhi early on the 24th—our flights were supposed to arrive 1.5 hours apart. But things didn’t go as planned. While sitting on the Istanbul-Delhi flight, it became clear that something was wrong. We weren’t told anything and ended up sitting on the plane for about 2 hours. Then they told us something was broken and we had to get off. Remember, this wasn’t Turkish Airlines, but Indigo? It seemed like they were dealing with such a situation for the first time, and they led us around the airport like Jews in the desert—half the night—before finally taking us to a hotel. We ended up leaving 22 hours later, but at least we got to spend half a day exploring Istanbul.
Day 1 (starting from the day we all met). A driver met us at the airport, around 5-6 AM. We immediately bought local SIM cards to have internet—10 euros each, and the internet worked everywhere and was sufficient for everything. We arrived at the apartment, left our things, and the guide arrived. Knowing we had 1 day instead of two, he hurried us along and did his best. The Indians’ English was much worse than I expected—the accent was one thing, but many didn’t speak it well at all. This particular guide spoke decently and bombarded us with facts about various dynasties and maharajas at such a pace that we were stunned. Delhi is something else—the traffic is not just crazy, it’s unreal! They drive 10 lanes where there are 6, with everything together—mopeds, cars, tuk-tuks, cycle rickshaws, and pedestrians weaving between them. Traffic lights mean nothing, lane markings even less, and traffic rules least of all. No one signals when turning; they just honk constantly. It so happened that we were in Delhi on the same day as President Trump, so we were stuck in special traffic jams, and street unrest began due to his visit… We tried street food right away, saw temples of various religions (Hinduism, Krishna temple, Jainism, Sikhism, Bahai temple), tombs, and monuments, and in the evening, when the guide was done with us, we went to the very center of Old Delhi on our own. The weather was delightful everywhere, real summer, but comfortable for walking. Places I remembered: Qutb Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Lotus Temple. While sightseeing in India, we constantly felt a sense of WOW—everything was so amazing that I thought nothing ahead could surprise us anymore. But the next day, we saw something breathtaking again!
**Day 2.** At 8 AM we had a train to Agra. The driver didn’t show up, so we took an Uber, which fortunately works great in India and is very cheap. The train was very decent, mostly with foreigners—remember the huge price of 9 euros? In Agra, we were met by a driver who took us to our apartment. The guide, the apartment owner’s father, was very intelligent and experienced—the best of all we had. That day we visited Fatehpur Sikri (a fortified ghost city 40 km west of Agra), the Red Fort (a Mughal fort with amazing palaces inside), tried our hand at embroidering with precious stones, saw monkeys running freely for the first time (including on our rooftop!), encountered a groom’s procession meeting his bride, and had dinner with our guide’s family.
**Day 3**—we got up at 5 AM to catch the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. This early rise was definitely worth it—the views were unreal! Everything was meticulously planned—how such beauty was built back then and how it has been preserved is a big question… After that, we had a flight to Jaipur. But then the promised surprises began. Everyone we told about our plan to fly from Agra to Jaipur doubted us—really? How? Indigo flies to many places in India, but not from Agra to Jaipur. But I had to… I found Air India, bought the ticket. The airport is tiny, military. Standing with our suitcases at the exit, I received a Google notification that my flight was canceled. No email, no SMS. The website showed no changes. I called Air India support—the girl with terrible English checked my ticket and said no, everything is fine, go to the airport. We drove 40 minutes to the airport, where they told us the flight was canceled. No options were offered except a refund. Luckily, our driver was available, so we arranged for him to take us to Jaipur by car, a 6-hour drive. Unfortunately, we spent 1 day in Jaipur instead of 2, but we saw two amazing places on the way—Monkey Temple and Abhaneri. We arrived in Jaipur around 9 PM, tired but happy.
**Day 4.** Jaipur (the Pink City)—1 day for sightseeing, which is clearly not enough. By the time we met with the guide and driver, it was around 11 AM… Even so, we had a million positive impressions and saw incredible places: Amber Fort and Palace, Jal Mahal (Lake Palace), Jantar Mantar Observatory, City Palace, Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), and finally, Bapu Bazaar (a local market, so you can imagine;))—I can’t even say what was the most impressive of all. And, of course, as everywhere, there was crazy traffic, delicious food, monkeys climbing around, goats and cows on the roads… Elephants and camels for tourists, but still on the roads.
**Day 5.** Our next stop was Rishikesh in the north, at the foothills of the Himalayas. We had to fly to the nearby city of Dehradun, as there were no direct flights from Jaipur to Dehradun and no good connections either, so our day was: Indigo flight from Jaipur to Delhi early in the morning, a sprint between terminals to find luggage storage. Then to the center of Delhi by metro, which was the best decision, and a self-guided walk in the chaos of Old Delhi. We walked through the narrow streets of Chandni Chowk (the craziest place I’ve ever seen, it’s a market area), learned about the cremation ceremony at Nigambodh Ghat, visited several Hindu temples, had lunch at a very authentic place right in the market (amazing!!!), and finally, in the evening, back to the airport for our next flight to Dehradun—delayed by a couple of hours due to rain in Delhi.