I stepped off the plane into Delhi, India, at 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, after a 16-hour flight from California.

The first thing besides the smell that I noticed, was the driving. There is absolutely no pattern. All of the driving laws here are just suggestions there.

The cars are much smaller, they drive a lot faster, and drivers slam on the breaks a lot quicker. Lanes aren’t used and stop lights and stop signs are non-existent. Another thing I noticed when we got into the over-whelming, smoggy city was the many people just sitting in filth.

The amount of garbage was astonishing. Have any of your parents told you not to litter and asked you what if everyone did it? Delhi is a great example of what it would look like if everyone threw trash on the ground.

Anyway, we met up with some people from all over the world, two tour guides and went on a tour where we learned about the way children live in Delhi. For some of the kids, since they were born into poor families they were looked at more like burdens instead of family. so many parents would leave their children or the children would run away from home. The tour guides, Max and Dave, whom were born in India and Nepal, took us to a place where we got to spend time with some kids. We played games such as patty cake, thumb wars, and they really enjoyed taking selfies.

The next day in Delhi, a nice taxi driver named Raj drove us to many different temples, where we saw beautiful silver carvings and exquisite artwork. I also had the privilege of being blessed in one of the temples. A poppy lei was placed around my neck, a kind man put a dot on my forehead with red paint.

Many people also asked if they could take a picture with us or sometimes individually just me.

All in all, Dehli was a great city to warm me up for what else I would see in India.

In India where ever you are, there are most likely going to be cows, dogs, pigs, and camels in the streets. Also you might occasionally see an elephant roaming the streets with its owner on its back.

So off to Jaipur we went.

The air was already much better than in Delhi. This was the place I was most excited for.

After we put all of our stuff in hotel, we went straight into the “pink city”. We walked around a popular bazar, which is like a market, and then took a ricksha to a restaurant called Peacock Rooftop. I felt like I was in a movie. The restaurant had a classic Indian band playing, there was a beautiful sunset, and the food was amazing. The whole night was just unreal.

The next day, we drove for hours to a city called Agra. Agra is where the Taj Mahal is. Again like the night before, it was unreal. You really don’t understand how big this building actually is. It is made out of white marble and it seemed like a million hand-made flowers made out of different types of stones. When light hits the flowers they glow. We weren’t allowed to wear shoes so we had to put a cover over them or just take them off. While walking around, we also saw many monkeys just prancing about. The whole thing was overall just magnificent.

The four hour car ride back really drained us of our energy so we just hung out when we got back to the hotel.

The next day was my favorite part of the whole trip. We took a ride up to a fort that looked similar to the great wall of china. The plan was to ride an elephant to the top of this phenomenal fort and then have a tour when we got up there.

The elephants were beautiful. They had painted faces, ears, and toe nails. A driver was perched up on the neck and then behind him was a padded area with no seat belts or anything, just a little railed box. My mom got on an elephant first and then I was behind them. It was awesome. I was having a great time taking pictures and enjoying the scenery, but when I looked over at my mom she was crying her eyes out.

The elephant is a tall animal and my mom isn’t a fan of height plus the swaying movement of when the walk. What made matters even worse for my mom was that her elephants got mad at the one in front of it so it started moving swiftly.

During the time I was having fun, my mom just about had a heart attack.

The fort was astonishing. Besides the fact that it was humongous, the carvings and art was so pretty.

We all learned a lot from the experience.

That was it for Jaipur and it was time for our last stop, Mumbai.

Mumbai, was unlike the other two cities because it was near the beach which made it humid-hot, it was more modern, and it was lush while the other cities were dry. And the air was clearer.

The first day in Mumbai we spent in the markets, shopping and eating. We also went to a monument by the water.

The second day, we ventured in Gandhi national park. We first went and looked around this little temple where the locals go to pray and then we took a tiger safari. A bus drove around a big piece of land and we were able to see two tigers. Once that was finished, we hiked up and down Kaneri caves. Which had 107 caves on an entire chunk of mountain.

When we got back to the hotel after a busy day in the park we just chilled by the pool.

After an amazing week in a beautiful country, the vacation had to come to an end. It was off to the airport and we would be home soon.