Jaipur is the last city we are visiting in Rajasthan. It is the pink city and many walls in the old city are painted pink. our first day we visited our driver’s family and had tea marsala which was very special. After that we went to a Rajasthan carnival with tightrope walking (no net), camel and elephant rides, dancing, music, sideshow amusements with guns and bows and arrows … it was lots of fun. There was a buffet vegetarian meal. We got a bit of everything but had mostly no idea what we were eating. We recognised the obvious like rice, pappadums, dahl and potato.
Yesterday we spent the day around Jaipur, mostly in the old city.We visted e Amber fort and took an elephant ride to the top. Our elephant was called Champa and was a young 25 year old and a bit smaller than most of the elephants. We were chased by a miniature picture hawker from beginning to end. Again I finally succumbed and thought I had a good deal, u til others started offering more fore less. Oh well!!!

In the Amber fort which was very old, there was a rudimentary air conditioned room with running water through a channel and the breeze would move across the water to cool the women in the hot summers. Not only that, but there was a room with many tiny mirrors in the ceiling. They would like a fire in each corner for the king and the room would be like one massive disco ball with scores of litle lights.




We visited the city palace and saw the biggest sundial in the world and the biggest silver urn in the world. It was an interesting mix of ancient sundials, some showing the time, some the astrology influences… it was fascinating. In the afternoon, we fought off buying carpets and jewellery again.