Le Meridien Jaipur

... peril of stepping into a pile of human/animal waste or being struck by a rickshaw or grabbed by a beggar and you have to navigate these obstacles with a constant noise of car horns, drivers yelling "taxi, taxi friend - you want taxi?" and vendors shoving scarves into your face and yelling "pashmina, pashmina, just look - looking free!". It was seriously overwhelming.<br><br>The next day we took a rickshaw out to the Amber Fort Palace ...

... a map behind me. I was petrified to be honest. All the kids' eyes were on me and they sat in silence no doubt confused by this foreigner. They all introduced themselves and told me their names. I caused much laughter when i attempted to pronounce their names back. The children are really sweet and eager to learn. At playtime they constantly wanted to grab my attention with "Sir ...

... at best. You have the usual drinking problem here<br>in that its bloody hard to get some. None at our hotel and then the<br>auld luke warm clandestine fair served in a tea-pot and covered glass.<br><br>So,<br>bar the surreal sight of 5 business men strolling down the street on<br>their way to work one morning, one of whom was completely naked save<br>for his brief-case, Jaipur offered little interesting substance and we<br>were happy to be on our way. This time by bus to the town of Pushkar.

... palace and the Jantar Mantar. Which is an observatory built by one Maharajah in the 18th century. It resembles a weird collection of modern sculpture but in fact contains instruments to measure the passing of the year and calculate the occurrence of eclipses. I sat for the afternoon in a park under a tree and waited to meet Ceasar again for dinner, after dinner we arranged a bus ticket and the next morning left to go to Jodhpur.

Arrival in the pink city, well at least we thought it was pink, at night time was a hectic and long affair with India's bazaar road system. Lorries going the wrong way down the motorways, cow's who seem to have right of way, dogs playing chase through both sides of the carriageway and our small little TaTa Indigo (like a Toyota Yaris only a little bigger) bombing through the roads with the same haste as Hamilton...... We were both ready ...

... we go for dinner to a kind of folk village/amusement park type thing. Have a traditional Rajasthani meal and even do a little dancing when they drag me up. Went to the cinema yesterday to see Singh is King, really funny with some catch songs. New volunteer(s) are arriving tomorrow, i wonder what they'll be like, will Scott live up to Nikki's expectations?? Will there be a girl too?? how old and where from?? tomorrow we shall find out for real.

... on the steps halfway up and waited for him. I invited the tour guide to go up after David and he shook his head vigerously, put his hands together in prayer mode and said "no no, quite dangerous". Sigh! His accompanying commentary consisted of, again, just the words 16th century, 17th century or, right at the end, he told us, "that took just one hour to complete...just one hour". Right. You better write that on your form then! (David: It was a giant sundial 75ft high ...

... crowd to at least sit down on the grass instead of standing. By the end half the crowd are on the pitch and well, she thinks it´s all over. The impressive elephant parade was followed by some fantastic musicians, eunuchs carrying dolls on their heads, actors dressed as the Hindu Gods and some scary but actually quite sweet tribal dancers (or `the tribals´ as the posh tannoy lady called them) and an elephant verses the tourists tug-of-war. Don´t think it will surprise you who won.

... where he still lives..exhibitions everywhere including textiles, carpets and the battle weaponry of the time. One of the displays had terrifying axes, swords, spears and a back scratcher..lol..what a scream! Jaipur is called the Pink City due to the colour of all the buildings and how they glimmer in the morning sun. In ancient times they painted the city pink for the Emperors arrival as it was a welcoming ...