JAIPUR — THE PINK CITY

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This was the sign to the enterance to the city made with flowers[/caption]

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The ladies all learning the print trade of materials[/caption]

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The finished product after four presses[/caption]

After the fresh air scenario of the National Park we have now moved onto Jaipur. A city of 4 million people where the smog is on par with the smog in Delhi. After the high of seeing the Tiger, the Pink City of Jaipur is a bit of a let down. Well I suppose anything would be. The one bright spot is the Marriott Hotel with its fine dining restaurant and on suite rooms. We are here for two nights. We were taken to a world famous textile dealer where Trish picked out some fabric and designed a dress to be made up. This will only take 24 hours. Peter and I have ordered shirts to be made and Nick has ordered 2 suites a jacket and 6 shirts!

The sight seeing started at 9.30am where we visited the City Palace with its Museum of Armoury, ancient dress, artistry, linen and carpets. All donkey’s years old.

The next place we went to was the Observatory which was constructed in 1700 by Jai Singh II. This was all outdoor and based on sun light and sun dials also over an area of 6 football fields. The mind boggles.

A few crazy things to mention about our trip so far, the amount of traffic that travels down the wrong side of the road is bizarre, even big trucks carrying animals ,they travel on the inside and other vehicles are traveling on the outside!! Imagine the scenario! vehicles passing both sides

The amount of street dogs basically in every city we have been in is unbelievable were at the moment nobody is responsible for them, recently the Indian Supreme Court decreed they the local ,councils are now responsible for any damage the dogs do!! the local councils must pay for any rabies injections or medical bills caused by the dogs , what a solution!!

Another big thing we have noticed are the amount of swastikas built into the design of structures buildings ,materials , apparently this has been around hundreds of years ,long before the nazi’s !!

The drive to the next stop is 6 1/2 hours in the morning , start at 7.30 am , how! Am I looking forward to that??

later. M and T