Day 5: Jaipur and Amber. The sights.

We are meeting Shabbir and the Chapatti Express to go to Amber (the old capital). On the way we call in at the Gaitor, seemly off the tourist route, and the cremation site of the kings of Rajasthan since the building of Jaipur. This place has to be seen to be believed – ornate marble mausoleums to rival any we have ever seen anywhere in the world, and built in local and Italian marble. This place is a beautiful and tranquil place all the better for not being flooded with tourists.

Up to Amber and the forts and palace. To say this place is amazing would be to stretch the superlative. We walk through the usual layers of hawkers up to the palace and into this stunning complex of buildings and gardens, chambers and terraces, corridors and pavilions before finally getting lost and having to navigate the maze back to the entrance. The picture of the lives of the Kings of India pre-English rule was impressively and indelibly painted for us.Humbled both by the scale of the forts and palace and our ignorance of this land, its history and people we head for a coffee break away from the heat and dust of winter. It must be 28 in the shade, how anyone copes when the temperature can reach 50 is anyone’s guess.

Shabbir is now giving us the distinct impression he is tired of us and with a thinly veiled discussion about looking forward to spending the afternoon with his children, he drops us back at The Pearl Palace and is off to find his next paying customer.

(Shabbir - Talented capitalist)

A bit of rest and recuperation is required, before we head up to the rooftop restaurant for more curry!!