Waved goodbye to the Atithi Hotel for a second time and headed off for Jaipur, calling in en route at Fatepur Sikri, another Mughal Palace complex. We had to run the usual gauntlet of desperate market traders at the palace. The Mumbai bombings seem to have hit the tourist industry very hard here, and times being hard make the pursuit of sales relentless. Unfortunately there are only so many chess-sets, necklaces, Taj Mahals in a snowstorm dome that you need.
This is a huge site - a whole Mughal walled city, and here is the pool associated with the legendary court musician Tamsen, who it was said could light oil lamps with the magic of his voice - it overlooks the vast Pachisi Court which is the size of a football pitch and is a place where the ladies of the harem used to play a game that was an early version of ludo. The emperor must have had one huge harem if they needed that all that space just for shaking a double six.
Waiting my turn for the dice.
This is a huge site - a whole Mughal walled city, and here is the pool associated with the legendary court musician Tamsen, who it was said could light oil lamps with the magic of his voice - it overlooks the vast Pachisi Court which is the size of a football pitch and is a place where the ladies of the harem used to play a game that was an early version of ludo. The emperor must have had one huge harem if they needed that all that space just for shaking a double six.
Waiting my turn for the dice.
Two more hours in the coach took us past lots of villages specialising in stone-carving - with the workshops and factories opening right out onto the road .......
and the ox carts trundling goods along the road have been superceded by camel carts. We must be in Rajasthan. Our base for the next few days are the Omni Vas apartments, about 20 minutes outside Jaipur city centre, in the quiet, leafy suburbs - they are clean, spacious apartments and come with a wonderful roof terrace, just soon proved to be ideal for drinking Kingfisher as the sun goes down.
and the ox carts trundling goods along the road have been superceded by camel carts. We must be in Rajasthan. Our base for the next few days are the Omni Vas apartments, about 20 minutes outside Jaipur city centre, in the quiet, leafy suburbs - they are clean, spacious apartments and come with a wonderful roof terrace, just soon proved to be ideal for drinking Kingfisher as the sun goes down.
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