We had stayed at the Taj Jai Mahal Palace in Jaipur. We've not talked much about our hotels. Needless to say, they were beautiful - mostly of the Taj Group and yes some of them were original palaces with significant hotel additions.

We are basically travelling due west with the first area outside of Jaipur very industrial, especially sandstone and marble mining. The terrain is also rolling much as on the other side of Jaipur, leaving the city and villages tucked into the valleys. On the highways, as usual we see huge amounts of trucks, mostly all "Kata" one of the biggest vehicle producers in India. What is unique is all the stuff that they hand on them - not so much as decoration but to increase visibility. We are halted for about a half an hour for a train, which due to the hills we cannot see until it is right upon us. We start out on a 4 lane highway, but everything is under construction so our drive is slowed remarkably, even though we are getting out of the hills.

As we move further west, we come into farming regions. The crops here are sorghum, lentils, mustard, anise or cumin. Ever effort is made to increase the transportation capability. You can usually see farm trucks pulling a small trailer but with very large fibre bags that drop into and out and around full of seed on the move. The quantity of the load would probably fill a traditional North American 3 ton dump truck. Not unlike early days in Canada, farmers will drive their tractors into the villages for commerce, work or social reasons.

The women who normally worked the fields can be seen out there laboring away in beautiful colorful saris. They hand work the materials into sheaves, which are left standing to dry. When asked why they would work in such beautiful clothes we are told that their life is so hard that wearing colorful and beautiful clothes gives them great joy, and nothing will take that away.

We arrive at Jodpur, the blue city with enough time to do a quick tour of a market and have a wee demonstration of spices. For dinner this evening we go to the Ajit Bhawan hotel, India's first heritage hotel - palace. We are welcomed - the ladies with a scarf and the men with a pre-formed turban. We were served an excellent full on Indian dinner in the court yard of this beautiful castle built in 1927.