Jaipur, known as The Pink City because it was painted pink for the arrival of Prince Albert in 1853 and many building owners have kept the colour to this day. We arrived by a barely working bus and entered the city through scenic hills, inside there was the usual traffic chaos we have become used to and then passed the serene palace of the Rajasthan Royal family and their polo pitch. Our hotel had a rooftop terrace we could watch the sunset and peer in to neighbours gardens who all seemed to have a Peacock in residence, beautiful birds but very noisy.

We began our tour through the market place and were introduced to new fruit and veg then a hairy tuktuk ride took us to a cinema for a taste of Bollywood, we will never forget the theme song to Chennai Express! A romcom starring the legend that is Shahrukh Khan.

On our second day we visited the historic sights of Hawa Mahal, Jal Mahal, Amer Fort and Jantar Mantar. Amer Fort was a favourite of ours, it is an ancient palace in Amer which is the old capital right next to Jaipur. It sits atop a steep hill we climbed after watching a snake charmer and petting his Cobra. The palace was built by three generations of Maharaja, the first had a courtyard specially built so that he could visit one of his many wives without being seen by the others. They all had appartments around the edge of this courtyard which is decorated with stone images taken from the Karma Sutra.

Janta Mantar is an observatory from the 18th century full of instruments that still work perfectly today, they look like designs taken from a Dali painting. In the afternoon we opted to have a massage which was more torturous than relaxing, first I had to slip in to a paper thong that left little to the imagination then I was needed and folded like origami, the girls had it a little easier than us boys.