The capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur was our next destination. Jaipur is named after its founder, Jai Singh a former Maharaja who came to power at the age of 11. Jaipur is also known as the Pink City, surprisingly enough England had an influence on the name as the city was painted pink to welcome the then Prince of Wales, Edward VII in 1876.

It was clear driving through that Jaipur has colourful and chaotic streets but it didn't look very pink. We arrived at the bus station aware that we were starting our 'Golden Triangle' tour which also equals scams and conmen! As the lonely planet kindly put it, the locals search around for easy prey.

After a comfortable journey from Pushkar we arrived at the bus stand only to be faced by hundreds of wallahs, we barged through the crowds to the pre paid rickshaw stand to take us to our hotel. It was here we met Mohammed our driver, who drove us around to various hotels only to find they were full and the whole time he insisted that we try Sajjan Niwas which was advertised in his rickshaw. Aware of the scams etc we refused until our options wore thin, we were pleasantly surprised with the hotel so decided to stay fully aware that Mohammed was probably receiving a hefty commission. But did we care? No, we had a bed sorted.

Our first evening was spent shopping at upmarket boutiques, but obviously we didn't buy anything however, Helen did treat Nick to a meal at Little Italy where he able to indulge in some Risotto (you know who you are that started his obsession!).

As we wanted to save some dosh, we decided to get a Bicycle rickshaw back to our hotel for a measly 20 rupees and my god, it was the most painful journey we have ever been on watching the cyclist struggle to pull his rickshaw along but we were doing our bit for the environment.

The next day was spent on a tuk tuk tour of Jaipur, visiting the City Palace which is a complex of courtyards, gardens and buildings, the Jantar Mantar a observatory with huge 'instruments of calculations' which are apparently accurate, this was developed as Jai Singh was apparently obsessed with Astronomy and the Hawa Mahal, which is a distinctive landmark constructed to enable the ladies of the royal household watch the world go by in the streets below. We also visited the Royal Gaitors which hold the royal cenotaphs.

After lunch, we went to visit the magnificent Amber Fort but we were slightly disappointed after visiting Jodhpurs fort that we just whizzed by and got ourselves lost in the little alleyways of the palace. We were then roped by our driver to visit a textile warehouse and we were adamant not to buy anything but after seeing some beautiful materials we were roped into buying stuff. (naive maybe, but we checked the prices elsewhere and our products were fair prices!). This is where Helen got her first sari and they made up the top within a couple of hours and had it delivered to our hotel.

Our evening was spent browsing the colourful and busy bazaar's of Jaipur and sorting out on onwards travel to Agra in the morning.

After rushing our hotel into making our breakfast in record time, We took a very early morning bus to Agra, Uttar Pradesh the home of the majestic Taj Mahal.