We arrived in Jaipur, also known as the Pink City late at night. As soon as we got off the train there were the usual rickshaw drivers offering to take us to our accommodation. One friendly fellow offered us a reasonable fare which we quickly accepted - after being sick on the train I would have accepted anything.

The driver started with the standard questions; where are you from, do you like India, but got increasingly personal as we neared our destination. When we arrived it all became clear as he put on the hard-sell for us to hire his services on a daily rate for our sightseeing around Jaipur. Aidan politely refused (after 2 months of haggling in China I loathe negotiating with taxi drivers), however this guy was persistent. He pulled out a notebook and started to show us written recommendations from previous clients, reading us from pages every now and again. After 5 minutes of waiting outside our guesthouse I wondered whether he would keep talking if I threw up on him... Aidan found a moment to interject and explained that we were both sick and wouldn't be doing anything the next day so he finally let us go, not before handing us his card. In the end we opted for the local bus system which worked out at 10% of the cost and didn't detour to shops on the way to our destination.

After a day of recoupering in the AC we headed out to the infamous Amber Palace complex. Forts surround you on all sides while standing in the Amber Palace. Where guards use to stand, there are now goats walking the walls and monkeys swinging through windows.

Jaipur's old city is now a bubbling market selling beautiful silk saris, antiques and gem stones. As light traveller's we walk past most shops, however while strolling the streets we did encounter the usual harassments such as "Excuse me sir... hello?... why do foreigners never talk to Indians!" which Aidan recognised as a classic intro to the notorious Jaipur gemstone scam (google it).

One unfortunate aspect of travelling in India is that if someone on the street engages you with friendly conversation then they are almost certainly trying to make money from you (scams, sales, commission, etc). When we first arrived in Delhi Aidan made a bit of sport of stringing along these smooth operators (even got a free map out of one) but the novelty quickly wore out. Ironically the places that we have found the most genuine interest are inside the tourist attractions where we are regularly approached for photos and/or a quick chat about where we are from.

Luckily the old city has more than scams to offer with Jantar Mantar (astronomical observatory) and Hawa Mahal (palace for royal women overlooking the hustle and bustle of life) located within the old walls.