A longish drive to Jaipur, but we were able to appreciate the excitement of Indian traffic chaos along the way. It was always an amusing exercise to observe 2 sets of opposing traffic trying to make their way (at the same time) through a gap only meant for 1 lane of traffic. There is a bewildering assortment of modes of transport - Rajasthan still uses a lot of camel carts to move items in the towns. Tuk tuks and locally made Mahindra Jeeps convey passengers on longer distances - I saw one tuk tuk which was so crammed with passengers, both inside and on its roof, that I suspect it was aiming for the Guiness Book of Records.

Colourful lorries, playing a variely of tunes on their horns, diplayed various admonitions on the back - "horn please, sound horn, keep distance, safe distance, use dimmer at night, wait for side" (whatever that means) were some of the more common ones. One notable one stated - "please inform if rash or dangerous driving (with a phone number to call)" - I think a few Brisbane drivers could do with this sign.

Arrived in Jaipur around lunch time so traffic was a bit heavy and chaotic but finally arrived at our hotel to be met by our local guide. After a quick lunch it was off to visit Jaipur's famous sites.

Unable to view the well known beautiful Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds - one of Jaipur's best known landmarks as it was covered in scaffolding for renovation and painting.

Our first stop was the Jantar Mantar (UNESCO world heritage site) open air Observatory which houses a collection of architectural astronomical instruments built by a Maharaja between 1727 and 1734. The name is derived from Jantar (instrument) and mantar (formula or calculation), so "jantar mantar" means "calculation instrument". It consists of 14 major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses and tracking stars. The largest instrument has a chatri (small cupola) on top and is used as a platform for announcing eclipses and the arrival of the monsoon.

Then on to the City Palace, built in the 18th century of red and pink sandstone, which is an amazing complex of various couryards and palaces. One palace, Mubarak Mahal, is a museum displaying royal costumes and a wide varity of textiles. One amusing display was the set of clothes worn by one Maharaja who was 1.2 metres wide and weighed 250 kg and interestingly had 108 wives.

A part of the Chandra Mahal palace is still occupied by the present Maharaja and family.

Jaipur is famous for it's textiles, so our guide took us to an outlet which explained and demonstrated the time and labour consuming way of using blocks to print the traditional designs.

Puppet show at the hotel tonight. I was very interested in buying a couple of puppets but the only ones I was interested in were the ones used for the show. The puppet man told me these were old ones used by his father and grandfather as well so were not for sale. Did not like the new puppets.