i woke quite early this morning - i think i should have been hung over but wasnt! chikus friend Mr Ghandi had offered the services of his english speaking driver to act as a tour guide for me today for which i will always be greatful as he was fantastic! i took our car and driver with mr ghandis man giving directions - talk about luxery!!! we first headed out of the main town area and up to the amber fort which is well worth a visit - i thoroughly enjoyed it. i got a guide for the fort but bypassed the elephant ride - the elephants were magnificent and a little be daunting - everybody knows elelphants are big but to be stood amongst 5 or6 is really quite something. the guide took a couple of photos for me, then we got on the motor bike and headed up the hill, the road was bumpy and meandering but we arrived a t teh top in one piece - the rest i will explain in the photo section when i put the pictures up. after the for we headed up for a panoramic view over the city to annother fort - nearly crashing on the way but narrowly escaping (ooops sorry mum!) anyway the view was great. the temperature has kept down a little bit today - its the coolest day for a while acording to my guide at only 38 degrees - a welcome break from the 41 - 45 they have been enduring for the past couple fo weeks. from here we headed back down the windy road towards town stopping for a bit of lunch at a loacal park. the park told stories of krishna in the from of statues. it was the greenest place i have been and really enjoyed it - guys were watering the lawns with what can only be described at huge hose pipes spewing out gallons of water - the only way to keep it green in this predominantly desert area. after a welcome break in the park we headed into town to the city palace - annother guide took me round the poorly signed displays and told me all about the history. only part of the palace is open as the current maharaja is still living there. he was in at the time of my visit, his presence being indicated but two flags a larger one and a small one, the small one is removed when he's out of the palace but in the city, the large one when he is out of the city. unfortunatly i could take very few photos here. while there i went to see the craft emporium where it is possible to se demonstrations of how things are made. me bing me had to have a go too.! so i attempted some miniture painting and some beading with a little sucess. getting qutie tired now seen a lot today and starting to be troubled bysensory overload!!! so we headed back to the hotel for a little rest fore dinner. we again went to a rather posh 5 star hotel for food - this time i shared a thali with someone and had more than enought to eat between us. thali is a brilliant dish comprised of a number of things. generally you get a portion of rice, some bread in this case a plain chapati, a flavoured one and a mini naan bread. these were accompanied by 2 dals (lentil soups) a dry ver dish (spiced beans and caper type things) a veg curry dish and a veg kofta (veg ball a bit like a meat ball) then there was also a desert, salad, papad (popadom in a cone shape) and of coures raihita (a curd with flavours) each item only came in smalll quantities but it was still a lot of food even for two and we only barely finished it! hopefully i will learn how to cook some of this beofre i come home so i will either wow or poison you with it on my return.