India - Day 9 - Saturday 12th November

Today we leave our hotel at 8.30 and our first stop is a chance to photograph the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. It's a five story high, one room deep facade built to allow the ladies of the court to watch street processions through the Pink City.

Then we move onto the observatory, built by Jai Singh II as a place to calculate the time and positions of celestial objects for the purposes of astrology. It's more like a modernistic sculpture park, and full of huge structures, the biggest of which shows local time to within two seconds.

Next stop is the city palace, partially a museum and next door to the residence of the current maharajah, though he is currently away studying in England. There is a textile museum which I find fascinating, and a weapons museum, but the main attraction is the buildings. In one hall there is a pair of enormous silver urns, the largest crafted items of silver in the world.

From the palace we drive to a jewellery workshop where we are shown how they polish and shape the stones, then into the sales area where we are wooed by rum and cokes! The it's on to another workshop where we see fabric block printing and carpet making, and are given refreshments during the carpet sales pitch. The room at the back sells fabrics by the metre, but I'm surprised how expensive the silks are. We buy a table runner, a scarf and a length of silk, getting rid of some of our 500 and 1000 rupee notes in he process.  Will gets measured for a suit which is delivered later that day to the hotel.

Dilip then lets us loose in a street bazaar for a short while, and I buy a tunic, leggings and another scarf. Our final visit of the day is to a Hindu temple built by Mr Bilars, owner of one of the biggest business concerns in India. He has built many temples throughout northern India, and also funded an engineering school for girls in his native village.

Back to the hotel and a quick rest before we go out for another tuk-tuk ride with John and Judith to a restaurant. Great meal, and we get an electric tuk-tuk back much to Mick's delight.