13 January:
6am arrived in Jaipur after a noisy night on the Kurj Express. The train driver must have been schooled at the tuk-tuk  school of horn blowing as he rarely ceased from whistle blowing for most of the night’s journey,  good earplugs were a must.

The first thing we noticed in Jaipur was the abundance of colourful kites in the sky and as the day progressed the sky filled with more. As luck would have it we had just happened upon a kite festival that is celebrated all over India marking the transition of the sun into the northern hemisphere.

While waiting for our hotel check in we took a stroll through the old city for a taste of the street life, Jaipur being the capital of Rajasthan it has all the noises and smells associated with that status.

The tea lady with a new take on the tea bag. “Here’s one I made earlier.”

The face of happiness:  Cleaning lady at the Hawa Mahal “Palace of the Winds”.

Monkey business at the Jaipur City Palace

Men at Work

Old Spice men

It's a tough life

Local craft weaver

Time for a pit stop lunch, A curry at Ganesh Restaurant on top of the old city wall, this kitchen is not a place for the faint hearted health and safety conscious so look away now.

Tee shirt cooking on a charcoal grill  

Nan bread prepared from a clay oven

Note the rooftop aircon' vent behind the nan bread maker and clay oven in foreground.