More from Rajasthan.

So we're still on the 12th of April and still in baking hot Rajasthan... here's a few more snaps:

I bought this Kurta when we went shopping with Arvind and Rajini...what do you think?

Nice Vass...

Anyway, after our music lessons we went to get some lunch and then in the evening headed off to the Raj Mandir Cinema in Jaipur to catch the latest Bollywood movie - "Prince". The cinema itself is stunning, it can seat over 600 people and is an old 1950's Art Deco design.

The movie on the other hand was not as grand as its venue, and we left after half an hour of tring to follow nonsensical plots, rubbish acting and general gayness. What was funny though was how all the men whoop and cheer whenever they see a woman in a bikini on screen! Very funny

AFter the cinema we headed off to find a beer somewhere and ended up in a hotel called Wall Street watching the IPL cricket until about midnight.

After our drinks the evening starts to get more exciting. We hail a rickshaw driver and chance upon the Indian equivalant of Del-Boy and Rodney, Sheikr and Lakraj, the two cheekiest chappies in Rajasthan. They give us a ride home and on the way we are lucky enough to stumble upon a true Rajasthani wedding just about to start. There are hundreds of people in the street, horses covered in jewelerry, elephants painted with rangoli patterns, fireworks going off everywhere! It's really a highlight for me...

When we get back to the hotel we haggle over a price for Sheikr and Lakraj to take us round jaipur for the whole day, we settle on 600Rs which is a rip-off but I cant be bothered to push any more.

The next morning we get picked up by the infamous Jaipur couple and we head off to see some sights including the water palace, a very strange park that they take us to that is dry as a desert and plays a continuous looped tape of elephant and tiger noises!

A nice surprise is a young child who approaches us just outside the water palace asking if we want to see a magic trick. We cant refuse him as he's so cute, cant be more than 6 or 7 years old. The tricks he can do though just blow my mind! He is AMAZING! He really could put any professional magician to shame. I feel sad that he has no option other than this to survive, but at the same time I feel happy that he has managed to learn a skill that can put food on the table. India has really shown me the resilient spirit of human beings.

We also visit a nice Jain Temple and then head to the Hawa Mahal, which is for me the most beautiful building in Jaipur. The structure is essentially a facade consisting of hundreds of tiny windows which were for the use of the Maharaja's wives and mistresses who were practicing Purdha. Basically Purdha means that they were not allowed to show their faces or be seen by any other person but the Maharaja, these little windows therefore allowed them to watch the comings and goings on the busy market place of the Pink City without being seen.

Here's one of the Hawa Mahal at night:

When we get back to the hotel Neeta heads back out to the Pink City for some shopping while Martin and I drink some Beers and come out to meet her later. I get some nice pictures of the city at night: -

The next day we head to Pushkar. Stay tuned