Jaipur

Although Jaipur is part of the the Golden Triangle and one of the most visited parts of India we were fairly underwhelmed by it. It doesn't have the big city magic of Varanasi or Mumbai but is not as idyllic as Jodphur or Jaisalmer.

It did have two redeeming features though, the Amber Fort which was spectacular, and a very nice hotel, courtesy of Mr and Mrs Manley. They had meant to come out and meet us but unfortunately a small visa issue prevented that.

After checking in to our Sheraton we took full advantage of the luxury before hitting the town. It was filthy hot, really muggy but a thin cotton shirt and a bottle of water are brilliant in conditions like that so we manned up and went sight-seeing. Palaces and museums, camels and donkeys, it was all fairly fairytalesque but just didn't tickle our fancy for some reason. It was also far more touristy and we had people hassling us everywhere we went. It's all good fun and banter for a while but after 6 hours of 'Hey, were you from?' it loses a bit of its appeal.

The first afternoon was spent by the pool as we took a break from the rigours of a Gap Year, the evening spent at a lovely restaurant that served an excellent, if very spicy tikka masala. The meal had the added advantage of giving me some exercise as I dashed back to the hotel to use the loo.

Amber Fort (silent b) is the highlight of Jaipur and we finally succumbed to an exceptionally persistent tuk-tuk driver who offered to do the whole 3 hour, 40km round trip for 250 rupees (about 3 quid), on the condition that we 'look' at some shops on the back. So we took him up on it. He was a real keen bean who claimed that customer satisfaction was his primary aim. He even pulled out a book of comments from all his previous customers which varied from the Germans: 'he should trim his moustache more' to the Italians: 'very safe but must drive faster'. He showed us a beautiful palace surrounded by a lake before dropping us at the entrance to the Amber Fort. As big and as magnificent as the one at Jodphur, it was perched on a hill, with huge walls surrounding it and gorgeous gardens in the valley below.

The elephants weren't available so we tackled the climb on foot, fighting off murderous hat sellers and chaps who offered to give us a guided tour in Taiwanese. Finally at the summit we disappeared in the throng of tourists, wound up some stairs and emerged on a parapet with fantastic views of the rest of the fort and the surrounding countryside. We wandered amongst the massive stone walls, towers and temples built inside the wall before flagging slightly and stopping at the cafe to have a coke with a view.

We managed to not buy anything in the shops on the way home and unfortunately I think this meant that our tuk-tuk bloke didn't get his commission as he tried to double the price once we got back to the hotel. Cheeky bugger.

We then had another quick swim, grabbed our bags, grabbed some chicken nuggets at Maccy D's and then headed to the bus station where we hopped on our ride home.