In Rajasthan, you can book tours with the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) which give by far the best value tours.
After arguing with my friendly riskshaw driver, Hasan 'I never lie - i'm Muslim' Ali (that was his favourite quote...), who tried to convince me the RTDC office was closed (so he could take me on a tour himself), I finally got to one of the other 3 RTDC offices and booked the tour (much to Hasan's disappointment...). The whole day tour was just £3.45 (excluding entrance to sites)...
For this price unfortunately, AC was out of the question....
..a monument and a marble Hindhu temple....
..the old city again..
...Jantar Mantar (with its astrological and time-keeping clocks from the 18th Century) the City Palace, where the royal family still live..also 18th century.
The wily guide, persuaded me to pretend to be from Bombay to avoid the foreigner entrance fees of 300 Rs (as opposed to 10 Rs for a local)...i used my best Indian accent, asked for 'one ticket, one camera', waggled my head a bit, and got away with it :)
...the City Palace...
Next, we drove to the Nahargarh Fort in the monutains overlooking Jaipur..
...and passed lots of camels and the beautiful water palace on the way...
..it had a spectacular view over Jaipur and we stopped here for lunch...
Next we drove to the SPECTACULAR Amber Palace (Fort)...
Our wily guide and me...
Women here wear really dazzlingly colourful clothes....
We passed a few camels and elephants on the way...
..the driver, myself and the guide with his famous handle-bar moustache :)
I had a fantastic time on this tour...what a beautiful state ...
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