Morning Jaipur

The Palace of Amber, near Jaipur

One of the elephants going up to the Palace of Amber

The climb to the Palace of Amber

Ready to go...

Elephants coming down back down from the Palace of Amber

Isn't she pretty!

The steady climb to the Palace of Amber

And what goes up... must come down again!

Our elephant on her way back

Palace of Amber: the entrance gate to the inner Palaces

The Great Wall... of India!

Marble column detail in the Palace of Amber

More detailing of a marble column in Palace of Amber

Ganesh Pol ceremonial gate in Amber Palace

Detail of murals in Ganesh Pol (Palace of Amber)

Inside the Palace: detail of the magnificent Sheesh Mahal embedded with tiny mirrors

Beautifully crafted 'screen windows' in Palace of Amber. These screens were designed so the ladies could look outside without being seen... These are found in many places

A working lady, helping her husband (gardener) in the Palace of Amber

Marble detail (Palace of Amber)

A typical Indian road: shared by car, bike, cart and elephant!

Carpet-making - step 1: looping of coloured wools according to pattern chart (left of worker)

Carpet-making: wool

Block Printing - 1st stamp (up to 7 stamps can be used to apply different colour details to complete a pattern)

An example of a typical block printed fabric

Jaipur: the Jantar Mantar Observatory - a complex and extremely ingenuous set of constructions designed to find out astrological movements. This was built by Maharaja Jai Singh II

City Palace of Jaipur

Detail by the front gate of Jaipur City Palace

Silver Urn in Jaipur City Palace - the largest silver object in the world. This urn was designed to store holy water from the Gange River

City Palace in Jaipur: the Riddhi Sidhi Pol (gate)

City Palace of Jaipur

Detail of the wall decor (City Palace of Jaipur)

4.00pm: ordering another Punjabi Suit for dinner!

Gem pollishing

Pollished gems

The Jal Mahal in Jaipur appears to rise from the waters of the Man Sagar Lake (a view from our hotel room)