But today has been about the people I have met, rather than what I have seen. Each one quite different, but all had in common big smiles, a genuine warmth and friendliness that went beyond just wanting my tourist dollar.
When I arrived late yesterday afternoon, I rang ahead to book a hotel. However, directions were too difficult, so we arranged for a pick up at the bus station.
As I was waiting, a flock of pushy tuktuk drivers surrounded me. 'Come to my hotel, come to my hotel', one screeched, 'air con rooms', another yelled, 'cheap, cheap, best price', a third joined in.
An old man with twinkling eyes and a fringe of silver hair surveyed the scene. When I had shoed the touts away I got chatting to him. He reminded me a bit of my father.
'I am from Mauritious' he said, 'a tourist too, but I don't get this...
'Oh' I said, genuinely surprised. A tourist from a small french Island was the last thing I expected. 'Parlez vous Francais?'
'Mais Oui!!' he said with a characteristic gallic shrug. And so we had a conversation in my schoolboy French about the places we had visited in India. I am not sure who was more surprised or pleased.
After II had checked in, cleaned up and checked the bike, I went out for a stroll round the city. After 10 minutes walking a rickshaw driver pulled up. Small, old, skinny, but with a big smile, I let myself be persuaded to be taken on a tour round for half an hour.
So we trundled off up the road, a bit slow and rickety, and had a conversation about life as much as we could. Shantilal told me about his wife and children and his home. He was obviously very poor, his rickshaw was often his bed too, but had a real zest for life. I was shocked to find out that we were the same age. Life here can be really hard.
The next morning, I decided to hire a tuktuk for the day, as it was the easiest way to see Jaipur. Mosin, third in a line of drivers was the recommended choice of the hotel, so off we went.
His family too were poor. 5 children lived with their parents in a 2 bedroom house 3km outside of the city. He was smartly dressed though, and wanted to know all about me and England.
"You have wife? No? Girl? Many girls?' he laughed merrily. European girl very beautiful, he sighed wistfully. 'But I have beautiful girl too'.
We were out for a good eight hours and took in a lot of sights. The Pink City, the City Palace, the Observatory Park Jantar Mantar, the Amber For and Old Palace, the Water Palace, goat fair and Monkey Temple.
The Palaces were full of history, beautiful and inspired me with dreams of Rajput and Moghul courts. But also it was hot and tiring work, going round looking at things, reading inscriptions, listening to audio guides and leaflets.
At the Amber Palace, a guide showed me round. He was 55 and been working there for over 20 years. I didn't catch his name, but he wanted to tell me mostly about the 12 wives and 350 concubines the King kept, and the pains he had to go to to stop them quarrelling and arguing and fighting. He wasn't always successful so devised punishments for them such as grinding sacks of corn.
At sunset the Monkey Temple was the last place on the tour. A bright young boy, checking me out in half a dozen languages, attached himself to me, and promised to how me how to feed the monkeys.
We wound past a lot of really poor Rajasthanis, who seemed to have made their homes on the path up to the top. He chatted away about all the people who had been bitten, and what had happened to them. He knew all about Iphones, and wanted to know what games I had. For this very purpose, I had downloaded a few in Delhi, and this kept him entranced for ages.
He wanted to be a doctor when he grew finished his studies. I am not sure if this is possible but he certainly had a quick wit and if his ability with languages is any indication, then he certainly has the intelligence. I don't know what chance he has - every child has the possibility of education here, but it will be a long way for him to come.
The relationships that you meet with local people as a tourist is usually very brief. What you take away from each other, whether money, smiles, knowledge, good experiences, will almost certainly be quickly forgotten. I will be just another face in a long line of tourists to many of them. I cant promise that I will remember every detail about each of the different guides today, but I will remember the smiles and the laughter about simple things that we have shared.
Oh, and I had my palm read, But I can only tell what he said to one person.
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