Today we visited one of last of India’s great palaces, Umaid Bhawan is one of the largest in the world. The Maharaja commissioned Henry Vaughan Lanchester as the architect to prepare the plans for the palace. Set in twenty-six acres, of which fifteen are garden, it took half a million donkey – loads of earth for the garden beds, a hundred wagon – loads of Makarana marble, two -and-a- half million quintals of ice, a million meters of steel conduits, fifteen thousand running feet of copper and lead wire weighing two hundred tons, an electric network of 2500 KW for the main palace alone and a three hundred ton compressor for the air- conditioning plant. The entire project cost Maharaja Umaid Singh Rupee . 94,51,565.

The palace houses wonderful art, antique clocks and cars.

We then visited a wholesale distributor of fabrics and a pawnbroker for Indian goods. This was a fabulous shop. There was a truck load of beautiful art work, furniture and cloth we would love to have bought but unfortunately it would not fit in the suitcase. The proprietor supplies to major high end fashion houses around the world as the quality, style and beauty of the products is exceptional. The same goes for Indian furniture.

After lunch we hopped onto Tuk Tuks and braved the chaotic traffic to visit the Sandar Market. A spice market, a kaleidoscope of colorful goods of all kinds. The women blended into the market as many were wearing their beautifully coloured traditional clothing. Vendors were only to happy to talk about their wares.

It was interesting to note the obvious blend of Hindu and Muslim who harmoniously engaged each other.

On our way out to dinner we saw a nilgai, Boselaphus tragocamelus it is the largest antelope of Asia, and is ubiquitous across the northern Indian subcontinent.

Dinner out in the city and the city is alive with people and again traffic chaos, late starters but late finishers.