This morning I woke up after about eight hours sleep feeling much better. I went downstairs and had a coffee and a very bland breakfast before getting ready for meeting the rest of the group at 10 AM.
Raj took us on a quick walking tour through the flower market and past some shops and the City Palace to the Observatory.
Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so when Prakash our guide took us on our tour of the Observatory, it was hard for him to demonstrate the sundials with a distinct lack of sunshine and shadow. It was still fascinating to see him describe sundials accurate within two seconds (to be accurate they have to be really big!) and eventually the sun did come out so we were able to look at them in use.
Raj then arranged an interesting rickshaw journey on cycle rickshaws to the lassi shop. Each rickshaw seats two people and our driver looked like he was in his 70s with only one tooth left and I felt terribly guilty as he cycled us through the crazy traffic in Jaipur!
We stopped at a famous Lassi shop for a Lassi served in a recyclable clay pot that is used once and smashed. We then had the most calorific ice cream ever followed by a samosa - lunch in reverse! We went back to the hotel and write postcards before meeting up again at 5:30 for our Bollywood experience!
I was excited about the Bollywood experience, but probably more about the experience itself then the actual film. I wasn't too sure what it would be like to watch a film with no subtitles that goes on for three hours and whether I'll be able to follow the plot! The cinema itself was a lovely art deco and grand design and inside you could buy a variety of Indian snacks as well as popcorn and Coca-Cola! I went for a big tub of popcorn and a diet Coke because that's probably what I'd end up with at the cinema in the UK but it did feel different having it in India! We took our seats and what fascinated me was there was no one shushing or being quiet and people wandered in and out as they wished or chatted away on their phones!
The film plot was actually really easy to follow - the premise of the film was a little girl from Pakistan ended up on a train to India because she couldn't speak and so was going to a special Muslim temple in Delhi for "treatment" only she managed to get off the train and got separated from her mother. The rest of the film saw a chap trying his best to sneak over the Indian Pakistani border to get her back to her family. There were cheers and shouts from the audience at various points in the performance and gave it a sense of atmosphere and occasion. I loved it even if we weren't able to understand any of the jokes!
We wandered back to the hotel and had a buffet dinner where there were two musicians playing things like Frera Jacques on the keyboard it was interesting...
