Jaipur

It is possible that we are getting slightly acclimatised to being in India. Monkeys jumping onto parked motorbikes hardly faze us. We're getting quite good at ignoring shopkeepers who do everything short of dragging you into their shop bodily. (It's more honest than TV advertising, in truth.) Child beggars and manic traffic: no, there's no getting used to those.

But neither of us wanted to get to close to the snake charmer just setting up for the day outside the City Palace in Jaipur. When I was a child, I'm sure I had a Ladybird Book of Peoples of the World with a picture of the very same snake charmer; perhaps it was his Dad or Grandad. Snakes coming no poison, he said. What do they do with the venom when they milk it out of the cobra's fangs, I wonder. Not stuff you want to have hanging around, surely.

The City Palace was impressive, with the late Maharajah's Merc parked in the courtyard under a special Merc car cover with a little pouch to cover the Merc bonnet -what are those things called? Logos? Best to have plenty of flunkies in white outfits plus turbans and sashes to polish the shiny metal bits. No shortage of flunkies at the City Palace, anyway, all with splendid moustaches and hopes of earning a tip by posing for a photo with a visitor.

The palace had a morning-after feel with canopies and mats still laid out for people who'd come to pay their respects to the maharajah who died on Sunday. Much polo paraphernalia in evidence, and plenty of dusty chandeliers. Beautiful doorways: one for each season into the inner courtyard. Don't know which season R is adorning here.

Rereata has turned into a demon bargainer, beating local jewellers down by many many dollars. This previously unknown talent for haggling is turning out to be very useful. On to Pushkar yet (not pushing a car though, happy to ride in it)...