We started the day with a drive through the walled Pink City - it was painted pink in honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1876 - to the City Palace complex. It includes the Sawai Mansingh Museum with its excellent collections of rare manuscripts and miniature paintings, Mubarak Mahal and the armoury.

Two things caught my attention in particular. One, the massive robes of a maharaja who was said to have been 6’-6" tall, 4’ wide and weighed over 250 kgs (500 pounds).

And, the enormous 5’ high solid-silver urns that another maharaja had got made to carry the sacred Ganges water with him on his trip to England. Ahem, I wonder whether he got them filled with Scotch on his way back home :)

Outside the palace, I set right the time on my modern wrist-watch with the centuries-old world’s largest sun dial at Jantar Mantar. Jesus, these guys were more advanced in those days than we are today!

In the afternoon, we had a sumptuous North Indian lunch at Laxmi Misthan Bhandar in the chaotic Johri Bazaar. The dahivadas were mouthwatering! It seems that the locals are extremely fond of sweets. There are a variety of sweets for different festivals and seasons. The special ones include Mishri-mawa, Fini, Ghevar, Rasmalai and of course Laddoos.