Jan 11 very early

Jan 8 This morning we woke up and again had a great breakfast ,usually omelets toast tons of pineapple, mango juice, guava and mandarin oranges. We headed off through the dense fog towards the Amber palace.Along the way we stopped to see the wind palace, looks very big but is only 4 M thick windows that allow the breeze to go through is why its famous. At the Amber Palace we climbed some big steps and hopped on to an elephant. which we rode up a long road to the top of the palace.The elephants were well decorated and it was a lot of fun. The palace was spectacular but we are starting to find that they are all looking the same.We visited a cottage industry store saw how gems were cut, and resisted any purchases because last night we were able to visit a wholesaler that made our eyes pop out, and deals with D&G or Louis Vitton. The most spectacular highlight of the day (other than shopping) was visiting Jantar Mantar which consisted of 5 or 6 different sun dials and time keeping devices. One huge sun dial was accurate to within 2 seconds and this was built over 400 years ago. After lunch we visited a carpet making factory and how they make block prints for textiles-- it was quite interesting.
After a short break we went down to jewellery heaven and bought turquoise, star of India rubies, ruby necklaces and garnets. We also visited a fruit and vegetable market, tea shops, spices and nut shops-- it was a visionary delight! Once we were good and tired are driver took us off to a carpet wholesaler where after much food and alcohol, I succumb to purchase a carpet for a potential gift. The carpet was easily 60 years old and had been sitting in the carpet wholesaler for easily that long too. We went back to our hotel, exhausted, slightly frustrated and a lot poorer. Jaipur is a clean and extremely interesting city with lots of shopping to be done.