GENERAL

During our day yesterday Aslam took us to what turned out to be an oasis of peace in the organised "madness" of an Indian Metropolis.The various photos depicting buildings include the resting place of the rajh in each era and are set in a green treed area situated on the outskirts of the city.

Another day of shopping today and we'll be moving on to the "SUNDER PALACE HOTEL" later in the day.

It apparently has an awesome rooftop vegetarian restaurant and obtains a 9/10 on the booking.com travel site👌😜

Loving these curries!!!

Aslams place has been great and his entire family have looked after us as their own .His wife Salma's cooking has been sublime and we thank them all for their hospitality.

Without Aslam this entire purchasing exercise would be extremely difficult and he's made it an absolute pleasure ( even for a non shopper like myself😂)

OUT AND ABOUT

GENERAL (FIRST) IMPRESSIONS

Well our 1st day lived up to expectations ,and were exactly as I'd expected.

We went shopping with Aslam as guide for most of the day and got a pretty good  idea of the lay of the land.

The girls got some amazing stuff ( see below.

Had an awesome vegetarian curry lunch at a fancy hotel at a mere R240 for the 4 of us.

The roads are a total free for all with cars/rucks/bikes/m/cycles/tuc tucs/goats/herds of cows/camels/pigs/monkeys/dogs and various other farm animals all cohabit ating and vying for space amongst pedestrians and the odd heap of refuse .

Every one of the above coming at each other from all angles but somehow avoiding colliding with each other by mega millimeters yet constantly "flowing".

Amazing place!

Aslam had to stop for a chicken on the way back as his wife Salma is making a butter chicken curry tonight.

Leigh had a problem as we actually virtually hand chose a victim which, five minutes later, arrived in a plastic packet a bit the worse for wear.

A truly amazing 1st day 👌😄🤑

GREEN PANTS

Oh by the way ,the green pants in the photo under were made for me in 15 minutes for the princely sum of R80.

Had to get something cooler as it's mid thirties where we are

So we've been out shopping for fabrics with the girls and Aslam and myself in tow.

Some amazing textiles for items they'll make up in the next couple of days in the form of bathrobes/table cloths/cushion covers etc.

Here are a few sample photos😁

SHOPPING 😜

ASLAM & FAMILY

Aslam taxi'd us back to his place (LAIBA HOMESTAY) ,situated within a maze of streets, and we met his lovely family before having a shower to freshen up.

Then down to his place where his wife Rashieda had prepared a wonderful authentic vegetarian curry with all the trimmings.Awesome end to the day!👍

When we'd arrived at 10 pm there's been a festive wedding on the go next door, but all was quiet by this time (around midnight) so we headed off to "sleep"

Well some of us did😂

The girls are probably out for the count.

Tomorrow we'll be going to some suppliers for COCOLI and we're sure to have a most interesting day !

JAIPUR-ASMAL

Well we finally made it to Jaipur after more than 24 hours of travel .

The last leg from Delhi to Jaipur was delayed an hour or so and Asmal picked us up after 9pm last night.

I normally manage a few hours sleep on international flights but hadn't had a single minutes kip on this one as a result of the worst cough I'd picked up from Cheryl just prior to departing .

Every time I felt I might nod off I landed up with the "tickle" in the back of the throat, and another bout of uncontrollable coughing 🤑

The problem was exacerbated with the flying I think and I'm sitting up in my room here at 4am with exactly the same problem through the night resulting in zippo sleep now for 2 entire nights!

What a ballache!!!

Anyway can't be helped really so I'll ust have to ride it our.

We had q great flight on Emirates 

,which allows 46 kg of luggage/person,until we reached Delhiwhere we suddenly were limited to 15 kg each on the leg to Jaipur.

I was ok but the girls had brought across around 22 kg each and we were forced to either pay up a fair amount of money, or to transfer the heavier stuff to our hand luggage.

Spent a half hour doing the latter and then sent the girls two huge bags through virtually empty while we lugged the stuff on board for the flight.

Makes no sense and it's gonna present a bit of a problem for the girls going back.

I mean what the )$&@'s the point of flying with an airline which allows 46 kg and then allies with an airline allowing less than 1/3 of that????