About our three day trip to Jaipur, Rajasthan.
We just returned from three days in Jaipur, Rajasthan. We left early on the morning of the 19th in a private car with driver rented through the Rajasthan Tourism Department. The drive to Jaipur took us about six hours. Jaipur is often referred to as “the Pink City” because of the pink stucco buildings. The buildings were painted pink many, many years ago as a symbol of welcome to visiting British royalty.
We got into Jaipur and did a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon and early evening. We viewed the palaces and especially enjoyed Amber Fort, which is built on the hill just outside Jaipur.
We then ate our supper and returned to the hotel fairly early. We spent the night in a hotel with actual hot running water! After the past two and a half weeks in cold Delhi in a house with no heat and hot water only if we boiled a pan on the stove first this felt REALLY GOOD! The kids had their baths and I got them to bed, then jumped in myself and enjoyed for much longer than I should have considering we are in a semi-arid region of the world with water problems. 
We did a bit more sightseeing the next day and a bit of shopping. I enjoyed visiting the old palaces but, of course, my kids have different tastes. Their choice was to see Jantar Mantar — AGAIN. We saw one of the Jantar Mantar sites in Delhi, build centuries ago by a king to study the heavens. The Delhi site is only one of several, another being located in Jaipur.
They enjoyed the camels, which we saw all over. Following is a picture of darling son on a camel.
Overall it was a good trip and we had a wonderful time. And we will be back because I still have the Thar Desert on my list of places not yet seen in India.