Sunday 3/29, 2009 Jaipur, India

Up at 830. Tracey and I went down to have breakfast and Monoj and Ranveer joined us soon after.
Finally off from hotel. We found liquor shop and got Old Kingfisher strong. Manoj explained color of bottle means nothing (his was green, ours brown). Just different color glass.
Police on foot on side of road had Paren pull over and they spoke for a little while in car and then he had them get out and go into the breezeway. It turns out he pulled us over because Manoj didn't have his seat belt on. But then he also saw open beer bottles and that is not allowed in taxi. So they came back after about 5 minutes and explained they had to pay 300 rupees and made a friend in police in the meantime. It would have been 2500 rupees if it had gone to "paper".
We've taken a passenger (sharing front bucket seat with Manoj). I presume he's a guide for next destination. He directed us to government store RTD corp that sells clothes, jewelry, and other stuff at set prices - no haggle. I bought girls 2 dresses each. They ended up being $35 each and also got an outfit for wife which was $50. I had to charge on my MasterCard because debit card was declined (most credit cards tack on 3% or more foreign exchange fee on purchases out of US. Debit card does not- I checked before leaving home).
On to Jeweler. I saw all sorts of stuff but so hard to choose. I bought 3 silver bracelets for 4100 rupees or $78. Then next door for bangles for girls. 2 sets each at approximately $1.50 = 650 rupees.
Next stop is Jantar Mantar - solar observatory built 1728-1734. There were several different size sundials and other large instruments in order to give solar altitude, time, constellations etc.
Next on to shop for shoes. I got some black leather flip flops and some raj shoes that curl up at the toe and have gold thread on the top. Renveer had em at 700 rupees, but they didn't take credit and all i had was 600, so that was Ranveer's opportunity to get the price down to 650 rupees.
We left the guide at shoe store and Ranveer paid him there.
We left new Jaipur and passed by forts we saw yesterday.
Now stopped at shop 4 something. They picked up kachon (some sort of round fried balls) and pakora (green chili with flour and deep fried). They were delicious and not spicy- even with curry dipping sauce. We also had corn bread sticks called namkeen - these were very spicy. To go with all, we had orange Smirnoff Vodka and Miranda orange pop. They also bought uncle chipps from Lays which are spicy. We stopped roadside to eat and drink. Several kids stopped by to have pics taken. Lots of people drove by staring or waving. An elephant driver came by and they tried to find out price with goal of 100 rupees for ride. I don't know how far they got, but he did let us take pics while petting the elephant. We were by a tree and twice the elephant reached up and broke branches with leaves and brushed itself with the branch and then stripped the leaves in its mouth. I touched it's ear and I think it must have tickled. I asked if he owned the elephant and Monoj said no - just drove it for the owner. He said it was very har to own an elephant. As he was leaving, the driver motioned with fingers - 3, 2 which of course was still too high for the 100 rupees requested.
Back in the car and on our way back to Noida. We made it back around 11 or sometime shortly after.