Instead of a call to prayer there were loud drums in the middle of the night. Got up early and showered. The bruise on Ken's belly from his encounter with the evil cow is developing nicely!

Good breakfast this morning. Even had real coffee! First time since we arrived in India that there has been proper coffee.

Mr Guru picked us up at 9 and took us back to the lake in the middle of town. It was busier in the morning than it had been yesterday afternoon. Also a lot more annoying people trying to make us do a blessing. One asked me where I got the bracelet - I think he thought we'd faked them to get out of doing the ceremony.

Walked from the lake along a road filled with souvenir shops to the Brahma temple. Dodging priests along the way with their gold-coloured donation pots that they would hold out in front of you and shake menacingly. 
 
Had to get a locker to store the camera and backpack as neither is allowed inside. The man we rented the locker from wouldn't let us put our shoes in the locker, made us leave those on a shelf unlocked.
 
Inside, the temple was a disappointment. For being such an important temple it was small, run down and dirty. Lots of memorial plaques on the walls and floors, but not much else to see.
 
Followed the same road we'd come in on back to Ajmer. Drove around town for a while looking for a working ATM. We tried a few different ones, but no luck. (And Heather almost died crossing the street to get to an ATM. She took Ken's hand to climb over the concrete median wall in the middle of the busy roadway, forgetting that she'd just finished applying moisturizer to her hands before she got out of the car. Almost fell backwards into traffic!)

Then back on the highway. The terrain soon changed from rugged and mountainous to very flat, and it was pretty much a straight run all the way to Jaipur.

Jaipur is a big city, with elevated freeways, high rises, McDonalds and even a few traffic lights. Haven't seen its like since we left Delhi. Not so many cows wandering free here, though still some around.
 
It also has really bad traffic. This, despite there being fewer cows in the road. It was quite an ordeal for our driver to get us all the way across Jaipur to the King Palace Hotel where we are staying near the old city.
 
Our next planned outing is to be an authentic Rajasthani meal tonight, so we have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. We went for a walk looking for an ATM that works, but again no luck. Two were out of cash and a third one had a huge lineup. We did see two elephants being ridden down the busy street, so that was cool.

Tried to use the wifi but that was't working. The front desk would tinker with our phones and the do stuff on their computer to get it working, but within 10 or 15 minutes we'd be locked out again.

Then took a nap... or tried to. Twice someone opened the door of our room while we were lying in bed. After we locked it, someone tried the door and then rang the buzzer, but disappeared before we got to the door. We complained to the front desk and they said it was probably the school bus tour that had just booked into the hotel. Since the chaperones don't know who is in what room, they are probably just checking every room. Nice.

Our driver picked us up at 6 to take us to supper. Traffic was INSANE in the town centre and it took almost 1.5 hours to drive the 26 km or so. On the way we saw all the usual craziness. In one intersection there was an old man sitting in the road, with cars all swerving around him. And every time the car stopped at a light there were people at the windows selling junk or begging for money (or both).
 
The Rajasthani dinner was a strange affair. It was held in a sort of theme park, with a variety of 'cultural' activities arranged along a big loop. These included: a music and dance show, a blacksmith, a potter, hooka pipe, puppet show, midway games, astrologer and (of course) shopping. There were also a number of other activities (e.g. camel ride) that you could do for an additional charge.

What made it weird is that there were so few guests there. When we arrived, we were the only ones (though a few others did show up later) and we had no idea what we were supposed to do. One member of the staff lead us through a gateway and along the route, with all the people at all performers at the various stations just sitting watching us and waiting.

We went to the music and dance routine first. That was awkward to, because when there are only 2 people in the audience and 5 on stage, the audience becomes the centre of attention.

And when the show was over they just stood there right in front of us until we tipped them. Seeing the long line of people ahead of us that would be expecting tips, and knowing how little cash we had left, we decided to walk the loop quickly without many stops.

We did stop at the blacksmiths (what they called the 'iron man') and watched him turn a small stick of iron into a representation of a cobra.

Dinner was even more awkward. There was only the two of us in the restaurant initially and we had the attention of the entire staff. There was a sort of matre'd who stood directly in front of us the whole time, and about 5 more waiters lined up beside the table, all watching our every move. When I sipped my water, the water boy would come and fill my glass back to the brim. If I used a napkin, the napkin boy would put down a new one. It was so painful that it was comical.

By contrast, the food was very good. And they kept bringing us more and more until we had to tell them to stop.
 
The drive home was not quite as bad as the trip there, but still an ordeal in the bad traffic. Our driver definitely earned his money today!

Just before bed we went down the road a ways looking to buy some water. Still lots of activity on the streets after dark, with shops, food vendors, etc still in full swing.
 

While we were buying water there was something going on across the street. We watched for a bit and eventually it formed into a wedding procession of the type we'd seen before on the 2nd day of our tour in Bikaner. Only this one was much bigger... 

It was led by an elephant and two camels, followed by a tow-truck pulling a larger generator on a trailer. The generator powered a bank of floodlights and ten hand carts (each pushed by a man in parade uniform) with giant lamps on them to illuminate the procession of dancers. This was followed by the groom on horseback and a horse and carriage after that. Leading and following the parade were the men who periodically would launch fireworks into the air. 
   
 
To top it off, this was all happening in traffic in the middle of an extremely busy street. The din of the car horns alone was staggering. The parade was going our way, so we walked with it back to our hotel and watched it pass from the balcony on the 2nd floor. There was a lot going on. It must have been expensive.