MoVe OveR dUeLiNg SwOrDsMeN

And make way for hookah salesmen. After all, who needs a Renaissance Festival when you have Chokhi Dhani? It just so happened that at the same time we were in Jaipur, our friend Yogesh was down from Delhi on business. After a long day of touristing for us and businessing for him, we met up so he could show us around. First, he took us to an amazing fabric store where I bought several handcrafted scarfs and necklaces as gifts and souvenirs (some of the only, it ends up.) He then took us to get Indian ice cream and then to a small factory. The factory makes its own dyes and prints to create unique cloth, which is then made into sheets, clothing and tapestries. I even got to see the back section of the factory where large strips of cloth were drying from freshly pressed designs--it was amazing!

Once we had purchased various objects (a quilt and dress for me, night shirts for Michelle and -once Michelle gave them up-sitting pillows for Marta) the four of us headed to the mysterious Chokhi Dhani. Yogesh had told us nothing about the place expect we needed to wear "riding appropriate clothing". Erm, okay! When we arrived, I wanted to die. Not because it was awful, but because it was so fantastic. It is the Indian version of a Renaissance Festival! You pay a fixed price to go in and experience the villages of Rajasthan in one fell swoop. In our case this included:

Eating loads of [i don't know what it was] and riding camels.

Dancing and (in Yogesh's case) hookah smoking.

Head massages and the lack thereof.

Arcade games including darts, archery, bowling and ring toss
(I won a car but traded it for a soccer whistle)

more dancing, more eating and more camel riding.

Oh, and some of the best people watching that side of the Arabian Sea.