Arrived midday in Jaipur, The city that Jamie and I had worked eight year ago. We had made no arrangements for accommodation so i decided to head to the guest house where we had been staying all those years back. Upon arrival nothing had changed (even the staff were the same) I was quite looking forward to staying there again but unfortunately there was no room. We had breakfast on the terrace and discussed a back-up plan. (One that would later turn out to be a real Winner!)

Ennis's Auntie, who spends allot of time in India, had given him contact details of a friend 'Bebu' who lives in Jaipur, and had assured him that Bebu would be more than pleased to show us the sights etc. We phoned him and within an hour he was there with another friend to meet us. The next three days were to turn out to be somewhat luxury with our private guides, luxury accommodation and, great food and company.

Bebu is a tall, thin, Sikh man in his fifty's and speaks an understandable if a little unorthodox style of English. His Friend was a rather fatter Hindu man of similar age and spoke clear and fast English.

Bebu and his friend took us to a luxury hotel Haveli in the Old (Pink) city area. He negotiated a significantly reduced rate on a room for us as he knew the proprietor. The room, still way above my measly nightly budget was a huge palatial place, and Ennis said that he would see that I dint end up blowing my budget 'Sweet!!, I get to stay in a palace for the same cost as I would have been paying for a hovel of a room in a travelers guest house'.

After taking some time to rest we walked back through the city to the Wind Palace where Bebu and friend were renovating their new Jewelry shop. (Renovating in as much that they were sitting around chatting all day while young boys grafted with primitive tools).

That evening Bebu and his friends took us up to the tiger Fort which is located on a hill overlooking the entire city. We sat up there having a beer and looking at the views. Jaipur has grown a lot since I was there last and now sprawls for as far as the eye can see. The vantage point at the tiger fort seemed a popular place for well to do locals to go at the end of the day and relax with a drink. There were many groups of young locals up there, and us, when all of a sudden the Police turned up and moved everyone on. Bebu and friends acted very strangely and insisted that we should make a move even though we couldn’t understand what anyone was doing wrong. Sure enough though, everyone vacated the fort area. Bebu and co seemed embarrassed by the whole situation and changed the subject whenever we asked why the police acted as the did.

That night Bebu invited us for dinner with his family, which was a real treat. Home cooked Indian food!. Mmmm.. We arrived at Bebu’s house expecting a luxury pad, (he and his friend had seemed quite well of by Indian standards) but when we arrived we were to find that his family of four live in a tiny two roomed apartment. Although small the place was homely and had a great roof terrace with city views. His family were really welcoming and his wife cooked some great fresh food for us. It was a really nice experience to be invited into an Indian family’s home and have dinner with them.

The following day Bebu continued his tour guide routine taking us first to the wind palace (interesting!), and then on to the Amber fort (Very Pretty, and Interesting), and stopping at various places of interest for us to take photo’s (Nice!!). The whole time we were there we didn’t have to worry about anything. If we wanted to go somewhere he would drop everything and take us, if we were hungry he would take us to somewhere to eat, and if we wanted to have time to just wonder the streets he would be understanding and let us go on our way. Bebu was a genuinely nice bloke!

After 2 nights in our luxury pad it was time to move on with Agra the next stop.. We were now both anticipating the Taj Mahal!