Jaipur

As my travel buddy remarked, Rajasthan's capital city would be am interesting place to spend a long time getting to know because its people are significantly more assertive than anywhere else we have visited.  While taking a walk, auto rickshaw drivers slowly ride beside us just to talk: "Which country?" they inquire.

"America," we say.

"Very big place.  Very rich people," the drivers sagaciously comment.

First order of business, naturally, was to seek out the city's best lassi stand, aptly named Lassiwala (-wala is a suffix indicating "seller").  There, we met a twentyshomething named Ravi who spent a lot of energy convincing us that he just wanted to be friends.  We spent the hottest afternoon hours in his puppet shop listening to tabla and harmonium music.  Wonderful!

 Next came a lot of nerding out at Jai Singh's planetarium.  The cherry on top was the world's largest sundial, which can measure time down to 2 second intervals.

 Another auto rickshaw driver offered to give us a tour of some of his favorite places for a good price.  He failed to mention that the "elephant house" was actually a house full of elephants, not a shrine of sorts to the creatures.  I made friends with this lovely woman:

 And then this happened at Amber Fort.