Jaipur day 3 City Palace and Shopping !

I woke up this morning feeling much better so I was ready to take on the city Palace and more importantly shopping ! I hadn't done any yet and there are so many lovely things to buy.  The two girls in the room above me were once again woken up by another pig going to market !  I didn't here it this time, earplugs do wonders !  Our group took tuk tuk's to the Palace.  The Palace inside was large and a complex of courtyards, gardens, shops and buildings.  Its a living palace as well as a museum, its rich red and cream stone architecture is a mix of Mughal and Rajasthani.  We wondered around taking pictures and ended up in the Diwan-i-Khas a marble paved gallery with chandeliers and large silver pots.  Here we had a demonstration from a member of staff of how to wrap up a turban, I think I would have to ask him to repeat it 50 times before I really got it ! After having a good look around but not going into every museum we ended up in a large hall where there was a good collection of paintings and wood carvings for sale.   We spent a good 45 minutes in here and I ended up buying a lovely painting and so did a couple of others from our group.  Once everyone was satisfied we had seen enough we decided to go hunt down lunch, what an ordeal, the streets were packed and I needed desperatley to find a bank.  But first lunch and we literally had to squeeze our way through the crowds, it was Diwali the Hindu festival of lights and everyone from all corners of Rajasthan were out shopping I think ! We finally found somewhere recommended by lonely planet a nice cheap meal for a few rupees.  After lunch it was find a bank then shopping. Shopping was a pain not only was it busy but shopping as a group just doesn't work, 3 of us cracked it in the end and went off shopping  by ourselves.   I wanted textiles so the girls took me to where they went the day before but before that we ended up in a shoe shop. After about 20 pairs of shoes coming off the shelf nothing grabbed me so I exited the shop then a chap came out the same shop and said he had pashmina shawls so I went back in and before long Mr shoe man was back shoving more shoes in my face !  with a raging temperature and my health rapidly going down hill again enough was enough and I left the shop in a hurry with my shopping partners rapidly behind me ! it was not a pleasant shopping experience every shop you passed it was 'Madam come in my shop, shawls, bags... blah blah blah'  eventually we ended up in a shop that just sold pashmina shawls, the chap was nice he even got us some nice chai tea so I managed to buy some shawls in peace and just sitting in the shop away from the chaos of the street was refreshing.   My tip is when sick in India don't go shopping !!  so that was my last shop for the day after that it was grab the nearest tuk tuk and head back to the hotel. Back at the hotel I had time to do some Internet before meeting the others for dinner.  We went to a lovely place which was just around the corner from our hotel, we had music and dance entertainment it was just wonderful and such a lovely setting.  Late that evening we headed to the train station for our overnight sleeper to Bikaner.  Jaipur was nice but around Diwali its a nightmare ! I was looking forwared to the peace and quiet of the desert safari  which awaited us..