Day one of my micro-break to Rajasthan and I'm coming to you live from a charming hotel in the centre of Jaipur. I can highly recommend the Hotel Diggi Palace if you are passing through. Lonely Planet said it had a "friendly Goan manager" and they weren't wrong, Mr John Wilson couldn't be more easy going and helpful. It's very central but an absolute oasis of calm. You enter through a marvellous arched gateway (painted a bright blue - a renegade step in the Pink City?) and into, mirable dictu, a garden!

I don't think I've ever appreciated a garden so much. An honest-to-goodness garden with, you know, a lawn and trees and flowers. Bangalore touts itself as India's Garden City but dude: that's spin. This is a big garden, the first one I've seen in God knows how long, with tables and chairs on the lawn and it really felt like being on holiday to be able to sit out there, read and listen to the birds singing. And to a one time member of the YOC, being able to sit out there, read, listen to the birds singing and WATCH a hoopoe bob around the lawn was very heaven. I've always wanted to see a hoopoe. And now I have.