Johari Bazaar is where Jaipur learned to cut stones, and most of the shops are five generations old. The good ones don't have signs out front. We sat through tea at a third-floor cutter's workshop while he pulled out trays of uncut emeralds and explained how the Mughals had paid him in coffee.

Jai Singh built the Jantar Mantar as a working observatory in the 1720s. The largest sundial. The Vrihat Samrat Yantra. Measures time to two seconds. We stood at the base at noon and watched the shadow tick. The guide ran us through how to read the equator on the same instrument and the math wasn't hard.

Hawa Mahal photographs best from the chai stall across the street at six in the morning. The whole facade catches the first light from the east and the lattice screens turn from red sandstone to gold for about fifteen minutes. By seven the traffic is bad and the light is gone.

The City Palace has a small inner courtyard you reach through the textile gallery, and the resident peacocks share it with about thirty parrots that nest in the eaves. We sat on a bench with a coffee from the museum café and watched them for half an hour. The museum guards left us alone.