A friend wisely told us before we left that the worst moments would make the best stories. So very true: but today was the opposite, filled with adventure and sunshine and surprises — good ones — at every turn.

I told Fiona that on some cold, dark winter morning next year, when she’s utterly miserable and tired and rushing out the door to get to school, she should remember this day, which began with a sumptuous breakfast buffet that included CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKES, live sitar music, and less than an hour later, an elephant ride up the mountain to a fort. All before 10am.

The village of Shahpura sits about halfway between Udaipur and Jaipur in the rural hills of Rajasthan. The streets are filled with vegetable markets and people selling everything from spices to shoes. There are men in amazing turbans (color palettes and tying techniques vary, we learned, according to their castes) and women balancing their baskets on their heads and their children on their hips.