Chandlai Lake

Half an hour down the Tonk road lies a shallow lake with more than 300 bird species on its records and nothing built around it: no gate, no stalls, no signboards, which is exactly why the tour buses never turn off. From November to March the water fills with bar-headed geese, rafts of ducks, flamingos and the occasional pelican, and Jaipur's birdwatchers are on the bank before sunrise. Free. Bring binoculars and your own water, and go at first light, when the surface is still and the light comes in flat.

Flamingos and geese thirty minutes from the Pink City, with nobody else on the bank