You can view Rajasthani dances, potters, cooks, go on animal rides, and visit palm readers. Some of these require a small fee of their own, namely the last two.

Dinner is delicious and excessive. I had so much food on my plate. I remember commenting that I couldn't see my food because it was covered by food. I'm a fan of the red garlic chutney with Bhajree ki roti.

The place is happening in the evening because it's one of the few activities at night. It's frequented by middle- to upper-middle class families and groups of 20-something friends.

Chokhi Dhani has a hotel, with a business centre, health club, shopping arcade, and stuff like that -- more or less everything you’d expect of a hotel. But that’s only part of it: Chokhi Dhani also has a colourful (and noisy!) programme every evening -- and everybody’s invited!

We weren’t staying at Chokhi Dhani, so the only option was to go for the evening -- and the experience was quite unforgettable! Chokhi Dhani’s a huge complex decked up to look like a traditional Rajasthani village, with wattle-and-daub huts, all decorated in the authentic red-and-white line style of Rajasthani villages. As you enter, you’re greeted by a small girl who’ll welcome you in the traditional way -- by putting a tilak (a light smear of vermilion) on your forehead -- and then, once you’ve paid the entry fee, you go in.

The huts around house a small museum; souvenir shops (with local handicrafts- jewellery, clothing, puppets and stuff like that), and there are, throughout the complex, a series of stages on which dancers and musicians perform constantly. All around the stages there are rope-beds (known in India as charpais), where you can sit and watch for free, and, if you wish it, even get up on stage and dance! And that isn’t all: Chokhi Dhani has more to offer. There’s a village magician; a kancha khelan ri thor (you’re never gonna believe this! -- a special platform meant exclusively for playing marbles, supposedly a favourite pastime), and a wandering hukka-wallah who goes around with a hubble-bubble and offers it to all the men around (I don’t smoke, but I suppose even women could ask him for a glug from it). There are camel, elephant and horse-cart rides, and there’s the food, which is fantastic!

A huge buffet is laid out, and you can choose where you want to sit: on baithaks (low wide stools which looked very uncomfortable); charpais; or mundane plastic chairs. The food’s a great display of Rajasthan’s considerable culinary tradition: all vegetarian and excellent. The menu changes every now and then, but the day we ate there, we got aloo kanda ri saag (a vegetable dish of potato and onion); gatte ki sabzi (an unusual curry with pieces of fried gramflour paste); sarson saag (puréed mustard greens) and kadhi, a mild, soupy yoghurt curry. Along with that, there was khichdo (a porridge-like dish of wheat, served with loads of ghee and raw sugar), bajre ki roti (a rustic bread made of a local millet); and a very spicy garlic chutney. To top it off, there was moong dal halwa -- a dripping-with-ghee dessert made of split, ground mung beans. Splendid!

Entry to Chokhi Dhani is Rs 190 per person, inclusive of dinner.