jaipur: india's pink city

jaipur was my favorite city that we visited in india.

known as "the pink city," it is filled with pink palaces

and lots of color and culture. i loved the hills that

surround jaipur and the amazing people who live

there. we also rode elephants here, so how could

it not be a favorite part? i'll have more about the 

elephant ride in the next post, but here are some

 photos of the pink city of india and its beauty.

the entire city was painted its unique pink color in 

1876 to celebrate the visiting prince of wales.

pink arches + chandeliers, + chase matching them :) ^^

^^ gorgeous hawa mahal, the "palace of winds" 
i couldn't get over this lacy ornamental facade. 
royal ladies would view the city from these windows . 

we visited a hindu temple and got bindi dots! ^^

love their rupee currency with gandhi on them.

ps this is not hundreds of dollars, don't worry!

 it's about $10 US dollars when you exchange it. :)

^^ grounds of the palace, with the entry behind chase

^^ taking in the mosaics + chase's bindi selfie

the beautiful former palace is now a museum full

of all the royal belongings and art. it's amazing! ^^

^^ making friends at the pink palace

loved all the textures of pink on an old wall ^^

^^ along one of the roads we stopped at a monkey camp

and fed them bananas and it was one of the best

things ever to see them jump up, grab bananas from

our hands, and peel & eat them. i was beside myself

with the cuteness and i still want a monkey of my own!!

abandoned temple right by our hotel 

that chase flew over with the copter ^^

we were obsessed with the jal mahal water palace just

floating out there with no one on it. we heard there are

plans to make it into an incredible hotel {wow} but for

now it is just empty and beautiful out there. since there's

no way to go see it, chase decided to fly the copter out

over the water. it drew quite the crowd as usual! 

chase's copter fan club ^^

the floating palace..it truly looks like it is floating!

haha- "wave hi!" 

^^ we even saw a wedding going on which was amazing.

and, stopped by the jantar mantar observatory with

all of the astrological devices they use to use - wow.

^^ love this cute picture of chase riding along

in our tourist van taking in the sights!

so much color everywhere you look ^^

^^ i LOVED the streets of jaipur.

cleaner, colorful, & full of life.

darling girls we met in jaipur ^^

^^ grabbing some indian nuts & candy at the 

street cart. nothing is familiar, but fun to try!

^^ an elephant casually walking down the busy

street. we saw this {and crazier} every day.

^^ also- camels all along the roadsides

^^ and the cutest donkeys on earth trotting

right alongside our car on the road.

^^ needed a picture by every amazing wall

we stopped at this gorgeous rug factory and saw

every detail of how they are made. they take months

and have multiple people working on each one. now

i understand why they are so expensive!! :)

chase learning how to weave by hand - wow, 

i don't know how these amazing people have 

the patience and skill for this beautiful craft.

^^ one of my favorite things was seeing how textiles

& fabrics are handmade. i never even think about this!

chase somehow always gets picked as volunteer and 

he got to help make this cool elephant print!

ta-da!

^^ now i see these fabrics and think of the layers

of careful work that has gone into each one. wow.

a taste of all the crafts + skills we saw and learned about ^^

we had a great indian dinner at aangan ^^

^^ and then went out to see this white hindu temple

with our guide. since he is hindu, we could ask him

all about this religion & culture and he taught us so much.

^^ we also saw a cultural dance show and the only

picture we took was this of one of the performers

because chase thought he looked like a chubby

indian jimmy fallon! haha now i see it.

and back to our cute hotel after quite the day^^

can you see why we loved jaipur?

it is amazing...and this post didn't

even include the elephant ride! that

is coming next, and you'll want to book

your flight here to visit jaipur after!

this city will awaken all of your senses.

it is full of "rich culture and regal history."

between the temples, palaces, streets,

gardens, and forts, it is an incredible place. 

xo