Jaipur, popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital city of Rajasthan. Upon arriving at the airport in the night, I was surprise that there were less cars and people in this city. At last, a city in India with less people and cars!. We were picked up at the airport by the driver arranged by Sunder Palace, our lodging place. About 15 minutes from the airport, we arrived at the place. The place was wonderful and Abhinav, the owner was pleasant & friendly to us . We had a comfy night at the place that night.

The Pink City

Boy in a tuk-tuk

The next day, we went to explore around the pink city by tuk-tuk. Babu, the tuk-tuk driver was recommended to us by Abhinav. When we head for the train station first to get our train tickets to Agra beacause there was some problem with the online ticketing system.

Streets of the Pink city

Another view in the Pink city area

Babu took us around the city area where most of the buildings are pink in color.

Camels in the streets

 Hawa Mahal

We stopped by at one of the main attraction in the city, The Hawa Mahal. When translated it means Palace of Winds. It was a palace of an old emperor in the 17^th century.

Inside the Hawa Mahal. Pics in vintage tone

The design was like a honeycomb beehive with lots of windows. The windows was said to be for the palace ladies to observe the city view. It was really a great piece of architecture.

Another view inside the Hawa Mahal complex. Also in vintage tone

Jantar Mantar

After Hawa Mahal, we came by the Jantar Mantar, a place which holds a lot of architectural astronomical instruments.

Devices or should I say structure which are used to measure time in the past

The place has devices that were used in the past to measure time, days, predicting eclipse and also tracking stars location. Jantar Mantar is listed as one of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

Us in Jantar Mantar

Amber Fort

View of the fort

Us at Amber Fort

Further north from the city area, we reached another UNESCO site, the Amber Fort. We arrived there in the afternoon so we missed the elephant ride to the fort which only operates during the morning. Thus, we need to hike a bit by foot to get to the fort.

There were walls along the hill area which reminds me of the Great Wall in China.

Us with the lovely ceilings

Architecture of the building was impressive with beautiful decorative ceilings and walls inside the compound.

Jal Mahal

The Palace situated by the lake

Just a few kilometers from the Amber Fort is Jal Mahal or the Water Palace. It’s location in the middle of the lake provides a scenic view. Visitors could take a boat ride to get to the palace area but we didn’t  took the ride though as we planned to visit a fabric factory nearby.

A closer view

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Place to stay

Sunder Palace Guesthouse

The place was really eye-catching full with Indian culture. There were even hand paintings at the ceilings!. With a delicious rooftop restaurant on top of the building, a very friendly owner and nicely decorated rooms, it was the best place I stayed during my time in India. Internet and wifi are available at a minimum fee.

Here are the contacts :

Sunder Palace Guesthouse
Sanjay Marg,Hathroi Fort,Ajmer Road,Jaipur (INDIA)
Phone: 091-141-2360878 , 2360178 Fax: 091-141-2210373
Mobile: 98280-12795
Email : sunderpalace@hotmail.com  Website: www.sunderpalace.com

The room

Rooftop restaurant