Travel Log: Two Days in Jaipur, India

 You may have seen on my socials that I recently had a wonderful opportunity to tour the "Golden Triangle" of India. My husband had a work trip come to fruition to the Delhi area, and while we were not originally planning to visit India this year we said "why not?" and planned out a one week plus weekends itinerary after his work week that included visits to Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan/Ajabgarh, and Jaipur. You can find my Delhi travel log here, my Agra travel log here, my Rajasthan/Ajabgarh travel log here, and today I am sharing how we spent two days in the Jaipur, the capital of the state of Rajasthan. Jaipur was our last stop on our Golden Triangle Tour, and is known as the "Pink City" because its former ruler Sawai Ram Singh II had the city painted pink before welcoming the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, to Jaipur back in 1876. I learned through this visit that the terracotta pink color is symbolical of welcoming a guest, and many of the city's buildings still maintain the pink color to this day. Please continue reading to see more photos and details from our time in the "Pink City" of Jaipur.

I know I mentioned this in earlier posts, but it temperatures were extremely hot when we visited India. It was 105 degrees F (40.5 deg C) in the middle of the day hot. Jaipur has a number of top tourist attractions such as the Amber Palace, Hawa Mahal Palace, Jantar Mantar Observatory, City Palace, Sheesh Mahal Hall of Mirrors, Patrika Gate, and more, but due to the extreme heat and our experience in the other cities we decided to take it easy during our last couple of days and limit how much we toured around. 

My hubby chose a beautiful boutique hotel for our stay in Jaipur, the Rajmahal Palace RAAS Jaipur. This property has been owned by the Indian Royal Singh Family for hundreds of years, and in 2021 a partnership was made with RAAS hotels to take over operations of this historic palace hotel. There are only 13 rooms, and we were treated to a stay in the Princess of Wales suite where Princess Diana herself stayed during her 1992 India tour. Talk about a "pinch me" moment! The entire property was like walking within a moment in time or a period piece and I loved every detail from the wallpaper to the chandeliers to the prints on the furniture to the false doors--apparently the Indian Royal family was afraid of being kidnapped and designed a variety of false doors in the rooms of the palace to throw off potential kidnappers. I do not know if the false doors were ever put to the test, but I was intrigued nonetheless!

Since the weather was so hot during our visit, we decided against driving out to the Amber Fort during our one full day in Jaipur and instead decided to visit the City Palace grounds and Hawa Mahal Palace. Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 and has a unique honeycomb style lattice design and windows on its exterior that allowed natural airflow throughout the five story structure. The red and pink sandstone contribute to Jaipur's "Pink City" nickname, and tourists today can climb a series of stairs and ramps to experience the city views from the different levels. I absolutely loved taking my time to walk through Hawa Mahal, seeing the architectural details and color choices on the interior and exterior as well as the views of the Amber Fort and surrounding areas from the different levels.

After touring Hawa Mahal Palace, we retired back to the Rajmahal Palace Hotel for lunch and relaxed in the pool. It was a perfect way to escape the heat on our last day in India. We also drove by the Insta-famous Patrika Gate on our way to the airport, but didn't stop for photos this time. I always like to save something for the next trip, does anyone else think like me?

I hope you have enjoyed my India travel logs, and that they perhaps inspire you to add India's Golden Triangle to your travel list. If you have been to Jaipur or India, please leave me a comment below to let me know your favorite moment of your trip. Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you have a fabulous week!

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