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Jodhpur - The blue city, India.

Jodhpur, also known as the blue city is an Indian city that I feel in love with! I don’t know what it was, I got perhaps mesmerized by all the shade of blue, perhaps it was our cozy hotel on a hill-top nestled between the blue houses, perhaps it was the locals…perhaps it was all of it. For what ever reason, the blue city took a piece of my heart.

About 1.5 month into our trip in India we had ups and downs experiences. India was wonderful but India also took a toll on us for many reasons. When we arrived in Jodhpur, which is also known as Blue city, we didn’t know what to expect although we have heard so many great things about this city from other travelers. And we weren’t disappointed! Jodhpur stole my heart right away!

Why are the buildings blue?

I think one of the reason I feel in love with Jodhpur are all those blue houses. Can you imagine how much a splash of colors can make you feel in your life!

So I think we all want to know why Johdpur is blue? I am not an expert but after some research it seems as there are many theories of why these buildings are painted in blue.

  • Lord Shiva is blue and there were many Brahmin followers of Shiva in Jodhpur throughout history who believed the color blue was sacred. 
  • Not only is Jodhpur known for being the Blue city, Jodhpur is also known as the Sun citybecause of the overwhelming amount of bright and sunny days it experiences. At the same time, blue is known to reflect heat so like many other Blue cities all around the world, the houses in Jodhpur are painted in blue to help keep them cooler in the summer.
  • It’s also said that blue have insect-repelling abilities.

Our hotel

Finding a cheap accommodation in India is not very hard but during our 3 month in India, for only 10$, we never had anything like we had in Jodhpur! You can’t tell it by the photo but the room had two bed rooms and were tastefully decorated. 

More about the hotel Here.

We spend a lot of hours on our hotel terraces in Jodhpur eating cheap and delicious food looking down on the blue buildings spying on people and counting the monkeys. It was here I had my best spaghetti with tomatoes sauce of our world trip.

The view from the roof top terrace, Jodhpur.

Spying on people in Jodhpur, what is that boy on the roof top thinking of?

What news are on the news paper today?

Our favorite game is to count monkey on the roof top.

Mehrangarh fort

A Palace that might have been built by Titans and colored by the morning sun ” - Rudyard Kipling

Mehrangarh is one of the most magnificent forts in India and it was intriguing walking within the walls discover one amazing palace after another. Unfortunately I don’t have any photo of inside the fort but trust me, you will never want to leave that place!

More information like prices and open hour for Mehrangarh fort Here.

The view from Merangarh fort in Jodhpur, India.

Pachetia Hill

We saw this hill from our hotel roof top and didn’t took notice of it until we saw some people walking on the edge of the hill. We just had to go there immediately! I think Pachetia Hill is a hidden gem because we didn’t saw much people on the hill and we couldn’t find any information on the internet about the hill and of how to get there.

Getting there was an adventure itself! It was like we were on a giant maze of blue walls on narrows streets. It was a lot of fun trying to find the right path as there were no sign. We had to ask the locals for the right direction quite often otherwise I think we would never find the right way! It was also a good excuse to have a chat with the locals.

It was one of our most memorable day of our world trip. David was talking with his grand-mum on the phone while sitting on the hill watching the sun slowly going down. Afterwards we just sat there pinching ourselves to see if we were dreaming.

Want to read about our most memorable day of our world trip in 2014? The Antelope Canyon for free

Umaid Bhawan Palace on our sight, Jodhpur.

Sunset from Pachetia hill in Jodhpur.

The locals

Like everywhere in India, the locals wanted to have photo taken with us. I don’t see anything wrong or strange about that because if you think about it, we tourist take loads of pictures of the locals too! Many of the locals must think that we tourist are funny taking photo of them while they are washing the clothes, cleaning or whatever they are doing on their daily life.

Some locals were shy while other gladly talk about this and that but we were overwhelmed by the kindness of all of them.

Some beautiful ladies chatting their days away, Jodhpur.

The kids next door!

The streets of Jodhpur

We didn’t visit many sights in Jodhpur, but we did a lot of city walking. Just get lost by purpose, walk into the small alleys away from the main road and you will have a beautiful insight into the daily life of the locals. Like many places in India, some part of the city was more dirty than the other but it didn’t stop us from exploring. I wish I had taken more pictures of the streets and the people because the pictures I am showing you here are not even half of the beauty of what you get to see in real life.

The busy market in Jodhpur.

Do you want to read about another favorite place in India? ⇒ Hampi, our favorite place in India

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20 Comments

  1. Wow! What an amazing experience watching sunset from Pachetia Hill with all those blue buildings below. The sight is simply captivating. Mehrangarh Fort looks magnificent. Jodhpur is on my bucket list and we are planning a trip this year. I didn’t know why the city is called blue city before reading your post. Thanks for sharing this interesting info and amazing photographs. 🙂

  2. Parnashree Devi Reply

    Jodhpur is my favorite city in Rajasthan , India. This city is probably most picturesque city in entire Rajasthan. The blue colored houses even make it worth in the lens. You have captured some good ones. There are several reason for painting the houses blue and one of the prominent one is that the blue houses belong to the Brahman community, which is a upper caste and the blue colored houses make it easy to identify the community from the rest of people. There are other reasons as well. But there is not definite reason for that.

  3. Wow!! Such a colorful city, I love all the blue. It reminds me a lot of Chefchaouen in Morocco! We heard the theory about the blue paint being used to repel insects there, too, though the other theories on how the blue came to be were different.

  4. Denny George Reply

    Jodhpur is one of my absolute favorite cities in Rajasthan. I consider it a blessing in disguise that it is not as well known as, say a Jaipur, Udaipur, or Jaisalmer since it keeps the crowds at bay, to an extent. The photos of the blue city are excellent and brought back several great memories.

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