a rainbow coloured village in indonesia has become an unexpected tourist attraction

If you're curious what it would be like to live at the end of — or in the midst of — the rainbow, look no further than this village in Indonesia, which has gamely decided to paint itself in bright, eye-catching rainbow stripes.

Kampung Pelangi, a hillside collection of a few hundred homes about 300 miles east of Jakarta on the island of Java, chose to go all-in on colorful exteriors for the town-wide facelift, hoping to improve local tourism. The project has worked a charm; the distinctive stripes make it ideal as Instagram bait and photography backdrops for visitors from all over, as evidenced in the thousands of images tourists are putting up on social media from the unusual locale.

Pioneered as an important social project, the former slum-turned-celebrity neighbourhood has already experienced a surge in domestic and international travellers, who are now helping to support the local economy.