India
Mandu
Afghan palaces floating on monsoon reflection pools among ancient baobab trees brought by African sailors.
The Ship Palace floats between two lakes. Not metaphorically — the Jahaz Mahal is an Afghan pleasure palace built on a narrow strip of land between man-made reservoirs, designed to look like a vessel at anchor. Around it, a forested plateau stretches in every direction, hiding mosques, tombs, and baobab trees that have no business being in central India.
Mandu in Madhya Pradesh was the fortified capital of the Malwa Sultanate from the early 15th century, built on a plateau 600 metres above the Narmada Valley and surrounded by a 40-kilometre perimeter wall. The Jahaz Mahal, Hindola Mahal (Swing Palace), and Hoshang Shah's Tomb — one of India's earliest marble structures — are among the finest examples of Afghan-influenced architecture in India. The love story of Sultan Baz Bahadur and the Hindu singer Rani Roopmati pervades the site; her pavilion on the southern cliff edge overlooks both the Narmada Valley and the ruins of the palace built for her. Baobab trees, imported from Africa along medieval trade routes, grow among the ruins — an incongruous reminder of Mandu's connections to a wider world.
Solo
Cycling between scattered ruins across the plateau — discovering hidden mosques and overgrown pavilions — rewards the solo explorer with discovery after discovery.
Couple
The love story woven into the ruins, the Ship Palace between its lakes, and sunset from Roopmati's Pavilion — Mandu is one of India's most romantic archaeological sites.
Friends
The plateau is large enough for a full day of exploration on foot or bicycle — the variety of ruins, the views, and the baobab trees keep a group engaged.
- Jahaz Mahal — the Ship Palace — is an Afghan pleasure palace floating between two artificial lakes.
- The ruins stretch across a forested plateau — cycling between crumbling mosques, tombs, and step-wells takes a full day.
- The love story of Baz Bahadur and Rani Roopmati is carved into every palace here — romance embedded in stone.
- Baobab trees — African imports from medieval trade routes — grow between the Afghan ruins like misplaced giants.
Dal bafla—hard wheat dough balls boiled then roasted over dung cakes, crushed into lentil stew.
Baobab fruit juice, tart and highly acidic, sold by street vendors near the fort.
St Bathans
New Zealand
A gold-rush ghost town of twelve residents with a flooded mine pit turned sapphire lake.
Ayacucho
Peru
Thirty-three colonial churches in a city where Holy Week processions last ten days of candlelit pageantry.
Mindelo
Cape Verde
Morna music drifts from dimly lit bars where Cesária Évora once sang barefoot for sailors.
Naples
Italy
Chaos and devotion in equal measure, pizza folded at street corners, shrines in every alley.
Hampi
India
A ruined empire scattered across a landscape of balancing granite boulders and banana plantations.
Khonoma
India
A warrior village clinging to terraced slopes that traded headhunting for deep forest conservation.
Ross Island
India
A British colonial headquarters slowly being digested by ficus roots in the Andaman Sea.
Mawphlang
India
Sacred groves where thick moss absorbs all sound and removing a single leaf is taboo.