Volchyi posing in front of the Rumpti Pavilion
The Rumpati Pavilion consists of two small towers atop a hill, from which there is a truly beautiful view.
India 2017
Day 7: January 25
Mandu
India 2017
Itinerary
In the morning, we rented old Indian bicycles and went sightseeing in Mandu. The first stop was the palace 5 km from the village. Everything would have been fine, but halfway there the seat on my bicycle broke; it kept falling out, and I couldn’t sit on it. Without tools, it was impossible to fix. There were still 2 km left to the palace. We thought it over, and I suggested leaving my bicycle here and riding Wolf’s bicycle together, with me sitting on the back. Wolf liked my idea, and off we went. The road there is basically almost flat; there were a couple of small hills that we walked up because it was hard to ride together — not only did the bicycle have no gears, but I was sitting on the back as well.
Many people wrote online about this palace and the singer Rumpati’s pavilion as something magnificent, but I was slightly disappointed.
Enjoying the views from the tower
We sat in the little tower for a while and watched an Indian chipmunk — such funny little animals.
Then Volchyi drove us to my bicycle, we somehow fixed the seat and headed toward the hotel. But we still had things to do along the way; on the way there we saw two more ruin complexes, and they were free, too!
On the way, we saw cows with painted horns
This is how the local people live, in houses made of clay. They dry cow dung on the roofs and then use it as fuel for kindling.
All the ruins in Mandu are in roughly the same Islamic style, with domes, arches, and little balconies. They are all beautiful and inspiring. We saw the Caravan Sarai — a medieval inn with a large inner courtyard for camels and small rooms around the perimeter.
On the roof of the Caravanserai
The free ruins were much more interesting, beautiful, and larger than the Rumputi pavilion. And we also wandered around them completely alone.
Volchyi found a suitable baobab under which one could sit and hug it.
This is what baobab fruit looks like. They are soft, with a velvety feel to the touch.
We saw what was probably a wild peacock. It somehow climbed onto the mosque roof while we were walking around there. Volchyi tried to scare it away to see how it would fly, but it just ran from us and kept calling out something.
Baobabs by the road and me on a bicycle
And then, in the rays of the setting sun, we rode home, and I, surprisingly, got back just fine with the broken seat :)
Having dinner :)