Last night I slept like a log, and had to be woken up by Dash our room attendant so we could get ready and board the bus to the Dinosaur Fossil Park outside of Balasinor. On our 35 minute bus ride out we stopped the bus and hopped out and took photos when we saw literally like 80 camels sitting in a field. I have never seen that many together. I am wondering if they use them to haul bricks or if they are breeding them…It was an incredible site. We also saw a huge painted elephant that was carrying items down these back roads. We arrived at the park which actually had large statues of dinosaurs including the Rajasaurus. It looks very similar to the Tyranasauros and has only been found in India. The Princess of the once ruling family here was our guide. Archaeology and specifically dinosaur bones are clearly her passion. She walked us around rocks which had impeded in them 65 million year old dinosaur bones. In 1997 they had dozens of archaeologists come and study the area and it is one of the largest collection of dinosaur bones and the largest dinosaur hatchery discovered. She showed us how to identify what is bone and what is stone. Bone looks fiberous, sounds hollow when you knock against it where rock sounds solid. Bone is also pink in color in this area against the grey stone. She pointed out several bones that were still intact in the rocks and then she brought out several bones which have been identified here including 3 eggs. She showed us her “most valuable possession” which was a full egg with part of the shell still intact. This is not a fully developed egg since those are expected to be more the size of a football. This was more the size of a large chocolate egg. After about an hour in the hot sun we made our way to a local village where they took us through the town and saw how many of the locals live. I have been to many villages while traveling this year and it is interesting how they all are a little different. These homes used mostly dried dung patties for fuel to cook with also these paddies they used mixed with some local herb like grass that keeps the bugs away to build their homes. They also use the dung as fertilizer for their fields. It made me appreciate how much a cow can give them, no wonder they are holy, not to mention milk! Here they also had wells and they would collect the water in brown pottery ware and then atop other jars to help keep it cool. They grow fennel which most people eat as a post dinner digestive and sweet like licorice. They grow many cash crops too like tobacco and mustard as well. Each family that can also grows wheat for their own consumption for naan. We saw a woman making naan rounds and cooking them over her small outdoor fire.
We were given a pottery demonstration on a real potter’s wheel. The potter would literally spin the wheel with a large stick and then put some clay from a local pond in the middle of the wheel on a metal circle and spin it into bowl and then cut off with a piece of string and shape it with slip and water and his hands. It was fun to watch and Sam gave it a whirl- it’s harder than it looks!
We visited with locals while we were served some tea and cookies. The kids all gathered around since it is a national holiday Good Friday. Funny that is a holiday here when such a small minority of this country and especially this region is Christian, maybe less than 5%. But we were like the show in town. I asked the kids that were hanging out behind me if I could take their picture, it was a group of boys. When they take photos they all get really serious. The second you take the picture they all smile and laugh. I was able to catch a few of their smiles after the first picture and they are just beautiful kids. They loved seeing the pictures of themselves.
Following the village we headed into Balasinor to the Garden Palace of the Nabob- I know this can’t be the right spelling but they are the old rulers like Maharajas but they are Muslim and go by Nabobs. This family has been ruling for along time. They no longer have any ruling power but their family is still recognized as royalty among locals. The former king was put in as ruler when he was only 11 mos old. After the country became independent the rulers, which actually still answered to the British government and almost acted as governors, lost their political power and became essentially citizens although they were able to keep their properties and status and hence are still important figures in their communities since they own much of the land.
As we arrived to the Garden Palace of the royal family we were greeted by drums, red carpet, flowers, rose water, dancers and the most interesting were horses that were adorned in colorful pom poms and brightly colored saddles and were performing stunts including walking on their hind legs looking extremely royal and just stunning to look at with their white coats against their colorful costumes.I was captivated and sat and watched for 10 mins until I was asked to come inside. Inside we were greeted by the Prince of the royal family and then later by his father and mother and the Princess and other members of the royal family. We each approached them and introduced ourselves and offered our appreciation for them opening their home to us and for the grand welcome. Local dancers in their traditional costumes performed 2 most entertaining dances with sticks and then quilted umbrellas. They were some of my favorite dances and costumes and had to take photos in the courtyard when they were done because they were so stunning and loved all the saris and embroidery even on the men’s costumes. Lunch followed and it was cuisine unique to this area of Balasinor. It was flavored with what tasted like cinnamon in many of the dishes and it was the best food Indian food I had eaten while in India. Following there was a final dance performed by a group of local people that have been here for around 200 years that were brought here by the former rulers from Africa. It wasn’t clear whether they were originally brought as slaves or merchants but they have remained and speak Hindi and live in a certain area about an hour our of Balasinor. Their main source of income is performing their heritage dances. They definitely looked more like Africans than Indians and they almost look like they were most Polynesian. Their dress was different and covered in shells and painted white faces. I asked one of the men where they were originally from and said he wasn’t sure but they think from around Zanzibar, an island right by Tanzania.The dancing and more the drum beating went on for 45 minutes, which was honestly about 30 mins too long. My head was pounding by the end but it was interesting and Sam was pulled up to dance with them and joined in the procession and had fun. We thanked the Prince and their family for a wonderful afternoon and left to horns blowing and drums beating.
Returning to the cabin I was ready to seek some quiet. I couldn’t handle any more noise for a bit and after showering took time to look out the window while working on my blog. I really love to watch the world go by on the train. We haven’t had much opportunity to do that since the train has mostly been moving at night.
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