It's supposed to be good luck!
The alarm went off at 7am as it is travel day...we walked the 200 meters to the bus stop and boarded a comfortable, air-conditioned bus to Veraval.
After eating we walked through the market and back to the palace. It is a beautiful building with ornate carvings and a British clock tower. We paid the 60p each entry fee to see the palace and to our surprise this included a guided tour! We were shown the nursery, library, office, Durbar hall meeting room and the kitchens. All were full of memorabilia of times gone by.
Once in Veraval we stopped for our morning chai. We continued walking towards the train station and another tea seller called us over and very kindly offered us a free cup of chai.
At the train station we boarded the train heading to Gondal. 3 hours later and having passed many farms of cotton, chilli and cabbages we arrived. We walked through the town and saw what we thought was an old English style church, with a clock tower. We discovered it is in fact a school.and apparently a 'copy' of Eton.
We looked for somewhere to eat on our way to visit the riverside Naulakha palace. We didn't find many and on arrival at the palace discovered it was closed until 3pm. We wandered through the streets and came across a little restaurant serving Gurjarati thali so stopped and filled our bellies.
On our way out Christine received a gift on the head from a resident pigeon, much to the amusement of Darryl and the guide. A quick trip to the ladies to clean up and then we sat in the grounds to relax for a while.
We left the palace just before closing time. The small city was busy as we walked to the train station to check our waiting list ticket. The ticket office confirmed we were on the train which was great and we could relax for the rest of the evening.
We returned to the city and found a small cafe to eat. A shared Masala dosa hit the spot as we had eaten lots at lunchtime. We continued on to find the large Navratri celebration near the school. As we approached we were greeted by a man. We couldn' t tell exactly what he was saying as the music was so loud, but he ushered us past the ticket office and into the arena. From that moment on we were treated like royalty. The man turned out to be the organiser. We were given cold drinks, they looked after our bags, we had dancing lessons and joined in with playing garba (dancing!) They even announced over the PA system that we were here from England!
The experience was unbelievable. We met so many people and were sat up on the main platform overseeing the whole event. We were awarded with a momento of Navratri which was so kind!
The men and ladies played garba in seperate areas. Their clothes were exquisite and there were prizes for the best male and female dancers! Some of the dancing was mind blowingly beautiful.This was one night we are not going to forget! The hospitality of the Indian people is truly overwhelming us!
