Alas, Alang

Money Money Money. I'm spending it like it's going out of style.

I went to a 5 star hotel for lunch today, and had gourd/pumpkin dumplings - wow. Easily the best food i've had in India so far. Mmmmm

Went to the train station and picked up my ticket for onward travel. I take an overnight train tomorrow (1st of Jan), dumping me 3 hours from Diu at 6AM. I suppose I can take a bus or something to get there... The only thing available was 2AC class, at 20 bucks....

I picked up a SIM card for my mobile phone. My number is +91 99 25 287 950

I'll have this as long as i'm in this state.

While Diu seems like it will be very cool, I really really want to head to Alang, a few hours away on the coast.. It's the largest shipbreaking site in the world - and a place that would be perfect for photos... Imagine 5km of beaches, lined up with ship after ship (supertankers, battleships, cruseliners, etc) each with a team of 300 people tearing it down to the smallest piece of scrap metal.

Alas, it seems that the Indian government is not so happy about tourists coming to see this - they would rather we visit the Taj in Agra (an equally dirty place). I've googled quite a bit, and it seems that most tourists who go there get turned away (if they're lucky), or get given a very costly runaround, after being charged hundreds of dollars for a visiting permit.

So. The plan for now:

Go to a film tonight, maybe head to the 5 star place again for a coffee in the late evening.

Tomorrow, do a bit of shopping for clothes, etc... before taking the night train to Diu.