Barely legal alien

We are now in Bhuj, in Gujarat, where most of the film will be shot. We took the overnight train from Mumbai. Fortunately, we weren’t on this one:

The name Bhuj may ring a bell – the place suffered a terrible earthquake in 2001, wreckage from which is still apparent everywhere.

However, a huge amount of aid flowed in afterwards, much of which went towards a very flash-looking hospital, one of the best in India I’m told. It certainly looks it. I’ll be glad it’s there when we start firing guns off the back of horses.

Certainly beats the pants off this place:

The region looks very dry and dusty to me, and reminded me of central Australia. Costume designer Bhakti told me, however, that it’s actually looking unusually green “because it rained last year”. And here I was worrying about malaria. Haven’t seen a mozzie yet.
The locals get around on very colourful trucks and motorbikes.

Curiously, the mirrors on this one all point at the rider. Who are those handsome devils?

But we get around in tuk tuks like this. Pile in!

The Brahmin (?) cows are everywhere, and are amazingly calm around people:

and vehicles:

So that’s why Tyler Durden says “Calm as Hindu cows.” Tune in next time for the coolest holiday ever, the Hindu festival of colours, Holi.