I spent a week in Surat before going out to a rig, yes it was dry but you could get alcohol at the back of a restaurant or too.
The general advice was beer was OK as it was not worth faking; but whiskey was a risk as it may be faked.
I am glad I learnt after I went it suffered the plague in 1994!
I came back ashore and up the river bank after 12 hours on a tug to see a Wallace Arnold coach drive past; I am still not 100% sure I imagined it!!
The drive back to Mumbai was interesting, camels pulling carts, ox's being used to grind sugar cane and then the driving!!!
