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2003-05-21 - Shimla (Day 37)

It was easy to see what was going on, even from quite a way away - large group of people, fists in the air, one guy leading the crowd in chanting - lovely, the one bank in town, no make that the one bank in the entire state of Himachal Predesh that will change cash notes is on strike. It turned out to be not just the State Bank of India, but all the banks, though the rest wouldn't be much use to me as I only had bank notes, not travelers checks and the other banks only change travelers checks. Not ready to give up, I found an ATM that accepted VISA cash advances which I could still use, except that I hadn't ever used any of my credit cards for cash advances and had long forgotten the pin number. Well, that didn't work either. The process though did offer a solution to what I could do when my remaining US$ 1,000 ran out, but I'd have to get the pin numbers reissued, which meant calling all my banks.

Since I don't have many rupees left, I try to get clever and take advantage of the general policy of the bank's to accept collect calls to their credit cards centers. In I go to one of the private telephone operators, which seem to dot every block like 7-11s in Taiwan and request to make a collect call. The attendant just gives me a quizzical look and I can see he has no idea what I'm talking to. I thank him and walk down the street to the next exchange shop. Same request, same quizzical look. This guy is more proactive though, tells me to wait, and leaves the shop. Five minutes later he's back with a friend who asks what I need. Requesting to make a collect call and doing as much as I can to explain the process, he explains that private exchanges don't provide that type of service, I'd have to go to the main telephone exchange. So off I clump down the street and hill looking for the telephone exchange which proved pretty easy to find - these types of companies are always in some large dilapidated looking building seemingly no matter which country one is in.

In the telephone exchange, I explain that I want to make a collect call - the reply is that can't be done from India. I just give up and pay for the phone calls, this is clearly just going to be one of those days so why fight it. I try to use their cyber café, thinking it's the telephone company, at least the connection will be fast - which turns out to be the wrong perception to have in that I wait 30 minutes for three pages of Yahoo! Mail to come up and finally just giving up on the process and paying my 10 Rupees (US$ 0.20) for the half hour.

Another problem I have to solve is that on the ride to Nako Lake, my bungee cords which I use to tie down the camera bag, tripod and backpack to the bike were left in the young guy's truck. Now I'm already knowing this is going to be a problem but I didn't have any idea it would prove an impossibility to find bungee cord of any type in the state capital.

Shimla is oriented around a pedestrian only area called "The Mall" which is four parallel lanes at different heights on the mountain all filled with shops. I go down each one of them looking for bungee cord and finishing the entire circuit, I get nowhere. Now in fairness, it was a nice walk as the shops are quaint and window shopping on a sunny afternoon is a nice pastime, unfortunately I only have a few rupees left which I'm hoarding so I don't buy anything.

I end up buying four fabric straps with metal clamps which I know will add about 10 minutes to every time I pack and unpack the bike, which doesn't sound like a lot but will add up pretty quickly when I'm doing it every few days.

Back at the hotel I settle in to staying in another dump. It turns out to be even worse then I thought though, with no running water - though there are taps, but no water. At 7pm someone turns on a halogen light directly outside my window shining in and to really make me feel at home there is the constant yelling between rooms and on the stairs that seems to be a fixture of Indian tourists and their brood of noisy children.

Fortunately, I brought ear plugs, eye shades and I just settle in to make the best of it, it was just one of those days.

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