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2003-05-30 - Chindi - Kersog - Chindi (Day 45)

I think that if my Dad were here and listening to my account of today he'd chuckle and start humming, "Momma told me there'd be days like this......" The deal I'd made with people back in Taiwan was I'd call by every 5th day at the latest if I was out of touch by SMS and Internet to let everyone know I'm ok. On the first ride down to Kersog I'd done that, but 5 days have slipped away since then and its time for another call before they start calling the embassies. So I pack up and ride the 13km down to Kersog with Mr. Sharma who bums a ride off me. We make it down to Kersog and I make the call at one of the phone-for-hire shops in town. I dial and the line gives the strange tones for about a minute which I take to mean its looking for a national or international connection from the local substation, and then the line goes dead. I try again - same thing. Try again, this time just a busy signal like the number didn't go through. Try again, and again, and again... this isn't getting me anywhere so I go to another shop and try again - same thing. I keep trying a bit but since the shop is a sweet shop / phone-for-hire, there are thousands of flies and the owners have the music on loud. This isn't working. So I walk back to the first shop and spend the next 30 minutes pressing redial. Now the number I'm dialing in Taiwan has call waiting and voicemail so there should always be a connection of some sort - but I don't get a ringing signal once. Ugh, driving 26 kilometers to the nearest phone to find that I can't even get through.

Now this is just one thing, but as these things always go, it gets compounded. Its time for me to fill up on gas, so I stopped at the local gas station (only one for 80km) on the way back from Dhamoon Temple but was told they were out of petrol but would have some by Friday (today). On the way down we stopped to fill up and there is still no petrol. To make it worse they think there may be petrol by next Tuesday (4 days away...) note the operative word in that sentence is "think". Now the Enfield doesn't have a gas gage and I don't know how the mileage has been on roads like up to Dhamoon so by my best guess I have somewhere between 100 and 150km worth of gas left - but the next gas station in the direction I'm going is 100km away. To make it more fun, Mohinder showed up and invited me to his home tomorrow to spend the evening - his home being 60 km away. Now on the way back from Karsog, Mr. Sharma talks the filling station guys into giving me 3 liters of petrol (there is apparently gas left but its only for some people...) which should be enough to get me to Mohinder's home and back but after that I get to decide if I want to risk running out of gas on the road with all the bags or sit and wait until some unknown time in the future when the filling station will actually have petrol.

Since I wasn't able to telephone and I know people will be worried about me, I pull out the new Internet account from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. which I bought in Shimla hoping that I can at least send out an e-mail telling everyone I'm ok if not update the website (a daily web log that is only updated every two weeks isn't very interesting...) Again I get nowhere with the internet connection with the account not allowing me to go through the new subscriber process as printed on the account. To make it more fun, the "nationwide, toll free customer support" line isn't being answered.

So far all I can say about today beside, "momma told me there'd be days like this...." is to use Peter Lynch's process of visiting the supermarket before investing in companies - with this logic, based on what I've seen - Internet companies that won't accept a new customer trying to sign up, gas companies without any gas, and phone companies that can't get an outside line - investing in some of India's biggest companies - Bharat Sanchar, BP Petroleum, or BPL, the Indian phone company, just wouldn't be a good idea..

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