Ups and Downs

With only 6 weeks left, I had my first real robbery experience. It seems everyone ends up having at least one, whether it be a simple pick-pocket or an aggravated assault. While I got to experience the worst of Mongolia, in some ways I also got to experience the best on the same night.

It began on Friday night around midnight. I was leaving the bar to go home, but there wasn't a car to be seen, so I walked to the main road. Still, no cars. I walked along the road in the direction I was going waiting for a car to come by. While I was walking, I got a phone call from a friend. I stayed on the phone as I walked several blocks still looking for a car. Along the way, some guy comes up to me and starts talking to me in Mongolian, rather angrily and unnecessarily close to me. This continued for a couple of blocks while I was still trying to talk to my friend. Finally the guy seemed to get the hint and went away... or so I thought.

All of a sudden he came running up on me, delivering a blow to the right side of my head, breaking my thick-framed glasses. and knocking me down. I quickly realized that he had grabbed my phone during the attack (although knocked the battery and back-plate off). Knowing my friend must be freaking out and unable to call me back, I got up and ran at top speed after the guy. I caught him on a cross street, and tackled him, delivering a few right-handed blows to his face. He practically begged me to take my phone back. I'm not proud that I hit a man, but I feel justified in what I did.

After retrieving by phone, I had to go back and search blindly for my glasses (which I didn't know were broken yet) and the missing parts of my phone. It turns out an older man had watched the attack and gathered up my belongings - less the lens from the right side of my glasses - for me and brought them over. He also indicated that he thought I did a good thing by chasing after my attacker. I then thanked him and called my friend back who was now frantically looking for me. As I was trying to establish where to meet, my phone went dead again. I had mentioned another restaurant/bar I was near, but wasn't sure if she was going to meet me there or further down the road. The other problem is that I managed to hit my knee pretty hard on the ground during the attack, so walking was now excruciating. I met some other guys standing outside of the bar and they let me try putting my SIM card in their phone to call my friend, although their number was saved to my phone, not the card. They then began walking with me to try to find my friend. When the walking became too hard, they got me in a taxi to check the place I knew my friend had been. Eventually I got home, plugged in my phone and called back explaining what happened.

So, while a really crappy thing happened, which is what most people would remember from an experience like this, it is the two separate random acts of kindness that will stand out in my memory.