On our way back from dinner at my vegan oasis I had a frightening experience. Jeremy, Connie, Anna, Veronica and I were walking pretty fast because it had gotten dark and the streets were starting to get crazy and a little more threatening. Alcoholism is big in Ulaanbaatar, and the vibe on the streets does a complete 180 as soon as the sun goes down. Our group had spread out a little bit and I was trailing a little bit in back.
I started to feel a really subtle vibration from my backpack and quickly realized that someone was unzipping it from behind me. I gasped really loudly and turned around to find a creepy, young looking Mongolian dude with his had inside it. He quickly pulled back and we made eye contact. I stuck out my palm and yelled, “What did you take?” Veronica heard me and stepped up to the guy, telling him to give back whatever he had stolen. He gestured to his empty pockets and started quickly walking in the opposite direction. Luckily, nothing was missing. Score = one for the tough PacRim chicks! Thanks V-ron J I’m so glad she was with me.
It shook me up a little bit and I felt kind of violated. Like I said, the personal space standards are much different here. We kept walking and I felt a little shaky for a while, but I’m glad it happened. I’ll be a little more careful now.
Lesson learned: pull both backpack zippers all the down on one side. That way, it is much harder to pull open that it is from the top. Thanks for that one, Jeremy.
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