Robbed at gunpoint

We were robbed twice on the day actually. The first one was kind of ... sweet. We were shopping for water near the Yamuna river at Vrindavan on Wednesday when the shopkeeper suddenly pointed to Trond's spectacles and said something in Hindi about being careful and monkey. In a split of a second something very fast grabbed the spectacles off Trond's nose and they were gone. High up in a tree outside of the shop a monkey showed them off and even took bite of one of their tips, as to inform us both of the potential barter item -- food -- and what would happen to the specs if we did not get the drift. Then the men there went through their routine and threw up bisquites to the animal who landed the specs gracefully into the hands of a person on the ground from about 7-8 meters up. Apparently this sort of thing is very common in Vrindavan and elsewhere, the monekeys are very shrewd – and do you know the people there are taking after them, the guy who threw up food to the moneky also wanted money from us!

Monkey-bitten, still usable

The second robbery was more sinister. It took place a short while later when we had wandered bit along the very peaceful banks of the Yamuna onto a particularly charming area where there were only a few cows and occaisonal some herdswomen. Suddenly two men popped out from behind shouting that they had "moneyproblem" with one of them producing something that looked like an old pistol to us and pointed it towards us. Trond thought it must be a fake and started to quarrel with them. The man without a gun, who looked a bit strong, searched Erlend's pockets and took whatever money he found there and a neck silver chain. The man with the gun and Trond got into a physical squabble and a shot was fired directly at Trond from some five meters. Either it missed or the gun was fake but Trond got worried that they also may have knives. So he too gave up whatever money he had but refused to let them have the mobile and passports. By now the robbery had lasted a few minutes and it seemed the robbers were satisfied with the cash they had managed to extract so they started a retreat into a nearby village and went on to to run. We ran after them and they again pointed the gun at us so we decided to leave it there.

Between robberies on the banks of Yamuna

Afterwards we proceeded to a nearby police station only a few minutes away to file a report. They took Erlend on a bike down to the river to determine where the incident had taken place. On way the sub-inspector halted a few times to beat up taxi drivers who carried too many passengers with them. He had a large stick whch he used most actively for that purpose. When this devoted policeman finally reached the river much nearer to the city than where the robbery actually had taken place he promptly decided that the spot where we had been robbed was outside of his geographical jurisdiction. He simply let Erlend off the bike and adviced him to take the matter to another station accross the river and told him to walk back on foot to the police station where Trond waited. We then decided it was better for us not to trouble the police with the matter. The only useful thing we got from our visit to the police was an information from a guard there who said one should walk in a group of at least four or five persons when visiting the Yamuna river in these places, never go alone or only two as it is a dangerous place. But we had not seen any posters or notices about it and the hotel personel also did not warn us when we had asked them about directions in the morning.

Well, we are safely back in Delhi now frm where we will fly to Goa tomorrow. When visiting Singapore and Malaysia earlier we rested very well and thoroughly enjoyed the tropical climate and environment. The island of Pangkor in Malaysia had dreamline beaches where we swam; the rest of it was easygoing, most and beautiful and cheap. Back in Singapore we could relax with margiis and even go for a tremendous morning walk in a particularly rolling natural area at the highest point of Singapore, very nice before returning to India. So long.

Silent witnesses