AUG 10, 15 .. DEEP BREATH .. HOLD IT .. DRAMA ..

Today is the day before my big train trip North from Ulaanbaatar to Sukhbaatar on the Trans-Mongolian / Siberia Express train ..

– To Every Thing There Is A Season ..

– There Is A First Time For Many Things ..

– Never Ever Has This Happened To Me ..

Back on DEC 21, 14 .. I put up a post about drama ..

https://babakaps.net/?p=10279

In that post I listed several categories of DRAMA ..

Category 10 .. SERIOUS HEALTH ISSUES ..

Category 9.75 .. LOSS OF A LAPTOP ..

Category 9.5 .. LOSS OF A PASSPORT ..

Category 9.0 .. LOSS OF MONEY / CREDIT AND/OR ATM CARDS ..

The vital and the critical players ..

First .. No question .. Amaraa .. saved-the-day ..

Second .. Changer .. Was the ACTION MAN ..

I had a rather bothersome day today. One of my neighbors asked Happy if he (my neighbor) could get Wi-Fi in his room of our shared apartment. Happy called Changer .. Changer called me. I said .. “Sure. After all it is Happy’s apartment.”

Assumptions. I assumed he would get Wi-Fi IN his room. He came over to my room and spent several hours fussing and fidgeting with the Dell Desk Top Computer I have the use of. To no avail I guess because the next thing I knew he was back with a friend. The two of them fussed and fidgeted and solved it. Wi-Fi in their room.

Small problem .. They had Wi-Fi and I had NO internet. Totally unacceptable to me. So they made-me-whole. I had internet again. As I was about to leave to go downtown to mail some post cards my neighbor appeared. He indicated he wanted to come into my room since the Wi-Fi was now in my room. I said .. “I must go out and you cannot come into my room.”

Having these two in-my-room up-close-and-personal was just a bit disturbing. I wanted peace and quiet so that I could really concentrate on my writing post cards. But .. What Is .. IS .. I neither tipped over nor did I die .. But they were with-me literally for about four (4) hours of my afternoon.

At 6:30pm off I went on the bus downtown to mail my post cards. I was NOT feeling exactly 100% but I had taken a short nap and felt basically OK .. I am not going out IF I feel distracted .. I stay in!

Into the post office ..

I put my post cards into the International Drop Box ..

I stepped over to the post card and stamp counter and selected forty (40) post cards and (40) stamps ..

“Sir that will be 66,000 Tug (US $ 33.47)” .. The post cards were 550 Tug each. The stamps were 1100 Tug each. The total for each post card with stamp was  1,650 Tug or US $ 0.83+ ..

Not that I did not trust her .. Of course I did .. She has been serving me for several weeks now ..

BUT .. I just wanted to ‘crunch-some-numbers‘ to check things out.

I casually reached down for my cell phone to use it as a calculator ..

TIME STOPPED .. MY PULSE STOPPED .. MY HEART SKIPPED-A-BEAT ..

MY ..  CELL ..  PHONE ..  WAS ..  GONE !!

I had become the victim of a pick-pocket. A first ever for me. Never ever have I been successfully pick-pocketed.

I .. HAD .. NO .. PHONE .. NUMBERS .. 

I could not call anyone .. I did not even know my own phone number ..

“Don’t panic Captain. It is only a cell phone.” I have a train to catch tomorrow and I sure will miss having a cell phone to be in contact with all of my support group. Well .. one step at a time .. I must get back to my apartment ..

I rode the bus home with my post cards (I used the postal clerk’s calculator to confirm she was spot-on-accurate) ..

I got home and WAS I LUCKY .. Amara was home!

“Amaraa please telephone Changer.” .. Thank the Good Lord Amaraa and I are buddies and the two of us use Changer as our translator. Amaraa has talked to Changer several times daily for the past few weeks.

Without Amaraa I was DEAD-IN-THE-WATER ..

“Changer this is Cap. My cell phone was stolen from me on the bus.” .. “I have a second cell phone with me Changer. It is fully functional. I need to get another SIM Card.”

“Cap I will be over immediately.” .. “I have had three of my own cell phones stolen. My daughter the same. I know exactly what-to-do here.” He was over like Jack Flash .. we went directly to the main downtown Mobi.Com office because it was one of only three in Ulaanbaatar that is open past 8pm.

Changer explained to the representative what had happened .. I gave her my passport. She said .. “Here is a new SIM card with your same telephone number and all of your funds on your pre-paid card are intact. That will be 5,000 Tug (US $ 2.54)”

We tried it out .. it worked for outgoing and incoming cards ..

PATTI .. Your Hong Kong Nokia cell phone saved the day big time.

“I am so happy to have been of service to you Cap.”

All of it .. Just A-Day-In-The-Life .. I suppose ..

Over And Out .. Just Feeling A Tad Numb and Overwhelmed With Gratitude for my Team here..

Cap .. or if you will .. Kanbaatar ..

DRAMA RATING ..

Because Amaraa was home I was quickly in contact with Changer who himself was home .. I had a cell phone that was fully functional .. The total cost was about two and a half hours and US $ 2.54 .. I rate this as an 8.75 on my DRAMA SCALE ..

Actually at no time did I ever get too upset about what was happening. Yes I had feelings but I did not lose my concentration on what I had to do.

• ← AUG 8, 15 .. THE MONGOLIAN RAILWAY .. PART 2
• AUG 16, 15 .. WHEN WILL THIS EVER END .. IT WON’T .. →