Champ Chimps Chomp Chump.

This morning I went for a walk to take pictures of this ancient-looking tree near the ashram. It’s the Kadamb tree where, according to legend, Krishna mischievously hid the clothes of the gopis, his cowherd girlfriends, while they bathed in the Yamuna River.




I got this from Wikipedia. That's Krishna in the yellow and his wife, Radha, next to him. Those are Kadamb trees.

While there, someone advised me not to take my shoes off or else monkeys would steal them. Sure enough, I saw a woman take off her shoes, and a monkey stole one immediately. I took my camera out to take some pictures, and while I was taking some, a monkey bit my foot! He was trying to steal my sandal with my foot still inside! People around there asked a boy to take me to a local doctor. The doctor turned out to be an older dude in a yellow waistcloth and no shirt who has his own little informal storefront clinic. The man cleaned my wound and put iodine and a bandage on it, secured with black electrical tape.



Then I went back to the ashram and found Robyn in her office. I told her what happened, and that I should get a Rabies shot. She made some calls, and we went to a more western-style clinic where I was given the first of a course of five shots that I will take over the next month.

After that, Robyn was telling me how surprised she was at the boldness of the monkey. She had never heard of a monkey attacking someone’s shoe with their foot still inside. She said she was scared of them, and she recommended that I walk around with a stick to fend them off. She stopped to look at canes, to buy one for each of us, and at that moment, a monkey emerged from the gutter and bit my other foot! We purchased the canes, and warily walked back to the ashram. The medicine I’m taking will conveniently work for both bites at once!