Tonight I’m staying at a hotel in Cardak, a village of about 10,000 people at the edge of the plateau. Yesterday was a big walking day. Today wasn’t. I am on schedule, and I had no desire to push it.
This is a very friendly village. I was just walking down the street, minding my own business (not that I was being anti-social – I was saying hi to pretty much everyone I passed), knowing exactly where I was going, and over the space of 10 minutes I was invited for tea six times and asked if I needed help three times.
Anyway, I arrived at the hotel (which, by the way, only costs $12 a night), crashed onto the bed, and haven’t moved in 7 hours.
Oh, I had such grand plans when I got here. I was going to take a shower, do some laundry, run to the cash machine, get some water, get a haircut, have a nice meal, oh so many great things.
But no, I haven’t moved off this bed since I got here, and I’m not really in any big hurry to do so.
You see, these days, I only get a bed about once a week. The rest of the time I’m laid out on the floor in someone’s office, or I’m camped out on a patch of grass at some gas station next to the highway, or I’m sleeping at some town’s vehicle maintenance yard.
So when I get off this bed, it’ll probably be to get a shower. I only get those about once a week these days too, usually on the same night I’m sleeping in a bed.
(Steve, your suggestion to try hamams is a good one, I just haven’t gone there yet; some things are better left self-administered, and in my book showers are one of those things.)
Yeah, food, cash machine, those things can wait. But the shower’s going to need to happen. I still have SOME standards, you know. 😉
