Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Varanasi. I freeze at night. These buildings were not made for cold,
but for hot hot weather. I wonder what the homeless people do. There
are so many. The fog is thick and impassable at night. I thank the
powers that be that I have a duvet jacket and extra leggings. And hot
chai in the morning. I survived one night in a cold jeep heading
through the dense fog and the most horrible bumpty mud/sand roads
imaginable, and slept in the jeep when we could go no further,
squished between a pokey seat belt thingie that would not go away and
the steering wheel. And survived. Frozen, stiff, but I made it.
I like to think of myself as a tough old broad, but I sure as hell
don't like getting it tested. Yet, it's amazing how far will power
will take you.
Around 1 am we were barrelling through a tiny town/village and
suddenly out of nowhere a horrible police siren jolted us. They told
us the road was too dangerous and we needed to stop driving for the
night. The girls were asleep in the back under a warm blanket, so I
did not want to wake them up to get into some cold possibly dank
"lodge", so I offered to sleep in the jeep, while the driver took his
blanket and went into the police station to sleep. Also, I really
don't trust police anywhere, but especially not in India, in a small
village, and wanted to stay close to the girls. Hence, I ended up in
the front seat with Hannah's sleeping bag but absolutely no
comfortable position to sleep in. My face was frozen too. But
somewhere in there I got a good-enough nap that I actually felt
refreshed by 6:30 am wihen the dawn broke.
