So now that my health has taken a dive (I still have lingering GI probs and now a cold to top it off), I am re-thinking my ambitious plans to make it all the way around the globe which I didn’t really plan out that well in the first place. I always knew there would be several long-haul flights involved to get home going west, but I think I was in denial of how unappealing that would seem when the time came, especially in a weakened state.
So, although a big part of me is ready to run home in the other direction, tail between legs TODAY, the adventuring part of me is still whispering in my ear, "why the hell not chill out, take your time and hole-up here in Varanasi for a week and slowly, and perhaps more thoroughly, maybe, get to know this particular city and enjoy the fact that you’re half way around the world in an utterly amazing place with so much to learn and experience? Then, when you feel better, get on a plane to Delhi or Bangkok and from there go the rest of the way home."
Then the vanquished part of me says, "but you’ll never get better here, the place is such a dive.”
Then the adventuring part of me says, well maybe you just need to change hotels.
Its true, although I really came to like the very helpful and trustworthy owner of my guesthouse, Vinesh, and even though his guesthouse was clean, in an interestingly crumbling residential neighborhood that looked like it had been built before the turn of the last millennium, and on a fascinating stone-paved alleyway filled with fun animals, all the rooms in his hotel were ridden with mosquitos, there was trash being burned nearby on a regular basis, and the scary Assi river which is literally an open sewer lined with garbage, ran swiftly right behind the place. So it was kind of like sleeping at the dump.
I moved hotels today to a more central part of town and there is indeed a noticeable improvement. I think the two parts of me are in agreement that the new plan is at least worth a try.
I’ll let you know if and when something interesting happens.
