It’s cold, mom…
Almaty to Middle of nowhere, Kazakhstan
So i’m not supposed to be telling you this.. and still get you all excited about traveling with beautiful pictures and experiences, but this is real life. The honest truth about travel…I should be still uber excited and ready to take on the next adventure…but i’m not…The “honeymoon”, novelty, fresh like a roadside watermelon-ness…has passed by and our bodies are getting tired and breaking down.. not in the “watery” sense, but exhaustion and tiredness. My mind is still fresh and ready to tackle the next country, but my body is reacting in a much different way.
The crazy phenomenon of traveling-in-your-20s-syndrome is a tough cookie. It starts out with its buttery, chocolatey goodness to entice you in… then after you’ve had a few bites you realize this cookie is ginormous. Your eyes were much bigger than your stomach…much much bigger. But it tastes so good, you can’t stop. You are getting fat with the butter going straight to your hips (Yes, Ian, my hips still don’t lie. :P) and your body just don’t react the same way….wait… is this just what old age is?
It may be the fact that I haven’t exercised in a while…sitting in a car for 10+ hours a day. being in a house full of cute kittens, but being allergic to all of them and sneezing my brains out. sleeping in the cold for two nights straight forcing my body into a catatonic-squirrel survival mode…
just kidding. I can only be thankful for the wondrous experiences I’ve been having flying through these countries…
The next morning after an amazing rest at the same Almanty Central hostel and meeting this amazing couple from Denver, doing a two year cycling touring trip around the world! They average 30–50 miles and just get to see and meet everything. Next trip may be a touring trip…. check them out HERE. Anyways we were off towards Semey, glad to be in the car as leg muscles ached and hips were stiff. There would be no shakira dancing tonight… We made some good progress and end up camping on the side of the road in some trees. We found a plethora of firewood and started an amazing warm fire with made some rice, beans, and corn. Fried up some crispy spam-esk meat and pitch up our hammocks for the night.
The night is worth mentioning. It as a full moon, beautiful and bright..and It was sorta restful…. but mainly cold. wait no… a stronger word is needed… icy, frigid, freezing, think jumping into an icy lake in the middle of winter. Sleeping in a hammock in the tropics or when it is warm is not problem. The heat is wicked away and the body is kept cool….
This is a problem when the temperature drops to 10 degrees Celsius. Any heat that your body is attempting to store gets stripped away underneath you. There is an ongoing debate between us..well really Marshal versus the rest of us… whether or not sleeping essentially naked in your sleeping bag is warmer than sleeping with all your clothes on… this night it would not matter… all of us were freezing. So cold Josiah, who swears by his ENO hammock, went and slept in the car, because it was so cold. The fact that Josiah of all people, whom has tried to sleep in his hammock for the past month… went and slept in the car… you just know it had to be bad.
Jonathan
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