It’s hard to sleep in the wild animal kingdom. The last two days I thought I was beginning to turn the corner but I get awoken by a lone wild turkey at exactly the same time. He(?) steps slowly on the rocks outside my window at precisely 7:22am. I don’t mind that wake-up call if I had been sleeping all night, but I haven’t managed it yet.
This turkey looks like good eating, doesn’t it? Um, I mean, if I wasn’t vegan, of course. (Cough!)
There are all kinds of wildlife up here. Once I came home from a year-long trip and I showered and then eagerly put on some old jeans–fresh clothes!–from my closet when a little scorpion that was hiding inside the pant leg bit me on the inner thigh. Inch-long scorpions aren’t uncommon around these parts.
This morning I saw the deer in the photo below. Usually the deer have a keen sense of who’s around and amble away, but this young buck just sat against the house. I could see it breathing heavily and then I saw the real reason: a bleeding wound in its chest. Poor thing doesn’t have long to live.
Middleweight division? If you don’t start exercising a bit more, you’ll be bumped up to heavyweight! Hope you get some sleep….
I know it is possible to have naps during the day. You don’t have to wait for the night to fall.
Once I meditated about energy deficiency, and I concluded that there are three kinds:
1. Bordom
2. Hunger
3. Sleepiness
And the remedies for them are as follows:
1. Do something enjoyable.
2. Eat
3. Sleep
And if you are interrupted in one of these processes, you can either resume shortly after the interruption, or start again a while later when the partial “recharge” runs out.
My point is that at any moment there has always got to be something you feel like doing; something enjoyable to do, something to eat, or just to relax and think no thoughts. Maybe while in a hot bath. Yeah, how about a hot bath, or a sauna? Have you tried these? Plus maybe a mug of hot milk with honey. That might put you to sleep regardless of the time of day.
I know you may have tried counting sheep, but if it doesn’t work for you, try counting turkeys or scorpions instead. Up until about 500 there might be a stress factor involved, but after going a little beyond that number, you couldn’t care less. Then you might actually dream about turkeys, and if one happens to call at 7:22 am. then you would think it is in your dream, and sleep on undisturbed like a log.
Now that you mentioned turkey, I am in it right now. Pamukkale to be exact. It is actually pamuk kale, which means woolen castle. But you probably know this and you probably have been here.
Sweet dreams,
András
Check my photos here:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/rR6oknXr/Trkiye_2010.html
Sounds like you’re really enjoying the remnants of your travels! Has it always been this bad for you? (the jet lag) And, is it worse when you travel a long distance one way than it is going the other? (east vs. west)
At least when you are awoken at odd hours you get to see the beautiful parts of the day which many people miss or are too busy to enjoy…
What do you do when you’re home?
Ah, friends!
These days the jet lag is bad no matter from which direction. I don’t know why.
Glad to hear you made it to Bangkok. No problem with the one way ticket?
I don’t know what I am going to do next, but I am visiting my parents while I figure it out.
“a little scorpion that was hiding inside the pant leg bit me on the inner thigh. Inch-long scorpions aren’t uncommon around these parts.”
By “these parts” do you mean inside your pants? If that’s the case then I’m confused…