Coming to rest for the first night in Phakding, none of us knew what to expect as far as lodging or anything else, really. Tea houses consist more or less of a communal eating area and then other buildings with basic, unheated rooms. At Phakding our rooms had private bathrooms and showers (all the same room), one weak fluorescent light in the ceiling, and walls so thin they might as well have been fabric. You could hear the people on the other side of the wall think. But not to complain. As we got higher the showers started to disappear, then the bathrooms. Future posts will deal with the long drop toilets.
Here was my first room:
As for who carried our duffles, it was the dzokios. A dzokio is a sterile cross between a yak and a cow. Yaks are still used at higher altitudes. They both wear bells with the most wonderful soft sound. But when you hear that sound on the trail you pay attention! You quickly find a wide spot to stand in on the *inside* edge of the trail to let the dzokio or yak caravans pass. The animals are docile and well behaved and won’t hurt you if you don’t do anything sudden and stupid. But those horns are large and sharp.
