Note: I am writing this on March 7, but I am now well off the grid, so I will be posting this at some future date).

I awoke this morning at 3:20 am, partly because I went to sleep at 9 pm the night before. I was quite knackered from the long previous day going over two passes. Of course, I had to pee. Which brings me to the subject of tea houses.

Many are also known as lodges. They are generally stone building, one to two stories, that double as a family’s (or two or three) home. This section of trail is sparsely populated by trekkers, therefore the lodge business is distinctly secondary to other means of income and subsistence, mainly farming. They provide the most basic of accommodations, generally a very small room with 1-3 beds crammed in. The floor is bare wood, the mattresses are an inch or two thick, and if they have the luxury of electricity, there will be a dim light hanging from the ceiling. Toilet facilities (basic Asian squat) are down the hall, or in the present case, down the steep wooden stairs.

So back to peeing, by the time I was done getting out of my warm sleeping bag, finding my shoes in the dark, clambering down the stairs and back up, I was wide awake. After all I had already had 6+ hours of sleep, in most cases sufficient for me. So I spent the rest of the wee hours reading the news (at the time I still had a cell connection), trying to sleep again, and completing yesterday’s blog post.

Today we climbed a mountain, in reverse. We started by following a small stream downhill to the east, eventually emerging high on the north canyon wall of the Likhu Khola. Just across the side valley from us was a flurry of road building, with tight switchbacks being built on a nearly vertical wall. It turns out that this will be the service road for a Chinese-financed dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Likhu Khola. Given the narrow canyon at this point, it seems like an ideal site. Before you yell environmental foul, think about what life would be without power. This power plant will be a godsend for the people of this area that lived without power or roads when the earthquake hit.

The trail gradually descended to the east finally getting down to the river at the village of Kinja. This was the final destination of the road. After a brief rest and a check-in at the Khumbu district office, the trail southeast and straight up. We were now in Sherpa territory. We regained all the elevation we lost in the morning, and then some, finally arriving at Sete, perched high above the valley, at 3:00 pm. Sete, as far as I could see, consists of a couple of tea houses, nothing more. Our station for the night is the Sherpa Guide Lodge, owned by a school teacher. The school is apparently located a 20 minute walk away, so we had to await his arrival at 4 pm to check-in.

Now, I am sitting in the owner’s kitchen, together with my crew, and various undefined members of the extended family, mostly because it’s warm in here, if a bit smokey. They are all speaking animatedly in Nepali, which always sounds to me like they are fighting. I mentioned this to my guide, and he said it’s because they are all drinking their home-made brew. Oh yea, I had to try it! They poured me a small milky looking glass out of what looked like a tea kettle. The taste wasn’t unpleasant. Of course they drink it warm and uncarbonated. Apparently they make it from wheat, although it didn’t taste anything like a wizen. It also had small round floaters in it that looked like small bugs, apparently some kind of spice they add to it. I would gladly drink more, but I didn’t given that I am trying to acclimate to the altitude – which here is 2500 m, or roughly 8200 ft.

Tomorrow we climb over the highest point this side of Namche Bazar, a high pass of 3500 m (11000+ ft). I’ll likely be in bed by 9 again tonight, hopefully for a longer sleep than last night.

Nevada and it’s neighbors lie in North America’s Basin and Range Province, made

famous in John McPhee Pulitzer Prize nominated book of the same name. Have a look at any map of this region and the mountain ranges on the map look like a swarm of worms fleeing Mexico for Canada. A look at a map of Northern Thailand shows a similar pattern of twisted worms headed for Myanmar and Laos, albeit at a smaller scale. Like in Nevada, the Thai Basin and Range formed by stretching of the earths crust resulting in down-dropped basins, and up-thrown ranges. Today I rode along the edge of one of these worms, southward along the eastern edge of the Chiang Khong Basin. Mostly 4 lanes, but with very little traffic, the road gently rolled along the edge of the mountains. Today was supposed to be an easy day, only about 77 km, but after yesterday’s 119 km marathon, and with bright sun, a hot headwind, and gently rolling hills, It did not feel so easy.

I had my first accident today. I was riding slowly up one of the hills, with my feet firmly clipped into the pedals, when I spotted a view suitable for a photo. I swerved off the road into a small driveway, but as I rolled to a stop, my toe clips picked a bad time not to release. With both toes locked to the pedals I did an inevitable, slow-motion fall onto my hip and elbow. Fortunately, I suffered no injuries save a badly bruised ego. Could have been far worse – there could have been an audience.

The all-purpose I-taen.

I-taens have removable engines designed to be multi-purpose.

Gotta love the fake headlights

The Chiang Khong Basin is agricultural heartland. Rice silos lined the road, and it seemed every flat spot was taken up by harvested rice drying in the sun. Rice in Thailand is still mostly harvested by hand, threshed by small portable machines, then laid out to dry on any available surface. The drying reduces the moisture in the rice grains, making them much less susceptible to mold or insect infestation while being stored.

You also know you’re in true farmland when the i-taens (pictured above)  outnumber pick-up trucks. These Thai-made, colorfully decorated, all-purpose vehicles are used to haul just about anything from pigs to people to rice at a chug-chug-chug 20 km per hour. They are powered by a 9 hp diesel engine that can easily be removed to power a water pump or field plow. Today I had to dodge a few of these chug-a-lugging up the wrong side of the road.

I rode into Thoeng about 2:30 pm. It took me about 1 minute to ride out of Thoeng. Not much here (but it does have two seven-11s about 300 m apart). I had a 2 km ride out of town to find my hotel, a newish concrete block structure. Cheap and clean though. For dinner I had to ride back into Thoeng where I completed a complete tour in about 5 minutes. Outside of push carts, I only found one restaurant-cum-bar, easily spotted by the large Chang beer sign. The food was pretty awful, and I rarely say that about Thai food, but the beer was icy cold, served in a very frosty mug. I ordered a Singha beer much to the disapproval of the waitress wearing the Chang beer dress. She probably missed out on a small commission. I made up for it with a tip which was greeted by braces-filled smile.

Tomorrow I head southeast to Phayao, a lakeside provincial capital that promises to be more interesting than Thoeng. I will try to get there early tomorrow, talk to you then.