The Tea Houses
Two common questions I've been receiving are whether we slept in tents during the trek and whether we had to carry all of our food. And the answer is no to both. We stayed in what are known as “tea houses.” They are basically small little family run lodges, about as basic as it gets, that provide somewhere for trekkers to sleep and eat along the way. Each room provided us with a twin bed, a pillow, a blanket, an electrical outlet (only one place didn’t), and a shared bathroom. One or two of them even provided private bathrooms - luxury! Not every place had a shower, but we did actually come across far more showers than we expected. Some were free, some were paid, but most were lukewarm. None of the tea houses we stayed in had heat in the rooms, and they were often freezing cold, so we spent all of our waking hours in our winter clothes, and our sleeping bags kept us warm enough at night. Before the trek, I imagined we would eat well enough, as we’d be exerting a ton of energy along the way, but I honestly never imagined we would eat as much as we did. Each one of these tea houses provided a surprisingly large menu to order off of for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and most of the portions were enormous. There’s even one item on the menu that, if ordered, includes unlimited extra servings - a trekkers dream! More on that next time…
"Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before."
-Dalai Lama
