[This is the second catch-up blog.  I plan to share two today and then the rest over the next couple of days (along with the photos.]

I am beginning to suspect that Cool Sir is conducting an experiment on our family in which he is trying to determine how quickly can you adjust the housing expectations of a American family.

While I suspect he is running the leader of the experiment, it goes beyond him.  Much beyond him.

The people in Kathmandu are in on this science project.  As are the host family in Pokhara.  Every teahouse is part of the team.  Lets look at the progression:

1. Kathmandu – room has no heat, but has decent insulation.  The beds are warm.  The room has a private bathroom with a working shower with hot water.  The shower and the bathroom are one and the same, but that is easily manageable.  They even provide towels.
2. Pokhara (the host family) – no heat, no privacy, no hot water.  The beds are boards.  But the weather is nice (making the lack of HVAC a non-issue and heck, we showered the day before).
3. Trek day one.  Our room measures 8x10 feet with two single bunks and a small bedside table.  Our room has an attached toilet with a shower with “hot” water.  It was not really hot, more like tepid, but we were still in relative warmth (45-65 degrees) so we take a shower.
4. Trek day two.  Room size the same.  Beds and table the same.  Bathroom is now down the hall.  Shower promises “hot” water.  We are no fools and we simply pass on showering. Walls are thin, but at least they open to a closed hallway that traps some heat.  The lobby has a pot-bellied stove that provides warmth.
5. Trek day three.  Same room size. Beds the same. No bedside table. Toilet down the hall.  Shower might have hot water, but the downside seems too much.  The weather is colder after the cold front [how does Cool Sir control the weather – I must find a way to ask him].  Our room now opens onto a balcony that faces the incoming wind.  The door does not really close.  The stove has been replaced with a space heater under a table covered in a sheet.  I kid you not.

Please notice how each day provides an equal, but undeniable drop in room quality.  This is the reason that I discovered his plan.  The degradation is simply too evenly stepped.  Each day, Cool Sir escorts us to our room personally and asks – “is room OK?”

I have this visual picture of Trek Day 4.  We approach a room.  Cool Sir opens the door, revealing a 8x10 foot room with either 1) two mattresses on the floor or 2) twin beds with a mime mid-performance.    There will be no space heater.

Day 5 will feature a mime performing to bagpipe music performed by a kilt-wearing Scot in the second bed.  Not only with there be no heater anywhere, we will be required to plunge our feet into ice water for 5-10 minutes upon arrival.

At some point, we will say “no more.”

Or will we?   Cool Sir and his crack team of scientists will soon know.

Steve Sir