Our trek was a 6-day, 5-night version, with what seemed to us like a huge retinue: trekking guide Phub Tshering, cook Wangchuk, assistant cook Dorji, general helper Dawa, horseman Karma and 7 horses. We ascended at what seemed to us to be a fairly rapid pace. That, plus my blossoming throat and chest infection, kept me coughing and not sleeping. Phub wisely decided that I should ride the last 1 or 2 km to the highest pass, or else we would have been slowed by the better part of an hour. Apart from the continuous nuisance of the chest cold, the trek was wonderful.
