Tea covering the steep, green hills. And now banana plantations. It gets lusher and lusher. And no less strenuous.
The day’s cycle is determined by the passes. I sleep at the bottom of them, and do one, or at most two 500-600m climbs in a day. The rest of the day is up and down anyway. Today I’m at the bottom of the next 500m climb, in the banana plantation village of Puwen.