Accommodations (part 2?)

In the town of Lhatse, we had slightly better luck with a hotel. It, too, lacked heat and insulation (and they also kept their doors wide open all night) but they had hot water nightly from 9pm to midnight. Perpetually cold and unable to shake the chill of the past two days, Jacqueline seemed to be getting worse. Her cold and cough were as bad as they’d ever been, and we were getting worried. She remained under the covers, in her winter jacket and boots. At 9pm sharp I put on the shower to its hottest setting and let the steam billow out into our room. The shower stayed on for two hours. The room never technically got "warm", but by 11pm when I went to bed, the steam had helped cut the chill a bit.

In the morning when we woke up, everything--windows, walls, mirrors, ceiling, bathtub--was covered in a thin coating of ice crystals. The steam condensation had frozen overnight.