About 20 feet from Raga the road turned to asphalt. Our planned daily distance doubled to 117km - taking in two passes. It was cold and we had to shelter from the wind in a sheepfold for our lunch before continuing past fields of ladies out collecting dung. The good road ended along with our luck 6km before Sangsang. Why the previous stretch of road had been blessed with asphalt we've no idea.
Sangsang was billed as the sort of place we would be able to get food, a bed and possibly a shower. Following our guidebook's advice we cycled straight past an attractive Tibetan style hotel to "Hotel Sangsang". Despite the peeling paint, cracked windows and waft of apple brandy we checked into our bare and basic room.
The previous, presumably Chinese, owners had moved on and a Tibetan family had taken over the management. The apple brandy smell and a private party of Tibetans had taken over the adjoining restaurant. Our bathroom for the night along with that of the private party was either the inner or outer wall of the hotel compound, with choices like that who could complain?

Visit border cycling for more information on guided cycle trips.