Heading to Pokhara

Tibetan (refugee) monastery

We left Begnas after lunch and headed towards the Tibetan refugee camp. We stopped by a small Tibetan monastery and then a traditional rug weaving factory. The monastery was cool to see mainly because I watched Seven Years in Tibet before I left, and all the monks were wearing the same garb as the monks in the film. I know that's a bit shallow, but I find it hard to really get into golden statues and prayer wheels. As for the monk thing, that didn't look fun at all. It's the destiny of the middle son to become a monk, and many join when they are 5 or 6 yrs old. While I haven't spent too much time in jail, I'm going to comfortably rate the accommodations as prison-level.

Turning wool into yarn

I was impressed by the Tibetan rug weaving. Three women outside were doing some wild handiwork turning wool into yarn (or string or whatever), and inside, women were putting the yarn to work. The rugs were nice, I suppose, but the impressive part was that the whole operation was handled in one building, and I'd put one of the women up against a machine any day. Their hands never stopped.

After the Tibetan-themed stop, we arrived in Pokhara at a pretty decent lakeside resort. I'd say it's about a 3-star hotel now. But, back in the day, it was clearly 5-stars; plenty of 60's and 70's celebs and royalty visited. I'm finding the 'used to be 5-star' to be somewhat of a pattern in India and Nepal. It's like the British built themselves a bunch of super-preppy destinations, but then they went into decline along with the empire. Regardless, I ventured out for a run, and I'm about to grab some dinner in town.