More Pokhara Stories

Namaste!
Sorry I have not been able to finish up writing about my last Pokhara trip for a while. I've been busy back in the city. So here are some other highlights from Pokhara:
-riding on the roof of the bus (already wrote about it)
-renting motor bikes and cruising the country
-We rented a paddle boat and paddled out as far as we could into Phewa Tal lake. This was actually not that far because there were five of us in the boat.
-On one day we hiked to Devis Falls which is an amazing underground water falls. The water was so incredibly powerful, since it had been raining pretty much constantly for the last month or so. Apparently in the dry season the water subsides to not more than a trickle, but when we went it was raging. It was quite mesmerizing to look at. On this same day we explored the near by Tibetan refugee camp. We were exploring the country side and happened upon a gorgeous raging river. The country people were swimming in it, and the women were doing their washing on the rocks. It was a beautiful milky blue color, like the color of a husky dog's eyes that are stangely blue. We all exchanged looks and knew what we had to do: go swimming in it. So we took of our shoes and went for a dip. It was quite fun. On our walk back into Pokhara the locals I think thought us quite strange, as we all looked like bedragled rats.
-In town there are Tibetan women who peruse the streets with backpacks full of their handicrafts. There are probably the best sales people I have ever met and very persistant. "Looking is free!" We made friends with one woman named Lobsang. She became very fond of us and invited us to her home at one of the nearby Tibetan refugee camps. So, one morning we met her in town and took a taxi about 30 minutes to the refugee camp. She showed us her home which was provided to her by the Nepalese government and is where she has been living since she had to leave Tibet in 1959. It is actually not more than a room, which she shares with another person. It was wonderful though. There were two beds in the room, and one table, and one dresser. The main focal point of the room was a large picture of the Dalai Lama. We sat on the two beds and she made us a most magnificent and delicious breakfast. The breakfast consisted of yak butter tea, milk tea, stacks and stacks of Tibetan bread (sort of like a dense pancake), marmalade for the Tibetan bread, omlets, and bowls of curd (yogurt). Lobsang is such a kind and generous woman and was so eager to tell us about her life and family and about Tibet. After breakfast she had a little "ceremony" for us: she presented each one of us with a milky yellow silk scarf (the kind you may see people present to the Dalai Lama when they meet him) which she placed around our neck and said the Tibetan prayer "om mane pheme houme" (sp?). After the mini-ceremony she took us around the Tibetan refugee camp. It is a wonderfully peaceful place, I suppose this is how Tibet must be, or at least used to be. It is full of little which cottages white-washed, and brightly colored red, yellow, blue, green and white prayer flags strung through out the entire refugee camp. She took us to the monastery which is in the refugee camp. It was closed but she snuck us passed the monks laughing with each other at the gate and took us inside. It was empty but she showed us where all the monks studied and all the amazingly beautiful statues and artwork and icons all about the monastery. At the head of the monastery was a massive golden buddha, next to which was a large framed picture of the Dalai Lama. We each gave a little donation and waited for Lobsang to do a few prostrations infront of the golden Buddha. Then she took us to a juice making factory! Well, it was actually a few rooms dediced to making and bottling juices which they sell in Kathmandu and Pokhara, and I think is a good source of income for the refugees. We met all the workers and watched them slice up pineapples and put labels on the pineapple juice bottles. After we explored the rest of the camp we headed back to Pokhara. All of us and Lobsang squished into a taxi back to town. There was no room so I sat on Lobsang's lap and she had fun stroking my hair and saying the Tibetan prayer. I think she really enjoyed having us to her home, especially since she has no children of her own. "Oh! I will tell everyone I have 3 young miss daughters and 1 young boy son with white skin!" she told us in jest. Going to Lobsang's refugee camp was a most amazing time. She was one of the most radiant, bright and kind people I have ever met despite having had to leave her home many years ago. Soon after she was forced to leave Tibet with her mother, her mother died leaving just Lobsang. Lobsang never married or had any children, but she was so wonderful and didn't let any of the make her sad. She was also so generous to us, although she has so little. Looking around her humble home I thought it is so silly huge mansions in the states and how much space we think we need when some people have so little. She has been living in a home that was provided to her from the government, she did not even want to live there by choice, but she makes the best of it.