Not quite according to plan

Making plans is always a bit of a crap shoot, particularly in another county during the biggest holiday of the year. While things did not go quite according to plan, we still had a pretty good day.

We started out meeting our guide who was very nice and clearly not in his element. I got the impression that he typically does mountain biking tours with folks, so going to a home based worker cooperative was not quite his thing. Still he was game enough. We hopped into the van and made our way to the training and design center.

After learning about the work of Sabah and seeing the workshops, our next stop was a village outside of Kathmandu. That's when things sort of fell apart a bit. Our guide seemed confused and we did some aimless wandering around. We met some friendly people and learned more about the festival. It was also nice to be out of the city.

We then got back in the van and whet to get some coffee. This was confusing since we were supposed to be going to the town workshop and learning to weave a bit and even start our own project on a hand loom. It was all kind of odd. After we got our coffee we asked our guide when we were going to be doing the weaving. It was at that point when he told us that the workshop in the village was closed and we were not going to be doing the weaving on the weaving tour. And sometimes things just don't go according to plan. So after lunch at a social enterprise cafe and training center and a stop at the Sabha shop, we headed back to the tour office. We praised our tour guide for making the best of things, and politely asked for a partial refund which they gladly gave since things really did go quite pear shaped. 

We then headed back through the marketplace and picked up vaious odds and ends along the way. Chris did some serious bargaining for earrings and a scarf. The guy at the scarf shop is headed to the US in November to get his MBA, though he does not know quite where. His plan is to check things out and then decide where to apply. I think that the chitchat probably helped get Chris a better deal on the scarf.

Since none of us got much sleep last night for some reason, Chris and D are already crashed for the night at just after 9:00. This makes sense since we were all awake and reading at 4:00 this morning. I, however, insomniac that I am, will probably have a bit of time before I am able to fall asleep. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Nepal. Here are some goats.