During lunch break I met Nadine from England who has been traveling in India on her own for a few months and said I could join her on her train ride to Mumbai when we head back to Kathmandu via Darjeerling, where the tea is well known for.
Nassar helped me to search for a hotel room within 200-300 rupee range. I settled for 250 rupees a night. It's a room with two full size beds and a private shower bath in the room at Hotel Advocado. It's pretty bare in the room but it had the essentials and the price is good. I checked out Li Wei's place at Basecamp Resort. It is much nicer for sure but it was much more expensive and the hotel manager wasn't willing to negotiate for a lower price. I was willing to pay $10. a night, the local price but the manager wanted to charge me the tourist price of $30. per night. I didn't even want to fork out $30. in Phuket for a posh place with pools and jets, why would I here for less than that.
I then hung out at Nassir's friend's Pashmina Shop for 2 hours. I learned a lot about quality of pashmina. I felt after two hours I was well trained and qualified for the business. I learned that the machine manufactured ones were all from China. There are differences between 100% wool and mixed cotton and synthetic ratios. The machine sown ones have bigger loops than hand hand ones. Then there was the test on how the real wool burned, no fumes while the other ones had plastic smoky fumes.
Pashmina comes from mountain goats who live fourteen thousand feet above sea level. I saw photos of goats in a chain and I didn't want to buy any pashmina from that point on. Then I also learned the process to create wearable and desirable pashmina some how included the process of boiling the pashmina with an egg. The more I learn, the more I feel this is really not made for vegans to wear. It is not cruelty friendly.
I really like the needle work and artistry of the designs and really wanted to bring some home. He shop keeper insisting that he would give me a good exchange ratio of 71 rupees to a US dollar. While hanging out at the shop I met lots of tourists. I think I can get a part time job here translating and selling the products here. I also like some of the stone jewelry here. The price is also reasonable. Most people do not come here to buy jewelry here, it's more about Pashmina so the price for the gems are good and also not top rate quality.
