What! You don’t want to spend the time to see all of my beautiful pictures? Shame on you! Oh well. You can get a decent impression of what my trip was like by viewing these photos.
I bet you didn’t know that Superman really came from Nepal. This container, when filled, holds either 500 or 1000 liters of water.Dances With Clouds. This lush valley of the Modi Khola is surprisingly near to the barrenness of the ABC area. It sits at a rather high elevation, not a low one.A boy leads his younger sister to school via a leashDust is the inevitable result of powerful winds blowing over a sandy surfaceAdieu to the arid land with green breakouts! The Kali Gandaki beckons.A woman works at her loom, as did a number of others in Muktinath. A loom of ancient design mixes seamlessly with the modern clothing she wears.Thorung Pass sits on a saddle between two mountains. This view shows Yakawa Kang, to the north. I thought it was magnificent.Very long strings of prayer flags, firmly anchored in the mountains, flutter furiously in the powerful winds. Nepal never seems to run out of mountains. Here, the mostly barren mountains contrast with the snow-covered Annapurna giants in the far right.The village of Letdar lies peacefully between the raging Marsyangdi River below and the giant mountains above. If I lived there, I’d spend all my time gawking.Make way for the yaks! (What else would you expect in a place named Yak Kharka?)This is not a common scene in the Annapurna region. The mountains are common enough, but the quiet pastureland is hard to find. In this scene, they make a striking combination.Trekkers enjoy the sublime mountain scenery on a clear mountain morningBuddha and Shiva at Tilicho LakeAfter climbing for a short while, trees are already a forgotten life form. Enter now the wild land of rock, snow and ice. Here, half hidden by clouds, the massive Annapurna I plays second fiddle to a remarkable foreground.There must be a yeti nearbyYes, this is the Manang Post Office. But don’t try to mail a letter to the US.The Buddha statue in Lower Pisang with its prayer flags that stretch up into the mountainThe strange, steep, curved, treeless slope of Paungda Danda (Gateway to Heaven) is unforgettable. Locals believe the spirits of the deceased must ascend this wall after leaving their bodies.OK, now that I know how to turn it on, how do I turn it off?There seems to be no end of waterfalls in the lower reaches of the Marsyangi valleyTerraced fields were rare on this trip. But they were picturesque at low elevations.In addition to the hotel name, the sign below it contains many interesting features, starting with the Westren Toilet.This might have something to do with last night’s dinnerThe “New Bridge” being used by over a dozen horses and half a dozen “cool as a cucumber” human drivers. (I’m sorry you can’t see the ends of the bridge; my camera’s wide angle lens was not wide enough. Oh yes, the bridge is twice as high above the river below as you can see from this vantage point.)
Adventure After 60 