nepal is at her best when the monsoon rains take a break; when the clouds part revealing smogless crystal clear blue skies; when the leaves glisten green, washed off of all the grime; when the mountains and himals play hide and seek with clouds... flirting with them, actually, just the way i like the himalaya!
i took these pictures from my samsung phone and my nikon coolpix camera last week when i was in phulbari, pokhara. and there are also a couple of pictures i took earlier -one slightly-hazy morning - in late april
the day i arrived the mountains were covered up in grey rain-shedding clouds...
... as the day wore on, the clouds thinned out a bit ...
... early next morning the foothills of the annapurna himals were visible...
.. a while later, when the sun's rays hit the himals.. seen here between the slits in the clouds...
...for the few days that i was in pokhara, watching the sunrays kissing the mountain tops
was a treat...
...the peak of annapurna 3...
... machhapuchhre was still not ready to lift her cloudy veil...
.. as the mornings wore on, more of the himals could be seen... from annapurna south in the left, to annapurna 1 and annapurna 3... (annapurna 4 and 2 hidden by kahun danda (hill))
... annapurna dakshin south (7219m) and hiunchuli himal (6441m)...
... the steep slopes of annapurna 1 (8091 m) behind the thin veil of clouds...
... annapurna 3 (7555m) also being teased by clouds...
the jagged fanged ridges of annapurna 3 were clearer in early morning sunrise photos that i had taken earlier in april ...
... machhapuchhre (6991m) finally makes a show, although from this angle its iconic fishtail peak, which gives the himal her name, is not visible...
one day was clearer than most others... when the clouds decided to take some rest for a while.. letting the silver peaks and the green hills have their dose of sunshine...
... annapurna south, hiunchuli and annapurna 1...
... "enough!" the clouds seem to say, "it is still monsoon!"...
.. the pictures below are closeups taken from my camera.. showing the details of the rocks, ice and snow that make up the himalaya...
...the rounded top of hiunchuli himal...
... bits of annapurna south...
... just a bit further north, and two months earlier, is this snowy top in early morning light...
... further north are the annapurna 1 peaks... ... the fluted steep slopes of annapurna 1...
... the same ridge cast in early morning golden glow in april ...
.. and a sneak peek of annapurna 4 (7525m)... a himal that seems to have been truncated by a couple of hundred metres due to seismic activity... the resultant debris flow gave pokhara valley its unique feature of lakes, canyons, gorges, caves and enormous rocks strewn all over the valley floor...
annapurnas in the backdrop of the seti river gorge... which down the centuries has been cutting through the debris left by the himalayan outburst, through a series of gorges and open canyons... the seti still washes down the milky sediments left by the catastrophe and which gives the river its name seti (white (female))...
just a few hundred metres away from this gorge is the canyon formed by the kali khola (black river).. one without the sediment from the base of annapurna 4...
... and now some images of 'shy' machhapuchhre's various moods... the rains had dusted it with snow, unlike the black himal that people saw during the rainless past winter ...
... and this one, again, taken in a hazy morning two months back...
... the green green hills.. with annapurna south in the backdrop...
... the white annapurnas.. . blue hills ... and green trees...
.. and all of these views... of the hills, the forests, the himals, the clouds ... from the balcony of our sungava apartment... accompanied by the soothing notes of the wind chime... aah!
...iti...
