Black and white shot of a hill with terraces and bushes
Nepal,  Pick a Word,  Travel galleries

Gallery: pick a word (November)

November 26, 2022 / 23 Comments

Tourists who come to Nepal look at terraced fields and see their beauty but remain blind to the hard labour they extract from tillers

Manjushree Thapa, Nepalese–born Canadian writer

Oh dear! How many times have I fallen precisely into that trap, marvelling at the beauty of terraced fields while forgetting how tough it must be to farm these hillsides.

It’s time once more for me to be tasked to keep it brief for Paula’s monthly Pick a Word challenge. Five words, five photos inspired by those words. I may not stick only to her five words, although I try to be succinct while also giving a bit of context to my choices.

This time Paula has given us five synonyms for patterns. I’ve chosen all my images from my recent Nepal trip. I’m not sure they’re the best possible matches for Paula’s words, but they are all patterns of a sort.

ARRANGED

Ridge of a hill with terraces and bushes

Terraced rice fields at Manakamana, seen from the cable car

The cable car takes both tourists and pilgrims high into the foothills of the Himalayas, to the vibrant temple town of Manakamana 1,300 metres above sea level

CODED PATTERN

String of coloured fabric rectangles with writing on

Prayer flags in Pokhara

I photographed these prayer flags in the rather incongruous setting of a small Tibetan shopping arcade in Lakeside, the tourist district of Pokhara

ORGANISED

Small bells suspended from carved timber beam

Small bells hanging from a temple roof in Patan

Patan is the third of the royal capitals in the Kathmandu Valley, along with Kathmandu itself and Bhaktapur

SEQUENTIAL

Panoramic shot of grasses and trees

Lines of grasses on a misty morning in Bardia National Park

I liked the colour of these grasses against the pale misty trees, and stitched two shots together in Photoshop to create this panoramic line of them

SYSTEMATISED

Colourful flags against white dome

More prayer flags, this time at Boudhanath Stupa on the outskirts of Kathmandu

I’ll do a full post on the massive Boudhanath Stupa sometime soon, as it was one of my favourite sights in Kathmandu

I travelled in Nepal in October and November 2022

23 Comments

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