These are slide scans from one of my trips back to my hometown of Kathmandu, in 1998. It was before the age of digital photography as we know it today. I was shooting primarily Fujichrome Velvia and Provia. The chromes were expensive compared to film. Hence, each exposure had to be taken with a lot of thought on composition and exposure. A slide wasted with bad composition or bad exposure was money wasted. There were no LCDs on the back of the cameras to verify the picture you just took. You either knew what you were doing or you took a gamble. Here are a few slide scans, scanned with Nikon Coolscan 5000.

This next series of pictures also comes from my visit to Kathmandu last October. This set was taken while my brother and I were out enjoying some delicious MoMos at a roof top restaurant in Kathmandu. The last three pictures are from Rani Pokhari. I am particularly happy about these pictures as I had been wanting to shoot this exact shot from this vantage point for years. As a happy coincidence, it was during the Chath Festival and the center temple and the walkway were decorated with lights as were the surrounding areas of the Pokhari or Pond. Click on any picture to launch the lightbox, then you can browse by simply using the left or right arrow keys.

Situated on a hill at about 7200 ft, about 30 km from Kathmandu toward the east edge of the valley, the “village” of Nagarkot has been one of the most popular destinations in Kathmandu valley. What started out as a small village decades ago now is home to some of the most spectacular hotels and resorts around Kathmandu. When you drive into Nagarkot proper, it still looks like years ago, however hidden among the trees in the hills are numerous hotels and resorts of every price range and appearance. I had been going to Nagarkot on motorcycles for day trips throughout the years. However, I had never stayed there over night. This past trip to Nepal, six of us set out for a night stop at Nagarkot. The six were my brother, his wife, myself and my wife and her two brothers. We had one car and one motorcycle. It felt great to ride the motorcycle after so many years, especially on the road that winds up to Nagarkot.

To get to Nagarkot, one drives out from Kathmandu, through some extremely busy intersections, then the old city of Thimi or Madhyapur, and then through the outskirts of Bhaktapur. The road then becomes sparse of traffic, and really starts winding and climbing up the green and lush mountains. There are numerous narrow pull outs, that are more suited for bikes than cars. You feel like stopping at every one of these, and you should, the view changes so rapidly that one really misses out if one does not stop often enough to take in the views, take pictures and just enjoy. Every few minutes the laborious roar of a bus can be heard fading in and out as it winds along the narrow serpentine road. Some of these buses are so full that there are people and animals on the roof.

As you go further up, the views become more spectacular until you finally cross over to the north side of the mountain, and the first glimpse of the snow capped Himalayas of Nepal greet you. It is a sight, I am sure that not even the locals get tired of. The higher the road gets, the taller the Himalayas become. Perched precariously at a junction, the village of Nagarkot is usually bustling with tourists, and locals catering to the tourists. Here the road forks, right leads to an amazing viewpoint and the left leads to a plethora of hotels.

We had an amazing time at Nagarkot. The next day we stopped at Bhaktapur for lunch and some sight seeing. I regreted not having enough time to spend in Bhaktapur. Here are the pictures from the trip. I hope you enjoy them and please drop me a line with your thoughts. Click on the comments link below the pictures thumbnails.