Nepal is a bit like California, the weather is the same each day. It rains during monsoon season three months out of the year, and the rest of the time it is sunny skies. The rainy season starts in July and ends in September. Well, at least that is the way it is supposed to work. Sometimes Nepal experiences, ‘winter monsoons’ or ‘western rains’, but these are rare. They are one to two day versions of the world renowned bigger brother monsoon that comes in the summer and fall. Most years a winter monsoon may happen, if at all, at the end of January, but again, they are pretty rare. But….since moving to Tansen, we’ve had THREE. It is like we’ve brought the ‘western rains’ with us. Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m not complaining about the California like weather we generally have here. A few days of rain really isn’t so bad. But the thing that make it not so enjoyable is that Nepal is not as equipped as America is for rain. Drainage is shoddy, so the dirt roads get a bit soupy. The roofing isn’t exact, so trickles show up here and there. There are no sidewalks, so gloppy roads get tracked inside the buildings.
We had had three days in a row day of “winter monsoon” and my shoes were already wet when I put them on. The morning seemed to have cleared so I took the risk and walked our son to school without a rain coat. In fact I was feeling so optimistic I left his rain coat at home. Not a great idea. 10 minutes after dropping him off at school the skies let loose. It would rain for the next 8 hours straight. I resigned to having the entire day washed out, and tried my best to go outside as little as possible. I did, however, have to go back home to get a slicker and boots for our boy. On the way home he was showing me his “super strength powers” which involve running at full speed. Of course, this ended up in a head first slide through the muck. Nice. I just stuck him under a deluge pouring from a gutter and he had his shower then and there with his clothes on. Back home I was feeling the chill and plopped in front of a movie with our daughter on my lap, resigned that the day was washed out. When the movie ended, I looked up and saw the rain had stopped and there was a bit of sunshine cracking through the gray. I took a better look, and was amazed to see actual blue skies. I strapped our daughter in carrier, and out the door we went.
The views were the best I have seen since arriving here. The steady rain for the previous 3 days managed to clear all of the dust out of the air, and all of the hills looked like they were right next door. We climbed 200 meters to the top of Shreenaager to the look out tower, and were welcomed by a cold wind, the setting sun, and all of the surrounding hills with wisps of cloud as the storm lifted away. The Himalayas were clear in the distance, with the snow still settling on their shoulders.
These views were worth at least a week of steady rain. I got them for half price.
See more of the mountain views at our picture website.
Trips Take People 