Buena Vista, our new home near the top of Landour ridge, certainly lived up to its name.  To the south there is a fantastic view of the Doon Valley, the Siwalik Hills and the plains beyond. On a clear day after a rain looking south it is possible to see about forty miles.  At night the lights of Dehradoon twinkle like stars or the embers of a bed of coals.  To the north, there are spectacular views of the high Himalayas with peaks rising twenty-one to twenty-six thousand feet high, about forty air miles away at its closest.

 

On a clear spring mid-morning after a storm, looking north you can see a hundred-eighty-mile panorama of the Himalayas.  Layer upon layer, the ridges form a rich tapestry of green changing to deep blue and purple.  Then in dramatic fashion, the soaring rockwalls, folded ridges, gleaming white rolling snowfields and jagged peaks rise majestically above the layered ridges ten-thousand feet to touch the bright blue sky.  I stand transfixed, enchanted, not wanting to turn away, drinking it all in.