Exploring the Caves of Pokhara, Nepal (+ bonus crystal cave)

#pokhara #caves #crystalcave

Second day in Pokhara, Nepal and it's time to explore the multiple caves around the city. There are 5 main caves that are open to the public and tourists, though I ended up visiting 3 with an additional bonus cave that isn't necessarily open to the public:
Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave

Right next to Devi's falls (literally across the road), this cave has an ornate spiral staircase that leads you down, after paying the very reasonable 100 Nepali rupee entry price for tourists (50 for locals).

It's pretty short, though you can feel the temperature and humidity difference as soon as you make your way into the cave. There's a large stalagmite that is part of a temple to the Lord Shiva almost as soon as you make your way down to the cave.

At the end of the cave you get to a split in the rock which provides a good view of Devi's falls, though I think it's probably more spectacular in the Summer with the melt water from the mountains. A good beginning to the caves because it's really close to Pokhara and you can pair it with Devi's falls. Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/upKJxHsCwvtfDAEa7?coh=178571&entry=tt
Mahendra Cave

I paid around 1500 nepalese rupees for a taxi to take me to Mahendra Cave and back, with it being around a 30-40 minute drive from Lakeside, Pokhara. You can also pair it with the Bat Cave because they're right next to each other.

The normal route is very short, only around 125m with a shrine at the end of the cave. Though the interesting part if that there is a 700m long extension to the cave. You need a guide to take you....it's definitely not something to try and explore by yourself.

I went to the entrance and paid a 'guide' 500 rupees to take me. Word of warning, my 'guide' was not a guide. The normal guy had gone for lunch and this guy was just an opportunist. In fact, a guide is normally around 2000 rupees (though I had no way of knowing!).

Regardless, it was well worth it. You turn off the main route and immediately start to crawl through much smaller spaces as the heat increases dramatically. Whilst I can't imagine it would be considered real caving, it was good enough for me. We were just using the torch on our phones and it was unreal just how dark it was when we turned them off - if you got lost with no torch there is no way you would make it back.....so take an official guide with spares. Google Map link: https://goo.gl/maps/ea7CUKM2cvcYTbic9?coh=178571&entry=tt
Chamero Gufa (Bat Cave)

The bat cave is right next to Mahendra Cave and both cost 150 nepalese rupees to enter. As per the name, the ceiling is full of hundreds of small fruit bats.

It's a really accessible cave so it was by far the busiest with lots of people making a lot of noise - the inside voice does not exist in Nepal.

If you've travelled to Mahendra Cave it's well worth the quick visit to the bat cave and if you want to do a little bit of climbing you can take the short squeeze through the exit, or walk back through the main entrance. Google Map link: https://goo.gl/maps/h9d2AXBnVogDT5Jv7?coh=178571&entry=tt
Bonus cave: Crystal Cave

My 'guide' for Mahendra Cave had told me about a cave called crystal cave, so I headed back to Mahendra Cave to find out more. That's when the real guide told me that he was the only official one, with I.D at Mahendra Cave that day.

I asked him if he knew about Crystal Cave and he did. We hopped in a taxi and drove into the middle of nowhere and started walking up a hill.

Apparently they are working to make the cave open to the public, but it wasn't ready yet. That's somewhat of an understatement. We had to hop someone's fence whilst some local women were shouting at the guy, it certainly didn't feel official.

We made our way down some stairs and into the 'crystal cave'. With 3 levels, we only managed to explore 2 levels because the third was flooded. The cave itself is much, much bigger than the rest and has a lot to see, including the crystallisation of the calcium which sparkles in the light.

On reflection, it was probably pretty silly to go into an unknown cave where clearly nobody goes, with a random guy. It's much longer than the others so if something was to happen, the situation could have deteriorated very quickly. However, I'm glad I did it. It was amazing to have the cave to ourselves and to see somewhere that your normal tourists (at least at that time) wouldn't have got to explore.
The 'normal' routes of the caves are interesting but short lived. It's still worth the short drive out of Pokhara to Mahendra and bat cave, but it's not particularly exciting. However, the extension to Mahendra Cave is well worth the trip and paying for a guide and whilst it's risky, you can always try to get a guide to take you to crystal cave.

0:00 - Intro
0:37 - Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave
7:05 - Mahendra Cave
9:18 - Extension to Mahendra Cave
16:42 - Chamero Gufa (Bat Cave)
20:54 - Crystal Cave

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