Tuesday we woke up to rain, rain, rain. Raj (our trusty AC guide) had booked us up for 9am to go to the Bat Cave and Mahendra Cave just north of Pokhara. The rain backed off at 10am and Raj turned up (we thought he had given up on the day like us). Being the high class travellers we are, it was onto the local bus into town (11NRS each) then to Bagar (another 6NRS each - expensive tastes eh!).
We had a look into the Seti River from a foot bridge that also has a channel carrying water to the hydro power station #2 tunnel. The water is flowing very strongly across the bridge and disappears into a tunnel in the side of the hill. The actual Seti River is way down in a very narrow gorge.
Then a walk to the Bat Cave. We had brought our own torches/headlamp as this cave is unlit (we discovered you can hire lights at the entry). There is no infrastructure after the initial steps down. Of course it was wet (early morning rain) and dark inside. Fortunately there were enough visitors that our combined lights allowed us to find our way around. There was no Batman, Robin or any real bats to be seen. This is not a very large cave - maybe only worth the 10NRS because of the fun you can have climbing around in the dark.
Next to Mahendra Cave. This one had lights in it and a bit of a path - but I'm not sure what happens when the load shedding happens. There are actually some reasonable limestone structures in this one and it is quite long (a few 100m until it gets to small for walkers). This one is worth the 10NRS for the ordinary cave experience.
There are nice grounds and kiosk at both caves for a picnic.
This time 3 buses back to Lakeside - local buses are really the way to get around Pokhara. It was a fun day out and the rain didn't set in again until later in the afternoon.
