Bandipur & Siddha cave
This images are from my third and last trip to Nepal in 2018.
This time, my friend Suzeeta proposed me to visit the beautiful small Newari village of Bandipur, located at around 147km from Katmandu valley. It was brother’s day in Nepal, last day of Diwali, same cultural context as last time in Lumbini. Due to this, we expected complications in the organisation of all our trajects, but we were kind of used to it, so we quickly resolved, and were able to pick up my mum, who was joining us, at the airport on time. The three of us re-united, we jumped into that local taxi and left the Katmandu valley.
When we arrived in Bandipur, the driver left us at the entrance of the village. There was a very calm atmosphere. The natural beauty of this eighteenth century village was stunning as it is located in the heart of Himalayas.
As we were walking around, we encountered some people that indicated us the existence of a cave, and on the way a small monastery. We decided to take the trail. We stopped at the monastery for a while to admire the beauty and absorb a little of the energy of this peaceful spot, where we could meet and chat with the only owner. The trail for reaching the cave was surounded by a luxuriant jungle and gorgeous flowers.
We finally reached the entrance, and found out that the place was inhabited by a hermit, living an loner life, devoted to meditation. It was like that time has stopped right there, on an ancient era. As we were entering the cave, it was getting darker and the walls were becoming narrow. We were not prepared to this kind of hike at all, so It felt little scary. We didn’t really know how deep was this cave as well, but we crossed the path of a group of children, all different ages running and having fun inside. So we decided to follow them and see where it was leading. It resulted on an improvised speleological hiking with them as guides that we wouldn’t forget.