Bat Cave - Bandipur

After Lumbini we headed to Bandipur, a Newari town just up the mountain on the south side of the main highway. The only way up to the town is by jeep, along the hairpin curves, and affording beautiful views of the valley.
Bandiur is clean. Very clean. Immaculatly clean. NGO (we're not sure which one, but prevailing opinion is either the UN or UNICEF) has put quite a bit of money into cleaning it up, and the results are obvious. It's the cleanest place I've been to in Nepal. There are signs everywhere reminding people to keep the place clean, put rubbish in the bin , and my favourite, announcing that Bandiupr is a defecation free zone!
The town feels like a European village, with a stone paved street, restaurants with outdoor tables, and guest houses with shutters opening onto the street and flower gardens along the side of the road. The entire time we were there we didn't eat a single meal inside. We stayed in a small guesthouse family run where the rooms were once occupied by the owner's children. My room had a balcony looking out over the valley. By far the best guest house so far.
The first morning in Bandipur we went to the Siddha Cave, the biggest cave in Asia. It was about an hours walk downhill to the cave, so the cool and dark of the cave was heavenly. The inside was HUGE. We climbed down two ladders into a massive chamber, with smaller chambers off it. There was a small shrine in a little alcove, and bats overhead. Not very many though. Lonely Planet said there are tons, but I was dissapointed. There are more bats on the roof in Laxmi.
Julia, Magnus and I walked back up the really steep stairs (I hate stairs) back to Bandipur, while Caitlin, Hari and Ed walked the rest of the way down to the highway and took a jeep back up. It had to stop halfway up to pour water on the engine to cool it off. Oh the vehicles in Nepal - they're not the most reliable.
The rest of the time in Bandipur involved the tree, until Friday morning, the day we were leaving. That morning we all went to a silk farm. It was fun, and we saw all ages of silkworms, but I learned more a the silk farm in Turkey. Still, we ate mulberries, the food the worms eat. It was a fun outing.
And from there we headed to Besi.