Episode 069 Pokhara

The Subterraneans. Before leaving Pokhara and heading back to Kathmandu, Scott wanted to check out a waterfall he had read about in his guidebook. I said I was game for anything.

The place Scott had read about was called Devi Falls. Apparently, it was a waterfall that dropped into a hole in the ground and disappeared. Gone. An underground river. Man, that sounded cool.

We arrived at the falls and Scott walked quickly ahead of me along the paved trail. As I was setting up my camera and tripod, a young man approached me and asked, in english, what I was doing. I told him that I was filming my adventures in Nepal. He introduced himself as Raj, a 19 year old Nepali student and asked if I wanted to know about the area. Well, of course I did! He began to explain about the origins of the name of the falls and I instantly knew this kid was going to be a goldmine of information for the podcast. I asked if he minded being filmed and he said no, it would actually be his pleasure.

Raj's english was stellar, and we spent the morning following him around the falls and then to a series of caves across the road. These caves were the underground component of Devi Falls, and at this time of the year--pre monsoon--they were accessible to tourists and pilgrims. See, there is an underground temple in those caves and they hold a very special Hindu statue made entirely of a natural stalagmite. Due to the low water level people were able to visit the temple. Once the monsoon arrives the cave will be full of water to a level submerging the statue and she "will take a long shower" as Raj put it.

This is some really cool stuff.

After a few hours of filming above ground and below ground we decided it was time to head back to Kathmandu. I thanked Raj for his time an wonderful conversation by giving him a few hundred rupees.

That kid was awesome. I hope to meet him again some day.

Jon Miller

Total Running Time: 24:42

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