Day 9, 30 December 2012

                The next day was for relaxation and we had no plans as such. So we decided to take a walk around and let our motorcycle take rest for the day. There is a hill named Rishyop top, around 8 kms from Lava, which is a popular tourist spot and so we decided to walk till the top and back. In the cold morning, it was fun to have a long walk, with only two of us discussing various topics, clicking pictures and so on. While on our walk we met a few road construction workers who were silently but steadily doing their job of providing us a better means of transport. Amongst them was an Old Lady who must be in her 70’s doing a tough job of breaking stones to pieces and gathering them. We tried talking to her but it seemed the she did not know Hindi. We exchanged smiles and talked to each other through gestures. It was truly inspiring to see a person of that age doing a hard work and earning self respect rather than begging. It is amazing what all we learn while travelling. We bid her farewell and walked ahead with a humbling experience. It took us 3 hours to reach the top and we had no water with us. While on our way back downhill, we stopped at a small village and spotted a shop where we could buy water. The shop owner lady was a kind woman and started asking us about from where we are from, whether we would like to have some tea. We chatted with her for some time and then before living bought some water bottles and biscuits for our long walk back. She asked us to drop by before leaving the town. Since the this was our last day in Lava we promised her to stop by the next day. We reached back to our hotel room by 3 PM. This day was special for us due to various reasons. It made us do a long walk in the lap of Nature. It let us meet wonderful people. It made us give rest to our motorcycle and made us realize not to be dependent on machine to acquire happiness and adventure.