Lovely Lava

Mystery Awaits !

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By Avinash Savant

“These Yaaks were huge and heavily built with long sharp horns. The Yaak on which I was sitting had very long, backward pointing horns which were almost touching my knees while I was sitting on him.”

Day 7, 28 December 2012

                We got up a little late compared to other days, at around 6:30 AM and it was bright outside. We just sat in the balcony chairs, quietly observing the lush dense green valley, as if there was nothing else to speak anymore. After finishing the morning rituals we went down to have our breakfast. We paid all the bills and thanked each of the staff for their prompt, humble and ever smiling hospitality. We clicked a few pictures with the staff and of the beautifully developed organic property. We bid them good bye and got ourselves and our motorcycle ready to take on the next step.

                This leg of our journey was to reach Lava in West Bengal, a small town settled in lush green forest sanctuary. The distance for the day was 104 kms till Lava. We were quiet relaxed while doing this part of our journey as we had already gotten over most of the difficulties so far. We were riding slowly and smoothly ensuring we see each and every aspect of the natural beauty around. By around 2:30 we spotted at roadside hut and halted for lunch. We were almost close to Lava, with Lava being approximately 25 kms ahead. This hut was run by two ladies and it served veg momos and tea at that time. We happily ordered 3 plates of veg momos and tea. Maithili started chatting with the ladies and she was asking about how they prepare momos. Maithili then took a video while they were actually making the momos.

                After finishing our lunch, we moved towards Lava. We reached Lava by around 4 PM and it was already getting darker. I was surprised while entering Lava town, as there are these extreme steeps at the entrance and all the shops are built on these steep climbs. The experienced four wheel drivers were easily roaming around, taking reverse turns and parking the vehicles on these steep climbs. My rented Enfield did a great job by smoothly climbing and maneuvering through these climbs. We had booked a wooden cottage in Yankee Resort which was built on mountain slope. The entrance to the resort was very small and there was no parking space. The resort manager asked me to park my motorcycle next to resort entrance. The resort manager and his staff were friendly and caring. They were surprised to see only two of us doing such trip on motorcycle. He then took us to our wooden cottage which was very pleasant. He took our dinner order and gave us 2 buckets of hot water to take bath. We took bath and relaxed for some time in the room itself. This room too had a balcony and two chairs that we used to it’s fullest. Lava was much more colder compared to all the places on our trip before. When we went down for dinner, we were shivering and even touching the cold metal spoon was a nightmare for us. Looking at us the manager asked us whether we want a room heater, to which we instantly said, “YES”. He then brought us our order, a Rohu fish curry and steamy hot rice. It was delicious indeed and we ate everything until we had nothing left on our fingers to lick. The manager started chatting with us and asked me what I do for living. I told him about my career in Animated Films, which was difficult for him to understand. Luckily there was a television set on and his kid was watching a Disney channel. To my added surprise, it was Disney’s Tinkerbell Film getting broadcasted, which we at Prana Animation Studios, Mumbai had created. Now it was a moment of pride for me. I pointed at television and said, “This what I make for living”. He was very much happy and was curious about how we make animated Films. He then asked us about our plans for next few days. He suggested us to do a Paragliding session. Me and Maithili looked at each other, and raised our eyebrows with happiness and excitement. This was something we wanted to do from a long time and now it has come our way. We requested our manager to make arrangements for the same. Each gliding session was of 15 minutes and the cost was Rs 3000/-. The place was a hill near Kalimpong, approximately 29 kms from Lava. We booked the time of 8 AM next morning and went to our room in next day’s excitement.

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