Return to Ban Puai and Ubon Part 1 (8-27)

Tony and Duncow met me at the airport in Ubon. It was really nice to be met with smiling faces for a change—instead of just arriving on my own. It was good to see him and his family again. I stayed in his new guest house, which is also where he hangs out to use the computer and do a bit of private teaching. It was wonderful waking up to the view of their farm. Their new project is growing mushrooms, the kind that grow in bottles. It was interesting to learn about that process. The mushrooms grow quickly—from barely showing to being ready to harvest in one day. They cut the mushrooms once or twice a day and deliver them to the local market to sell wholesale. One delivery time is 2:00 AM. Not a job for me. The girls have grown up nicely. Boink speaks English well now and asked a lot of questions about China. I enjoyed chatting with her. It was good to be with the family again.

Wednesday night I had dinner with Lovely, Kate, and Angela and husbands and children. It was really good to see them and catch up with them again. I felt a little bad that this had been arranged but Tony was unable to join us.

Wednesday Khun Dakom called me to tell me that Phra Kong had had an operation and ask me to visit them at the hospital. So Thursday I spent the day at the hospital with them. Phra Kong has a private room. He was on one side with two monks attending him. Khun Toy and Khun Dakom stayed on the other side. Khun Dakom returned home every two days to take care of his animals and trees, but Khun Toy didn’t leave the hospital while he was there except to buy food across the street. On Thursday many people visited throughout the day. There are no designated visiting hours; people just came in whenever they wanted to. A head monk from another wat came. Two nuns, whom I remembered, came. When they were there, the monks went out to the balcony. Friends of Khun Toy and Khun Dakom, some of whom I recognized, came. People from the village where the wat is, some of whom recognized me, came. We had about an hour of quiet time in the afternoon when we slept. From what I could understand, it sounds like he had a tumor in his intestine. Good news is that it wasn’t cancerous.  

Friday I went to Ban Puai to stay with Khun Teamjan. We stopped at school in the morning. My teacher friends had heard from Khun Yindee that I was there and were ready to greet me with big smiles and a few hugs. And a little English, which was sweet as most of them don’t speak English other than the greetings. Everyone told me that I am beautiful. It was really heart-warming to be with them again. Teachers and primary students are wearing white on Fridays during this Buddhist Lent three months, part of the new government's policy to promote Buddhism. Primary students upstairs saw me and waved. They don’t know me, but they were excited to see a foreigner. 

Students have a morning quiet time now where they sit outside the classroom and listen to quiet music and maybe meditate. This is part of being a Buddhist school, one of the school’s many projects. One teacher told them that I would take photos of this to send to America. So I obliged.

Khun Teamjan’s grandson, now 9, greeted me in English and could chat with me a little. It was nice that he wanted to do that. Before eating dinner, he folded his hands and said the prayer they say at the Catholic school he attends because it’s a private school, not because they are Catholic. I was surprised when he did that, but it was because he wanted to show me his English, not because he does it every evening. Her granddaughter, now 5, and I had a good time playing together. Of course she didn’t remember me from before, but after a while she brought the photo of her brother, two teachers, and me at his kindergarten graduation and pointed to me “Yai Jackie.” I was touched that she knew who I am even if she didn’t remember me.

Saturday I walked over to say “hello” to my former neighbor Khun Ying. She was very happy to see me, as always. I’d planned to go on to other friends, but she took over the rest of my time. She took me to the wat and gave me a tour of all the new things there: garden beside the abbot’s house, new houses for the monks, the big, yellow gate, two new signs. Lots of changes. Then we went to the mesh tent area where the women were preparing the abbot’s lunch. Most monks take food for lunch during the morning offerings and eat it in their rooms, but the abbot eats special food in this special area. He came to eat and chatted while we waited. Since he speaks some English, he asked me several questions and took photos to put on Facebook. After he ate, the food was put on the mats for the rest of us. Fortunately, Khun Teamjan arrived then and I didn’t have to not eat the food, as most of it looked like food I can’t eat.

Khun Teamjan and I drove to Ubon to see Khun Toy and Khun Dakom at the hospital. On the way, she asked what I wanted for lunch. I said “somtom” because it a light lunch that I like and I had a dinner to go to and because it’s quick and easy, which would get us to the hospital quickly. She called her son, and we picked up his wife and son. Then we drove for half an hour to one of the seafood restaurants along the river. So for lunch we had four dishes—fish, noodles with shrimp, curried seafood in a coconut, and green curry soup. No som tom. But, of course, it was all delicious. Her son joined us at the restaurant, which was good because there was too much food for us three women.

After lunch, we went to the hospital and then Khun Teamjan drove me to the meeting point to go to Tony’s for dinner. Samporn had invited an English teacher she wanted me to meet. It turned out that he knows Khun Teamjan and Khun Toy and Khun Dakom. Khun Dakom built the road in front of the school where he teaches. Small world.

After dinner he drove me back to Ubon and to Aemmie’’s house. It was a full day for socialization, and I was tired and hadn’t wanted to go there, but I was glad I did. I recovered from my tiredness around 8:00, which often happens and had a really good visit with Aemmie and Khun Kasemsri. I’d wanted to spend time with both, just not that night. But it worked out well. We went upstairs to the air conditioned bedroom and chatted while Maysia went to sleep.

Sunday I returned to Khun Yindee’s house, as I wanted to spend time with her on the weekend when she isn’t working. In the late afternoon, we went to her farm near Ban Puai. For the first time, she is growing rice herself. (Her sister has always taken care of the farm.) The main purpose of the trip was to throw special food into the pond to hopefully attract fish in the fields to go to the pond. Then kindhearted Khun Yindee went to some places in the fields that were almost dry and picked up fish for her husband to take to the pond so they wouldn’t die.

Monday I ended out at school with Khun Yindee. It felt natural and good to be there. The school has a good feeling to it, and I feel at home there. Many students greeted me with a “Hello,” unlike the first time I arrived at the school when no one spoke to me for months. However, students—even in grades 6 and 7—can’t say more than that and “How are you?” and “I’m fine.” Sad. As sometimes happens, teachers had a meeting all morning with a man who came to talk about an upcoming contest; so students were left in class with grade 9 students monitoring them. The contest is a national contest that will select four winning self-sufficiency schools. I remember the project because they had a regional contest when I was here. So teachers will busy preparing documents and special displays for the next month. The way things are done hasn’t changed.

The school is now a bilingual school. Science, social studies, and art are taught in both Thai and English. Students also study Chinese.

I had lunch with several of the teachers. I have always felt comfortable with them even though I am on the fringe of the group since I don’t understand them when they chat and I’m not involved in their activities. Even so, I enjoy being among them.

Tuesday I returned to the hospital. Phra Kong was released to return to the wat; so we all went there for the day and night. It felt good to be there again, as I have always liked being there. Khun Toy and I did the forest walk, which I always enjoy. 













She also showed me the Budda image carved from one of two tree trunks she donated. The other is waiting to be carved. The tree trunks were soaked underwater for a long time. I remember learning this about teak floors in an old house in Vietnam. Sleeping at the wat means sleeping on a thin, bamboo mat on the tile floor. Hard.

New at Wat Hua Don is the foundation for a chedi/pagoda that is being built. Khun Dakom said it will cost about 8,000,000 bahts/$265,000. The top is finished and on display. It contains Buddha relics. The project will take one to three years to complete.

At breakfast on Wednesday several of the village women greeted me, which was nice. I remember them, too. We enjoyed watching the squirrels eat the left over rice that is put out for them. 










Khun Suwit and Khun Teamjan came to the wat later in the morning and we went on a short tour of three nearby wats. Wat Pat Tammiset has special Buddha images, one of which has relics from the Buddha, as do many of the wats. 

Another wat has a boat that Khun Dakom said is about a thousand years old. It was found at the bottom of the nearby river twenty years ago. It is 24 meters long and 2.7 meters wide. 

The third wat has a boat that is 150-200 years old and was found in the river two years ago. It is 26.5 meters long and 3.5 meters wide.   

Then we returned to Khun Dakom and Khun Toy’s home for a couple days. We slept in the small house by the pond; Khun Toy and I in the larger room, and Khun Dakom in the smaller one. We laughed about the time the rat took my watch during the night.  Khun Toy brought out the sheets I had given her when I left. I don’t think they’ve been used since, but I enjoyed, especially enjoyed the top sheet since Thais use a blanket instead.

A new addition at their house is a washing machine. It’s nice that Khun Toy now has one. The other new addition is android phones. Khun Toy had bought one when I was here two years ago and they’d been sharing it. Now they each have their own phones, given to them by Phra Kong. They are fanatic about using Line, the chat app most Thais use, and Facebook and have them out every time they sit down. I think they spend about four hours a day checking their communications. With their new phones, they have also become photographers. Thus I lost one of my “jobs,” as one of the few things I could do for them was take photos and give them to them. Now they take their own and have joined the people who take photos all the time. I taught both of them how to post photos on Facebook; so that will be a fun way to keep in touch. They have enjoyed photos I post; now I can enjoy their photos.

Cha'am and Bangkok (8-19)

Since I had to remain in Bangkok for several more days, I decided to go to the nearby beach at Cha’am for the weekend. Friday I took a shared van. I found it fairly easily. After taking the BTS to Victory Monument, I asked at the first vans I saw and the woman pointed to where I should go. The second person I asked took me to the place to purchase a ticket and wait for a van. When I was dropped off in Cha’am, there was a taxi—unmetered—waiting. Although he reduced his fee a little, I knew he was charging too much (120 bahts/$4 for six minutes) for the short trip, but there were no other choices. Sometimes you have to pay even when you know it’s too much. So four hours after leaving my room in Bangkok I was in my room in Cha’am.

I remember coming to this beach for a Peace Corps conference. It’s not one of Thailand’s famous beautiful beaches, but it’s a good one. Long and clean. I chose a hotel across the street from the beach for easy access. After settling into my room, I went for a late afternoon 1.5 hour walk on the beach. It was overcast and windy; so it wasn’t hot and there were lots of waves. I was surprised that there were very few people on the beach. 

After walking, I sat in a beach chair and bought fried shrimp, squid, and crab from a vendor for dinner.

Saturday morning I walked the other direction for my 1.5 hour walk. No one was on the beach near the hotel, but down the beach a bit there were more people. It was the same when I returned at about noon. I bought somtom/papaya salad and grilled chicken, a typical Thai lunch, and took it to a chair facing the water. The man told me that chairs in that front group facing the water are for families or groups and single people have to sit in the back group of chairs that face across the beach. Since no one was in any of the front group chairs, I pushed a bit and he agreed that I could sit there. I told him I’d move when the chairs were needed for a group. That didn’t happen until 4:00. Then he took one of the chairs and put it farther up on the beach under an umbrella for me, which was quite nice of him.

So, I spent the whole afternoon relaxing and reading on the beach. The weather was cloudy and not hot; so it was comfortable to be outside all afternoon. I had bought a shirt to wear in the water. So I went into the water Thai style in my light-weight pants and the shirt.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 more people came to the beach. Since it wasn’t a hot, sunny day, I found it interesting that they arrived so late.

Sunday I rented a bicycle because I wanted to ride. I rode down the beach road until the end where I found a practically empty beach. Only a fisherman and a few people digging for clams were there. Two foreign men also walked past me. 

The sky was blue with brilliant white clouds. So it was lovely to walk on this quiet beach.

Next I rode on another street and came to a small wat. It was also beautiful against the blue sky. 

Returning to the beach road I came across a special shrine, maybe the city shrine. 

On the beach road, I rode to the other end of the beach where I found the draw bridge for pulling blue crabs. It’s a narrow—barely wide enough for one motorcycle—draw bridge across the jetty. The fishing boats are all blue. Vendors sell fresh and dried seafood. 

I had a late lunch at a restaurant along the shore—horse crab, which may have meant horseshoe crab. Delicious.

After returning the bicycle, I had a Thai massage. I realized how much I miss those. Chinese body massages don’t include the feet or head. As always, there were painful spots but I left feeling much better.

There were more people on the beach Sunday morning and there were more in the evening than there had been Friday evening, which I found interesting. Maybe local people.

Monday morning I took my final walk on the beach. Then I ordered lunch at the hotel and continued to enjoy the beach atmosphere while I relaxed and ate. I was in no rush to return to the city. The woman at the hotel called a motorcycle taxi to take me to the van to Bangkok: 40 bahts/$1.30, much less than the taxi I took to the hotel. This was my first post-Peace Corps motorcycle ride.

When I arrived at the hotel, I thought about how it was like returning home, since it was the same one I’d stayed the week before. One of the young women I’d been friendly with was working and heartily welcomed me back. I was upgraded to a larger room with a window. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the window and the view. What a treat!

Tuesday morning I headed back to the China embassy. I paid for the visa and collected my passport with the visa for 30 days. Twenty minutes after arriving I left.

A comment on security at the China embassy: At the American embassy, they x-ray bags and you have to check anything electronic. At the China embassy, you walk in. The second time I entered, I had purchased a drink in a cup. The woman told me “No water.” Since I had a bottle of water in my bag, I thought this meant no visible water. I drank the tea and left the cup on the ledge with other cups and bottles of water. The third time I went, the man checked my bag. When he saw the water bottle, he told me not to drink the water, which I thought was interesting. No one in the room had said anything when I drank water on my first two visits.

Since I then had several hours until my flight to Ubon, I decided to go to Lumphini Park to hang out and enjoy being outdoors. 

The park has a China-Thailand pavilion that was sent from China and reassembled.

In Bangkok I enjoyed the Indian and Arabian food in the neighborhood of the hotel. I always enjoyed staying in that area to have the opportunity to eat food that is not Thai just for a change. Now it was a pleasure to have food that is not readily available in China and is not available in Wenjiang. I figured I would enjoy that in Bangkok since I’d soon be eating delicious Thai food with my friends.

Language: After the first week, I used more Thai than Chinese. As I heard words, I remembered them. The sad thing is that I will have to reverse this process when I return to China—replacing the Thai that will be on top with the Chinese that is being suppressed.

Bangkok and Pattaya (8-15)

Sunday evening I arrived in Bangkok. It was good to arrive and know my way around for a change. I stayed at a hotel I had used in the past. When I arrived, it was really nice to be able to speak English for the whole registration process. And I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood, becoming familiar with things Thai again.

I had a Facebook message from Khun Yindee telling me that Khun Toy and Khun Dakom were in Bangkok. So I sent a message and learned from Khun Dakom that they were in Bangkok for the funeral and cremation of Khun Toy’s older brother on Monday. After I bought a SIM card Monday morning, I called and arranged to meet them Tthe wat was off Sukhumvit, as was my hotel; so it was easy to get there. When I walked down the street to the wat and asked for directions to make sure I hadn’t missed it on a side street, the man asked if I was in a hurry. I said I was a little because my friends were waiting for me. Then he had his wife drive me there, which took several minutes. It was so nice of them to assist me.

When I arrived, Khun Dakom and Khun Toy greeted me with big hugs. It was wonderful to be with them again. After the ceremony, the extended family decided to go to Pattaya for the night, and I was told that they all agreed that I should join them. So off I went on a surprise trip to Pattaya. (This is called Thai-napping, a version of kidnapping.) There were sixteen people staying at the house that night. Blankets were put on floors for us to sleep on. We all went to a seafood restaurant on the shore for dinner. 

It was delicious. 

After the meal began, they honored Khun Toy for the Thai Mother’s Day/the queen’s birthday, pinning flowers on her blouse. When it was time for dessert, they brought in a large cake from Swenson’s. It was so nice to be among these people—my friends and their relatives—again. I could feel the love among them. And they do smile and laugh a lot. I hadn’t realized how much I miss that in China.

Tuesday morning we went to the beach for breakfast. 

We sat on beach chairs under umbrellas and ate more seafood and other foods. Then we relaxed on the beach for an hour before heading our different ways. They took me to the bus station to return to Bangkok, and everyone else returned to Isaan. It was a lovely way to spend two days. Much nicer than hanging out at the hotel in the city.

Wednesday I went to the China embassy to apply for a new visa so I can return as a tourist. I’d read that applying in Bangkok is challenging. It was. I waited 3.5 hours to go to the window to submit my application. The woman looked at what I had and gave me a list of what I needed. I knew I had to have a hotel reservation, and I knew Amanda had made one for a few days; so that’s what I did. However, here they would not accept that and I had to have reservations for the whole 30 days. It’s a matter of making reservations that can be cancelled and then cancelling them after receiving a visa. It’s a nuisance. Surely they know that this is what people do. I knew I had to have a plane reservation; so I made one to Chengdu. But I didn’t have a return flight, which was required. I also needed to provide a bank statement showing I have enough money. When I left, I decided to go to a local travel agency and request a ticket that I could cancel. The man immediately asked if I needed it for the China embassy and said he would charge 500 bahts/$17. I quickly realized that he was talking about a fake ticket. Since cancelling a reservation would cost 2000 bahts, that sounded good.

So on Thursday I returned to the embassy with my set of documents. My wait to get to the window was only 2.5 hours. The woman looked at the list of needed documents and then went through my documents and application. Then she told me I can stay for 30 days and I could pick up my passport on Tuesday. I left feeling good but later realized that perhaps this was only approval of the application and didn’t mean I would definitely get a visa and remained a little apprehensive about my fake flight reservation and my denial of a previous China visa. I have one in my Peace Corps passport that would be cancelled in early September, but I don’t have one in my personal passport. Since this is difficult to explain without personal contact, I decided not to mention it.

Going through this process reminded me of a few people I have met who had similar challenges applying for a visa to the U.S. I remember a woman in Romania who had been invited by a minister. On her first trip to the embassy she was sent home with a long list of documents they required. When she returned a couple weeks later, the man didn’t even look at her documents and gave her a visa. The China visa fee for Americans is four times that of citizens of other countries. I read that this is because the U.S. visa fee for Chinese is $140; so they charge Americans the same fee to enter China. That seems like a reasonable response to the high U.S. visa fee.

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. On the way to the mall I passed a special exhibit about the traditional Thai khon performances which tell the Ramakien story and in which everyone wears masks. This is one of the queen’s special projects related to Thai traditional culture. Each year they perform a different part of the story. 

The exhibit had masks for all the characters and some costumes used for the performances.

For shopping I went to the Thai crafts floor at one of the shopping centers that I have enjoyed in the past. I wanted to get some small gifts for my Chinese friends. In the process I also bought a Thai silk blouse for myself. Thai silk is just too beautiful to resist. On the street I bought some pants that actually reach my shoes, which none of my other pants do.

Readjusting to Thailand was interesting. I spent most of Monday trying to remember a little Thai language. It was a struggle. I would think of something I wanted to say and then I’d remember the Chinese. Sometimes the Turkish from twenty years ago came back. And then the Thai. The foreign language section of my brain was certainly muddled. It took all day to remember the numbers to ten. Hanging out with the family and listening to them chat helped me remember some of the basic Thai I used to know. I’d hear words and remember them. The rest of the week I wavered between Chinese and Thai when asking prices and thanking people.

Another adjustment was the money. The exchange rate in Thailand is 30 bahts to a dollar while in China it is 6 RMB to a dollar. So prices seemed really high because the numbers here are higher. Something that is 150 bahts is only 30 RMB or $5. But sometimes I would react to the big numbers first; then I had to think and remember where I am and what currency I am using.

Things I have enjoyed in Thailand:

The abundance of delicious, fresh fruit everywhere

The high level of English at the hotel reception desk. It’s so nice to be able to speak in English and be understood and responded to. (Yes, it would be nice if my Chinese and Thai language skills were better, but they aren’t. I do the best I can, but it is minimal.)

The friendly people. Somehow they do seem friendlier than most Chinese people.

Cars that stop for pedestrians. When cars are turning right on red, they stop for pedestrians crossing the street. When streets are crowded and traffic is moving slowly, they stop and wait for people to cross in front of them.

Lack of constant honking

High speed Internet that is really fast

Things I have missed:

Trash cans. I would walk around carrying an empty cup looking for a trash can to put it in. Then I would remember that I was in Thailand where they are scarce. In China, there are frequent trash cans in public places.

Shanghai Part 2 (8-10)

Saturday was my second and last day in Shanghai. I’m not much of a city person unless there are a lot of interesting places to see, and, for me, Shanghai didn’t have that. My plan was to go to the history museum. Since it was raining fairly heavily in the morning, I delayed leaving the hotel and did a few things to get ready to apply for my new China visa. When I left, I decided to walk to People’s Square and the museum. Since I didn’t know there was a more direct way, I took the long way to Nanjing Road West, which turned out to be OK because I found the metro station I could use to get to the airport without having to change lines.

On the way to People’s Square, I came across People’s Park, which is bigger than the one in Chengdu. Like Chengdu’s People’s Park, there are people advertising for partners, often older people with ads for grandchildren. The ads were posted on umbrellas.

People’s Square is what it usually is in Chinese cities—the area in front of the municipal government building, which is usually called People’s Hall. The museum is opposite People’s Hall. Although the museum is free and there are no tickets, the line to go through security took 45 minutes. It has four floors with exhibits about pottery, ceramics, bronzes, and jade. 

Ceramic pillow

It also has an exhibit about the minorities that has costumes of many of the 54 minorities. Although I intended to go fairly quickly, since I’d just been to the museum in Xi’an, I got caught up in my museum mode and ended out spending three hours wandering through the exhibits.

After leaving the museum, I walked down Nanjing Road East, which I had read is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. It’s a pedestrian street that has a tram for those who don’t want to walk or don’t want to walk both ways. 

Shortly after entering the pedestrian street, I was greeted by a young man who asked me to take a photo of him and his cousin, and he took a photo of me, too. Then he began chatting more in quite good English. After a few minutes, he invited me to join them for a tea ceremony they were going to. I did, since I was interested in the tea ceremony and they were pleasant to chat with. I enjoyed the ceremony and learned a lot through the man’s interpretation. 

We tasted six different kinds of tea. One has flowers sewn inside a ball of green tea. When it sits in hot water, the ball opens and the flowers are displayed. Another was a fruit tea. Three were types of green tea, and one was black tea. Each was prepared in a different pot. One had special paint that changed color when it was hot. I learned that the teacup with a lid and a saucer has three parts to represent the sky/heaven, earth, and the people/life between them. After the ceremony, they, of course, tried to sell tea. The special was a set of three teas for 600 RMB/$100. This seemed high, but I have seen some expensive teas. Then the man got pushy about my buying the set of three because there was some special deal where if two people bought the set, then one would be free. Or something like that. All his chatter was getting overwhelming. I didn’t have that much money with me, but I considered buying one kind of tea. He offered to pay what I couldn’t so they could take advantage of the special deal. Finally, I said I couldn’t do it. It was then that I realized that the whole thing was a scam. I’d read about this scam and Paul had told about his experience getting caught in it in Beijing. I had been wary on Friday and when I met someone earlier on Saturday, but I was seduced by the friendliness and my interest in the tea ceremony and I was tired from the museum and didn’t think about it. I picked up my money, stood up, and walked past the young woman. Then the man said I could buy one kind of tea. I informed him that this was one of those scams I’d read about where they take advantage of tourists. I thought about giving them no money but decided to leave 100 RMB because I did enjoy the tea and the ceremony and chatting with them. At that point, the man, like Simon in Tongkou, quickly changed from being very friendly to speaking rudely, telling me to just get out. I liked the flowers in a ball tea enough that I bought some at the airport. It was expensive but less than they were charging. I really can’t compare accurately because I don’t know how many balls were in their container, but I don’t think there would have been more than I bought.

After that experience, I continued walking down Nanjing Road. It was pretty crowded but not too bad. It was still possible to walk easily if one was aware. I went to a restaurant on a side street for dinner and bought a few custard tarts that were the best I’ve had. When I returned to the street, it was dusk and the lights were on, adding to the atmosphere. 

I continued on to the Bund, arriving shortly before 7:00. It was crowded—very crowded. People were standing looking at the skyline across the river. So I joined them and was lucky to be in the third row. 

At 7:00 the lights on some of the buildings went on. We waited. Since the people around me waited, I did, too, thinking about the display in Hong Kong and thinking more lights would come on. 7:30 came and went. As a few people left, I moved to the front and waited longer. 8:00 came and went. At 8:30 the people who had been in front of me and were now beside me left. I decided to wait until 9:00. I’m not sure why. But it was a pleasant evening to be out and I was content standing there. No more lights came on.

Sunday I left Shanghai—and China. On the way to the metro, I passed a wall outside a construction site that was covered with potted flowers. What a nice way to block the construction site. Taking the metro was great. When the train stopped after half an hour, I noticed that a lot of people were getting off. I didn’t think we had gone far enough, but a woman told me that it was the terminal stop. It was the terminal stop for that train and passengers got onto another train (no new ticket needed) for the rest of the trip. Interesting. This was a really good way to go to the airport.

As we flew south of Shanghai, the clouds and sky were magnificent. It was the “sea of clouds” that has eluded me at the mountains.