It’s been long overdue but there’s no skipping & escaping still. It sounds funny but I call those successive days of a little cold, murky, breezy & hazy mornings in early Jan.’08 as the tropical winter season in Thailand. When I woke up at half past seven in the morning, I was stunned to see from my window bleary images of people & cars lining up on every side of each building near mine. I’ve never seen such a very foggy morning like that here before. I was mystified. I left home pretty late that day at 9:15 A.M. for the 8:30 A.M. mass due to the intolerably low visibility. It was too risky to drive on the motorway. The roads were a little misty & the visibility fell to a record low that motorists were urged to exercise more caution during their morning commutes by driving slow & turning the headlights on. The days of heavy fogging were caused by a high-pressure front from China that has condensed with humid air from the Gulf of Thailand resulting in cooler temperatures & gusty winds across the regions. Those foggy mornings actually made the days comfortably cold & breezy although it wasn’t really as cold as that in 1999. Flashback: I will never ever forget such a wonderful but horrific experience of mine in 1999. We went to see one of the tourists’ favorite destinations in Thailand, the Mt. Phukradaeng national park in Loie in the northeast, which is 2,000m above sea level. It was recorded at that time as the coldest season in Thailand–I believe it went to as low as 4 deg Celcius at night–the real tropical winter days for me. We walked uphill continuously the whole day (from early morning till dusk) & arriving at the mountaintop overly exhausted. Who would forget if you almost died of hypothermia? I never will. Unable to move any body parts due to fatigue, muscle pains, fever, & extremely low body temperature, I remained frail & motionless for the rest 13-14hrs. Believe me, my tears kept falling the whole night & goodbyes were said..I thought & felt I could no longer catch up the next daylight. Thanks to God & to every miracle He showed me to survive that one..a truly unforgettable experience of mine! From that incident I’ve experienced a true gift of life & love from God above.