How can this not be the real story, told by the one who experienced it? It's like a very-very long catch-up with a friend who I met after not seeing for many years. So happy and so very sad in the same time, though that's probably part of the message. On second though, probably everything is part of the message with these bhikkhus, everything is part of the dharma. The whole book is one flow, and when it finished, I just look back at my life-book, feeling that the two have nothing in common and are the same. Now if you excuse me, I go to check out the mountains in the neirbourhood, have an urge to go hiking...