I'm waiting for Ji to call so we can go to the 'American' coffee shop in town for breakfast. Like a Thai Starbucks, you can buy a (fairly) good coffee for about $1US as opposed to the 30 cent Nescafe' sold everywhere else.

I had a great chat with Joe, Kim Liebel, and Patti Dunn this morning . You gotta love that Skype. Except they usually call in their evening, which is my next morning, and you have to make sure you're dressed or have the camera unplugged.

I went to visit my old school and teachers in Phanat Nikhom on Friday. After a bit of bus confusion - thank God for Samarang, the principal, who calls my phone and talks to everyone along the way - I think she tells them "Watch out for the falang, she's clueless" - I finally arrived at Bang Bung, near the principal's house.

It was so good to see my old friends! They are as sweet and gracious as I remember them and the school is every bit as lovely, with the addition of what looks like a grape arbor over the walkway - they told me what viney fruit/vegetable it was, but I couldn't understand.

Samarang took me to an "early retirement party" for a teacher in a neighboring school. The plastic chairs were all covered in white and there was coke, Fanta, water, and a bottle of whiskey at each table .

On the wall was a huge plastic sign with pictures of the retiring teacher and I suppose a commentary on his life - of course, I couldn't read it. Some ladies had a golden bowl and people went up and put money in it to pay for their dinner. Some beautiful young girls danced Thai dances, a young boy sang (badly) and someone from the audience got up on stage and gave each one of them a 100 B note.

Shall I tell you what retirement gifts the gentleman got? Two huge standing electric fans, a picture of the king in a gold frame, a Buddah statue, many beautifully wrapped packages, and two lovely baskets, shrink-wrapped and tied with colorful bows - one contained Nescafe', creamora, sugar, and juice boxes, and the other contained 18 little jars of chicken soup (I think like our bullion) "for good health."

Not a Kindle in sight.

We left early as Samarang had to make a power point presentation for her class 9 am on Saturday and I had to catch the bus back to Ban Phe. Samarang is working on her PhD at Budapa University.

Unfortunately, my bus was over 1 hour late (Samarang wouldn't let me take the local bus to Rayong as I would have to get a taxi and "it's too dangerous.") Honestly, I never sense any danger around here, maybe I'm oblivious.

I had a pleasant ride home except for some ugly American tourists who were embarassingly inconsiderate. But that's another story.