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05-13MAY06  During the term break at Rajabhat, Nee and I went to visit a very old friend of mine who lives in Taiwan.  Mike (aka Tim) and I went to high school together in the mid-60s.  He married a woman from Taiwan about 10 years ago and now teaches English on a small island to the west of the main island.

After the excitement of getting Nee's visa the actual arrival at Chaing Kai Chek International was anti-climatic.  Mike and Jessica were waiting for us and her brother drove us to Jessica's parent's home on the top floor of the apartment building they own. 

We did the tourist thing.  We visited the National Museum (awesome) and the night market (fun).  I had a great time in the neighborhood supermarket checking out the different products.  Nee Really liked the square watermelon.

Jessica's parents had booked a tour bus trip to the northeastern coast of Taiwan and we tagged along.   It seemed the main purpose of the trip was to eat.  We stopped at the Eco Park.  It was hokey but fun.  We saw driftwood art at a community center.  It was interesting to see the beautiful countryside and the rugged coastline.

The next day we boarded the plane for Peng Hu, the small island where Mike and Jessica live.  They have a great apartment and all the comforts including cable TV which we watched a lot (MaGong is not the center of the universe).  I had a wonderful time chatting with Mike.

I visited one of Mike's classes (age 9-13) and became very thankful for my students.  He's got a hard job.

Jessica cooked up a storm.  I think we gained 5 pounds.  And there were these wonderful chocolate coated blueberries...

One night we went to see what I call "the slow boat to China".  Slow because it's really a building shaped like a boat. 

We had a wonderful time. 

On our return to Bangkok we stayed at the Asia Airport hotel.  The courtesy van picked us up and then meandered for 2-3 kilometers through the airport entered the freeway, went about 3 km and took a U-turn.  Then we went about 5 km, passing the hotel and took another u-turn back to the hotel.  I looked out our window and could see the place we started the trip about 800 meters away.  Which causes me to coin the aphorism: "The shortest distance between two points in Thailand usually involves a U-turn".

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