“Happy Kissmas?” she asked and walked off, only to hurry back a few seconds later. “Happy Kissmas? Yes! Kist!” At least she understood what day it was in the Christian calendar. Craig was not religious in the conventional Western sense, but he could use any excuse for a drink and he did like tradition and traditionally, he had always gone for a drink on Christmas morning, so he was doing it in Thailand too. There was no further social interaction, so he motioned that he would be back and moved on. There were now three more shops that he could visit and the first was half the village away. When he got there a young woman fetched his beer but ignored his greeting, she looked and actually was, terrified that he would try to get her to speak English. Craig would have too, given a small chanc