Day 52 Lost, Lost, and Lost some more 2/22/14

This morning we went to our last dhamma talk. Afterwards, we packed our things, ate breakfast, and headed to the third floor for closing ceremony. The ceremony was short.There was a five minute chant, followed by a short farewell speech from the monk. Before leaving we said our goodbyes to Nele, and got a picture with the monk. At the bottom of the temple we caught a sangtao to our hotel. We gave the driver the name of the hotel with the address, he nodded and began to drive. When we were close to the airport he pulled over,got out, and came to talk to us. He didnt speak any English, and we couldn't communicate with him in Thai. He didnt know where he was going. The address I wrote meant nothing to him because it was in English. He didnt recognize the hotel name, and didnt know where to take us. The only thing we knew was the name of the hotel, the address, and that it was 1km from the airport. He took out a map and wanted us to find it, but the map was very limited with street names and didnt have the street of the hotel. We realized at that point there wasnt much we could do but get out and try to find another way there.We paid him the agreed 300 baht and walked to a little cafe a few hundred feet away. The cafe had delicious sandwiches.It was the first time I had seen goat cheese, and bagels and cream cheese. We were definitely dropped off in a good location. At the cafe we looked up the hotel on google maps and asked the waitress to write down the hotel name is Thai. We also kept the map up on the map screen to show our next driver. After we ate we walked out to the street and flagged down about four drivers. None of them could read Thai, and if they did they didnt know the hotel. We felt a little frustrated, but remembered the wisdom of our monk and stayed calm :) We saw signs for the airport and decided to walk there, thinking we would have better luck finding a driver who knew of the hotel. When we got there we approached two people with no luck. The third person, spent about 15 minutes reading the name of the hotel over and over. He looked at his paper map,looked at the map on the iPad, and then sat and talked to himself for a bit. He then turned around and said ok. We crossed our fingers and hoped that he was taking us the right place. We knew to look for "The residence hotel", which was on the main street. From there our hotel was a few blocks behind it. We drove on canal road and watched for the resident hotel sign. I saw the sign, and asked him to stop. He stopped about a fourth of a mile past it, turned around, and looked at us making sure that we wanted to get out. I said yes since he probably didnt know where he was going and i saw the sign for the residence hotel. We paid him and walked in the direction for the residence. It was about 95 degrees out and we were each carrying about 70lbs of gear on our back. We walked and walked, and ended up at the end of the street. We realized we had passed it. We were dehydrated, burnt, and tired from our huge packs. On the walk back we saw the resident sign, but there were no side streets to walk down. We felt lost. We walked a little further and turned down a side street hoping we might come across something. After about 20 minutes of aimless walking we ended up back on the main street feeling frustrated. No one knew the name of the hotel. The street was no where to be found and we already paid two drivers; neither brought us to the destination we wanted. At that point we decided we would walk, find the nearest hotel, and lose out on the room we already paid for. As we walked back on the same stretch that we had walked about four times, a polite man working at a food vendor stall asked if we needed any help. He saw us walk past a few times and knew we needed help. I was happy to hear that he spoke great English. I was about ready to bust out the maps, the translation of the hotel, and the address, when Ryan said our hotel name. Immediately he said, "yeah its down the street, only about a half of mile a way." He told us we would see a sign from the street leading us down a smaller street. We thanked him a million times. Just when we were about to give up, we were blessed with the guidance of a friendly English speaking Thai. We walked for a while, but the walk went fast since we now knew we were headed in the right direction. When we found the sign we were about a fourth of a mile in the opposite direction of where the driver dropped us off. A huge sign read "The Residence Hotel". The other sign we saw before also said residence , but was the residence for living, not a hotel. We turned left down the no name dirt road and through some side streets. Tucked in the back behind some houses we found our hotel. We were relieved and happy to have found it. We checked in and went to our room. At the room we did research on nearby hospitals. Before leaving the hotel we made sure to grab a business card with the address in Thai and a phone number for the hotel. We walked out to the main street and waved down a sangtao, I told him "sathep medical center", figuring that he would know since it was a major landmark. He looked at me in confusion. I wrote it down. He shook his head and pulled out a map. Oh geeze, I thought, round two of lost in translation. On the map, there was a symbol for hospital, so I pointed to it. He nodded yes, and motioned for us to get in. When we arrived we realized it was a different hospital then the one we researched but we figured this one would do. Inside we went to the counter and told the woman I needed to see a doctor. I filled out one page of paper work, got blood work, and was weighed. I was surprised to learn I  lost 14 pounds. We waited for about ten minutes, before I was seen by a doctor. The doctor spoke decent English. I told him that I was only having a bowel movement about once a week for the last two months, and that I had changed my diet to high fiber, drank plenty of water, took laxatives, and nothing was helping. He asked some questions, put a stethoscope on my stomach, and then told me I had an irritation in my bowels and gert. He prescribed me three medications and sent me to the pharmacy downstairs. After getting my medicine, we walked out the door paying about $35 in total. I was happy that he didnt think it was anything serious.From here we walked to grab dinner. Afterwards we caught another sangtao back to our apartment. We told the driver the hotel name and the name of the main street, and as usual he didnt know where it was. Luckily this time we had the business card. He called the hotel, and talked to the receptionist in Thai. I sighed with relief  when he dropped us off at the right place. Back at the hotel we relaxed and stayed in the rest of the night.