Two Nights in a Thai Hospital and Now Home at Last

February 9th:
James and I headed to Koh Tao, a small island on the eastern coast of Thailand. We had decided to take the night bus from Hua Hin to Chumporn and then the Lomprayah speedboat to the island. The bust departed at 11:45 pm and we were due to arrive in Koh Tao at 8:30am. The bus was nice enough; though sitting near the bathrooms was a mistake. We were already tired so thought it would be easy enough to fall asleep. However, this was not the case. Thailand is full of checkpoints where the police randomly check vehicles looking for who knows what. So about every hour or so the bus stops, the lights blind you and you are reminded that you’re uncomfortably trying to sleep on a bus. At about 5 am we arrive at we think is another rest stop (we previously stopped at one for about an hour), but in fact this is the port where the boat is. However, the speedboat will not be departing until 7am. So what we thought would be a semi-decent nights sleep, turns into a terrible nights sleep. Little do we know that over the next few days this will in fact look pretty good in comparison to what we’re about to endure.

February 10th:
We spend the day resting and exploring the area around our hotel. We decided to stay off the beaten path at the small Coral View Resort. The beach was beautiful and very private since only one other resort is located on this beach. We decided on the Luxury Apartment for 1200 Baht ($30USD). This was the nicest room, but not actually luxurious. It had all necessary amenities: shower, western toilet, mini fridge and fan, but no A/C or hot water. This was fine for us, since it wasn’t uncomfortably hot, and it was still half to price of other hotels that didn’t offer A/C either. The only real downside is that the road to get there is very rough and only 4WD could get you there. The other option is taking a long-tail boat taxi around to the other beaches, but they are only available during the daylight.

Around sunset, we got a long-tail boat to the other side of the island. We were eager to eat at El Toro, a Mexican restaurant we heard about on the Internet and couldn’t wait to try: fresh tortillas, salsa, and guacamole… We ordered some fajitas and a burrito and were ready to be in culinary heaven. I think we built it up too much, because we weren’t that excited once we were eating. The tortillas were thin and tasteless, and the guacamole and salsa was only a tiny tablespoon. The actually chicken was pretty good, but still, not quite everything we dreamed of. Still, we ate and enjoyed it, and James even ordered two entrees. We explored around the tiny island town, checking out the shops, the pub, and of course more DVD’s. James has seriously tripled his DVD collection since we left. While I have indulged my passion for skirts and flip-flops. : )



February 11th:
We woke up early to our neighbors literally walking into our room through the adjoining door, which apparently wasn’t locked. This was a bit startling for all of us. We had breakfast at our hotel and as I ate my stomach began to cramp. Sharp, tight cramps, unlike what I’ve ever felt before. I thought, “maybe I’ve just waited too long to eat… It’ll pass.” But, it didn’t and so we spent the morning resting. By the afternoon, I was feeling somewhat better and didn’t want to spend our whole trip at the hotel, so we rented some snorkel gear and headed out into the water. Sai Daeng beach, where our hotel was, is a great snorkel site with a variety of colorful fish. We decided not to head to town that night because I was still feeling sick and we wanted to get an early start on the next day. So, we ate at the neighboring resort, New Heaven, which had great food, much better than our hotel’s food.

February 12th:
We planned on waking up before sunrise and kayaking to the neighboring beach, Ao Leuk, to be able to watch the sunrise and have breakfast before heading to town and catching the 9am snorkeling trip. We woke up a little later than planned, but still early enough to catch the early morning sun. We hurried to the kayak at around 7am, and began our journey to Ao Leuk, no breakfast, no coffee, just cold water and exercise to awaken us. The waves were a little more rough than I’m used to, but not too bad. We kayaked around the point and were able to see the pink sky and sun rising over the ocean. We watched for a little bit and then started kayaking toward Ao Leuk.
As we got closer to the beach we could see that the waves were breaking much stronger than at our beach. I asked James what our plan was, and he said, “We’ll just surf in.” I knew this didn’t seem quite right, but went along anyways. The waves were caring us closer to shore, so we didn’t need to row anymore. We could just enjoy the view. What we saw was Thai men that were cleaning up the beach a few minutes ago, now all stopped and stared at us. This was a pretty good indication that we wouldn’t just be surfing into shore, but it was too late, we were on our way. The wave pushed us and we were only a few feet from sand ready to jump out when the next wave came crashing down and flipped our kayak over and ejected us onto the beach. The oars went flying, along with a snorkel gear, sunglasses, and oh yeah… us. I came inches from crashing into a rock, but was able to somewhat brace the fall. We were drenched and our stuff was being sucked out to the ocean. The Thai men just watched, they didn’t laugh, or help, just watched. We were able to retrieve our things and our camera was luckily saved from the water.
As we sat there looking at our kayak, James asked me if I brought any money. “No,” I said surprisingly. “Didn’t you?” He said hadn’t and I really thought he joking at first. My tummy growled, upset to be awakened so early and not given any food. The beach was surprisingly deserted. It was early, but our resort still had people up and about, however, this place was empty. The waves were crashing hard on the beach, coming in inconsistent sets, so there was no way we’d be able to kayak out of there. We sat and watched for a while contemplating what to do. Should we try anyways? Will the waves calm down? How do we get out of here without any money, without kayaking? Our resort was not very far if you could walk a straight line, but could we, and could we find it if we tried, and then what about the kayak? We decided to try to walk back, so we made our way up the steep road, looking for a spot to cross over. On the road we found a map of the island and could see that there was no road connecting the road we were on to our resort. We walked back down to the resort and asked for a taxi to take us back, then we could grab money from the hotel and we would have to worry about the kayak later. The Ao Leuk Resort was not at all helpful. The owner said he could take us to town, but wouldn’t drive to Coral View because of the rough roads. This didn’t make much sense because the road to town is just as bad as the road to Coral View, and taking us to town didn’t help either because we had no money to pay him. So we sat and stared at the ocean for a while, counting the seconds between the break in waves. We contemplated just swimming out past the waves and then jumping in the kayak, but that was dangerous too. We decided to ask the hotel if they could just call us another taxi from town. To our surprise the hotel refused. They said they would only use THEIR taxi person, (the owner himself) who wouldn’t take us to back to our resort, so basically we’re stranded. The hotel woman even said we should just kayak out and that the waves looked calmer, even though she couldn’t even see from where she was standing, and in fact, the waves looked even more rough.
Finally, she said we could hike up to the top of the road (which we had previously done) and catch a taxi up there. By this time it was already 9:30, so we were starving, and desperate to get out of there. It seemed like our only other option and so we headed back up the hill. Luckily, we flagged down a taxi right away and were able to explain that we needed to pick up our kayak and then go to our hotel. As we drove we learned that there was in fact a “road” connected the two resorts (just not on the map). However, it was still not a road we would have like to walk on and had no way of knowing that it would actually lead to our resort.
So by 10:15am we were back to the resort and eager to eat and start our day. But instead the rain decided to come along. And when I say rain, I actually mean buckets of water pouring out of the sky, and instantly filling up the once dry river by our room. So our plan of exploring around the island was no longer an option. We spent the day playing some games in the hotel lobby and watching the rain. It would have been nice to be snorkeling, but we made the best of it and enjoyed each other’s company. Then around 6pm, I started to feel sick again and we went back to the room. Soon after, James started to feel sick too. We both had the same sharp stomach cramps that came in waves every few minutes. We tried to sleep it off, but it just got worse. The hotel had some antacid but it did nothing to help. After hours of pain, James’ cramps were no longer coming in waves and were instead a constant unbearable pain. We decided we needed to see a doctor. It was 10pm and so our only option was the hospital, which was a very unpleasant drive away. The resort manager kindly offered to drive us. We left immediately, unaware that it would be a good idea to pack a few things since we might be staying awhile.
We arrived just in time because James was in pretty bad shape. His blood pressure was very low due to not eating for 12 hours and early dehydration. They immediately put him on an IV and antibiotics. Me, on the other hand, was terrified of the IV and allergic to penicillin, so I wasn’t about to let them stick anything in me. I didn’t see how this was going to help my stomach since they hadn’t even asked me what kind of pain, for how long, what we ate… Or any other normal type of doctor question. Instead, I tried to help James feel better and we tried to sleep. At around 1am we woke up. James is talking about how dehydration kills all these people around the world, which is freaking me out since I feel dizzy, but the dizziness is probably related to the fact that I haven’t eaten in 14 hours, but his talking is scaring me so I let the nurse know that I need the IV and pretty soon we are hospital buddies. The IV was freezing going into my skin, so I now am aware why James was so cold when we first got there. We try to get some sleep but with a sharp object injected into your skin the fear of ripping it out, combined with an uncomfortable bed and still a cramping stomach make this nearly impossible. This blog has already gotten way longer than I ever thought, so I’ll start to summarize a bit more from here. The hospital is “okay”, but not great. The nurses don’t speak English and yet pretend to understand what we’re saying. The doctor only sees us once a day and very briefly and not as thoroughly as expected. Turns out we have acute gastroenteritis, more commonly know as food poisoning. Although, I’ve had food poisoning in the U.S. and it was nothing like this.

February 13th:
We watch way too many movies (luckily in English), wish we had some cards to play with and that we packed a change of clothes or the camera to document our pathetic selves. We are feeling better, but still far from good. We are supposed to be leaving the island today so that I can return to work the next day. By the time we actually see the doctor and she recommends that we stay for another night, our boat has left and we are stranded on the island anyways, and so we stay. I call my boss to let him know that we won’t be back today and thus won’t be at work tomorrow. I am dreading this because I know he’s not going to believe me. Sure enough he’s a total asshole about it and doesn’t even ask if we’re okay. He is annoyed and just asks when I’ll be back and that the taxi he had set up for us won’t pick us up, so we have to find our own ride from town. This is the beginning of the end for me. I am furious. I am so furious and offended and hurt and as I write this it’s been two weeks since this happened and I’m still infuriated.
Prior to this trip I am nearly 100% sure that I don’t want to stay past the agreed upon 3 months, there are too many problems with my boss and it’s just not worth it. However, I decided to take this trip to relax and think about it before making a final decision. Well, obviously this makes my decision very easy. Not only do I not want to stay past the three months, but also I no longer want to or feel obligated to stay any longer at all. I don’t feel safe or comfortable staying without James, because I know that I won’t have the support I need. I am disappointed, but ready to go home. This incident is only one of many that lead to this conclusion, but the rest would take too long to write, so I can fill in the other details verbally.

February 14th:
It’s Valentine’s Day and we are up early and ready to check out of the hospital ASAP to catch the first boat off the island. We return home and exhausted and starving since we’ve barely eaten in the past few days, but are understandable afraid to eat anything. We settle for Subway, which I never thought would actually sound good, but it does and I am able to eat ½ a small sandwich, the biggest meal in a while. At home, there is no phone call or visit to see if we’re okay, John doesn’t care at all what happened to us. I feel obligated to work the next day since I know I plan on leaving and want to give the kids as much of my time as possible, but I am in not shape to teach.

February 15th:
The first thing I am given from the kids is a note from John about the new schedule he wants to kids on. He wants it implemented immediately, which is impossible for even a healthy teacher, but unimaginable for a sick one. He wants only math, reading, and grammar for the entire day. No science (which the kids are loving), no history, geography, art, or PE. If this were the kind of schedule I wanted, I would teach in CA. I only teach until lunch, which is pushing it because I am still feeling awful.
By dinnertime, James and I have purchased our tickets home on February 22nd.

Over the next week, we pack up our stuff and head to Hua Hin (the main tourist town nearby) for the weekend. On Tuesday we head to Bangkok to see my sister who is beginning her honeymoon in Thailand.

I could write much more about how things went with John when I quit, and about 24 hours in Bangkok, but this is the beginning of my 5th page and I just can’t write anymore now. Instead, you can just call me to find out more because I’m home now. I’ve basically been sleeping, or trying to sleep since I got home which is why this took so long to write. Look forward to hearing from everybody.

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