A good thought...

On our last day, we woke up with quite the hangover. I had actually decided not to drink the day before we were flying home, since it’s a long journey, and sitting with a hangover on a plane for hours isn’t exactly fun. We packed up all our things and stored them so we could take a taxi out to Father Meier. It turned out he lived in a slum area where he had set up an AIDS hospice funded by charity donations. We were completely shocked to see that all the patients were so sick with AIDS that they looked like skeletons in their beds. Most of them seemed like they were already gone. Father Meier wasn’t home, so his staff showed us around. They took us to a ward for infants with AIDS, who had contracted the virus from their parents, who had died from the disease themselves. There were no older children in the ward, as infants can’t survive long with HIV. The staff wanted us to hold the little ones, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it, overwhelmed by the terrible consequences of the disease. Even though we know how HIV is transmitted, we couldn’t touch the children, as we had never been so close to the illness before. It’s heartbreaking to think that the girls in Patpong, whom we had talked to the night before, might end up here soon. We had 1000 baht left, which we donated before leaving. We just hope it can make a difference! On our way back to the hotel, we realized we had forgotten our city map, and we couldn’t explain to the tuk-tuk drivers where we were staying. The only word they understood was “Patpong,” so that’s where we headed, knowing there were some big hotels nearby where we might get a new map. Luckily, we managed to get a new map, so we finally made it back home. Still a bit hungover, we went up to the hotel rooftop to take a nap in some hammocks. There were a few other guests at New Rotel Inn who were also flying home that evening, so we had company during the last few hours of waiting before heading to the airport. At 8:30 PM, we took a taxi to the airport, which cost 300 baht. REMEMBER to bring cash for the airport tax, 500 baht!