DAY SIX: CHAO PHYA ABHAIBHUBEJHR HOSPITAL

We travelled to Prachinburi province after a late start that morning to visit the Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital. Beforehand Dr. Motsenbocker explained to us that the hospital had a Phalang side (Western medicine - phalang means foreigner in Thai) and a modern herbal medicine side.

We didn’t step foot in the hospital. First we visited the museum right next to the hospital and received a tour explaining the history of the hospital (I have multiple pamphlets on it that I haven’t had time to go through yet). It’s hard to keep up on tours here. Typically the guide speaks Thai for a very long time, and then Sue summarizes and translates for us. Of course, she has a fairly thick accent (as an example, today she was telling me about a room, but I thought she was talking about a loom for a while), and it is often loud where we are. Questions can be difficult to ask as well because often times they can become confusing for Sue very easily in that environment. So generally, I only pick up a few key things on these tours. This tour went into great detail about the man who founded the hospital. I think he was a governor of Cambodia. Then we visited the pharmacy in the museum which also had jars of ancient herbal medicine as a historical display such as elephant tusks and snakes. I told the man at the pharmacy counter about my illness and he sold me some herbal medicine for my sinuses. It must be working cause I’m feeling pretty okay now (a few days later).

We then visited the spa area of the hospital. The nice ladies gave us butterfly pea tea, and we toured the gorgeous building. I thought it was great that they prescribe spa treatments such as massages and steam rooms as a remedy for ill people. I really think so many people’s illnesses are caused from stress, so doesn’t it make sense to prescribe some relaxation instead of some pills?

When we were done at the hospital, we visited a farm close by that grew herbs for the hospital. It was incredible to see so many herbs in one area! They took us into a building where they were bagged for wholesale and it smelled divine (which shows how strong the scent was seeing as I was incredibly congested at the time!)

After the tour we drove back to Bangkok. Katie and I chatted in the backseat the whole time and I lost my voice by time we made it back to KU Home. We ate a simple dinner that night of snacks from the grocery store near our hotel (by choice, we were all exhausted and didn’t want to go out to eat).

Settling back into KU Home was exciting for us, as we knew we were staying here for three nights. Our suitcases exploded everywhere pretty quickly.

We went to bed early that night, exhausted from the past few days, and preparing for the next.