SE Asia 2011: Phayao - ...Lost, too far from home...

I arrived in Phayao (Payao or Pa Yao) by bus from Lampang. Phayao is a small city and there are few ferang (foreign) tourists who come here. At the bus station I got a city map and matched it to a sketch I had made from one on the net. There were two hotels I had targeted and they were shown on the map. So I make my way in that direction and came to where I thought the hotels should be according to my map. But I couldn't see any hotels and figured they were probably there but had signage in Thai and a non hotel like entrance and I just couldn't see them.

I stopped a monk and showed him my map, pointing to the two hotels (also identified in Thai). He puts on his glasses, looks at map and then points for me to go further down the street. I proceed quite a bit further and find my two target hotel. They weren't quite as indicated on the map. First they were in reverse order of location on the street than they were on the map, so I was momentarily disoriented as to which direction I was going; and, secondly the map showed them close to a market, which I had previously found, and well before a major street called Pratedudontit Rd. Not. They were both beyond that street. The tourist map cartographer must have had a bad day or was dyslexic.

After checking in to the one star Wattana Hotel, I take my trustworthy map and find my way to the lake Kwan Phayao. It's not a large lake and has quite a bit of fish farming activity. I don't think I would want to eat any of the fish as the lake looked pretty polluted to me. Other than that, there is a sunken Wat for a tourist attraction. After all, this is Thailand and no lake would be complete without a Wat!

My map showed a roadway along the shore of the lake and after confirming that I could find my way to the lake and that, yes there was a roadway, I planned to do my morning run on it. Next morning I am up and ready at six and it is foggy and and predawn. I go out on the lake roadway and after about 30 min realize I am nowhere near a lake. I go down a couple of side streets on the thinking that they would come to the lake. After running around in a fog I came across early morning people and asked Lake? Water? But no one seemed to know what I was talking about. So I headed back (?) and the density of buildings got less and less; so I turned back again. A couple of people called out “hello” and I thought maybe they could speak english and tell me the direction to the Lake. Not to be.

Anyway the sun still had not come up and I was totally disoriented as to North direction. Then there was a road sign in English and Thai with arrows; one of which pointed to Phayao Municipality and another to Police Station. I recognized the 'municipality' signs being the place of government buildings close to the lake, so I sighed relief and continued in that direction. I never did see the sign again but low and behold I came upon my hotel. Don't ask me how, for I never thought in a million years that that was where I was headed. The Police station was just beyond the hotel. Now that I was well past one hour into my run, and with renewed confidence, I continued my run past my hotel, out to the super highway and back down a road pointing to the Lake Park. At the Lake I retraced my earlier steps and still could not find the road along the Lake as indicated on my map. Anyway I knew where I was this time and I turned and went back to the hotel; finally completing my target two hour run.

All this experience is good for the brain as THEY say one way to keep the brain conditioned is to 'get lost' in an unfamiliar city. And THEY couldn't be wrong. Could they?

I was reminded of the words of Bob Segar - “I was lost, too far from home...”