The Terrible Tuk-Tuk Trip

Our bus to Koh Phangan was at 6pm.
We were in MBK (a large shopping centre in Bangkok) until 3.45 when we decided it was time to go back to the hostel to retrieve our bags.

It takes precisely 13.2 minutes to get from MBK to our hostel and precisely 30.3 minutes to get to the bus station from our hostel.

We were in plenty of time and thought we could have a shower and get a drink before a long bus journey to Koh Phangan.

So, we hail a tuk tuk outside MBK and ask to go to Saphai Pae (our hostel). He didn't know where this was so asked a local security guard who gave him some directions in Thai. He proceeded to exit the car park and joined the main road - whilst on the phone. He was obviously having a rather stressful conversation. We drove around for half an hour and we were getting slightly worried he didn't know where he was going, to then find ourselves two minutes later back in MBK.
Tash at this point stepped in 'Excuse me Mr but we're in rather a hurry so if you could get going we would appreciate it'. He did a vague hand gesture indicating he would hurry up. We thought he had understood. After another half an hour had passed we could confirm he definitely hadn't understood...
Until he stopped and told us to get out. We were most definitely not at our hostel, so we got out the name of the hostel, the address and the directions once again hoping he would understand. 'Ah Silom Silom! Yes, ok, we go'.
I would like to add that this is like saying 'Ah Bath Bath'. Silom is not a small place.

After an hour of driving round and him stopping to ask various people, passing them Tash's iPhone 5 with the directions (worrying) - we decided enough was enough and jumped out of this tuk tuk paying him pittance. We had jumped out on the Thai equivalent of a dual carriage way and were hopscotching between cars and tuk tuks asking whether they knew where our hostel was. We finally found someone who promised he knew and it would take 15 minutes... Bearing in mind it was now 5.15. At 5.31 we were still not there and copious amounts of sweat was being secreted and our mosquito bites were becoming increasingly itchy. For someone who is relaxed in most situations and doesn't get stressed at many thing I can safely say I was PANICKING. We pulled up to the hostel shortly after, told the tuk tuk driver to wait and sprinted in to get our bags. We came back out and had turned the tuk tuk round ready to go we threw the bags on and shouted Khao San Road at him (this is where our bus was coming). He hadn't yet got in the tuk tuk... 'So you want hostel, or restaurant? I can get you good price'... At this point I lost it:
"JUST GET IN THE TUK TUK AND FLIPPING DRIVE US TO KHAO SAN ROAD BECAUSE WE HAVE A BUS TO CATCH IN 20 MINUTES".
During the drive Tash apologised on my behalf and explained our bus was at 6pm...
He got us there for 5.55 - clearly the other tuk tuks we had been getting from there had taken us a long way and horribly overcharged us.
We ran to where the bus was picking us up from...
We were the first ones there...
We didn't leave until 7.30pm.

Lesson learnt from this journey: Thai timing is worse than mine.

From two panicked ladies.
XXX