Thursday, November 11, 2021
4:00 a.m. Room 102, Dome Thong Residence Hotel
Tak City, Thailand
As has become frequent, I can feel that I have no business being awake this early. I’m not fully rested and ready to face the day yet. But I couldn’t sleep. The night feels like it has gone on for a very long time. I shall sit here typing away for a while, and see how things go. Maybe I can then go back to sleep for an hour or two.
Yesterday ended up being what felt like a very busy day. It was a good day. No question about that. But the day ended up being its own thing, its own small adventure, separate from going to Suhothai. In my head, I had set it aside as a day for easing into my Sukhothai experience. But that never had a chance to happen. I was too busy living the day I was in to worry about the next days to come.
It started with the packing. That required a lot more energy and a lot more thought than I expected. I thought I was already almost fully packed, but it turns out that I wasn’t. And I had to do a lot of last-minute fidgeting and making sure that I had things organized and had packed everything I would need. And even then, I made a gigantic mistake. In fact, it was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in terms of cameras. I still can’t believe it. In fact, I almost made three big mistakes. And it was all through carelessness.
The big mistake I made is that I neglected to charge up the batteries for the GoPro. I still have no idea how that happened. I have a very clear system for that. Part of the system is that when batteries are fully charged and ready to go, I put them into the special pouches: an orange battery and memory card pouch for the Hero 9 and a blue battery and memory card pouch for the Hero 7. I’ve done that for years, going all the way back to when I bought my first Hero 7. Charged batteries always go into the colored battery bag. I just know that if a battery is inside one of those bags, then it is charged. If it is not inside that bag, no matter where it is, it is depleted and must be charged up. Yet, yesterday, the two Hero 9 batteries inside the orange battery bag were dead or nearly dead. And I have no idea how that happened. How did I put the batteries inside the orange battery bag even though I hadn’t charged them up? I don’t know.
The whole situation was reminiscent of the chaos and confusion of my arrival in Tak City last time. I ended up arriving in Tak completely flustered and stressed out because just at the last minute, I ran out of battery power, and I went through over an hour of just sitting at the side of the road and fiddling with cameras, trying to fight through a bunch of issues that cropped up. And it was unnecessary. All I needed was one more charged battery for the Hero 9, and I would have been fine. But I didn’t have one, and I wasn’t ready for that much fighting with camera gear.
And yesterday, the whole morning led up to a key moment when I rode my scooter into a fascinating Muser village far off the main highway. For many reasons, this was an important moment. It was the key moment in the whole day. It was the highlight. And I was feeling a bit self conscious and worried. I wasn’t sure of myself as I rode my scooter into this village. Clearly, I didn’t belong there. Clearly, I was a tourist. I was a giant white dude on a scooter in a village that probably never gets outside visitors. And I was doing this in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. So, I wasn’t sure of my welcome. I kind of needed this to go smoothly. I was struggling with this sense that people were looking at me with suspicion and dislike. And right at that moment, the battery in my Hero 9 died. It was the worst timing ever. Instead of entering this village quietly and easily and without any drama, I had to pull over on the narrow street with village houses on all sides, and I had to open up my knapsack and get out my GoPro bag and unzip it and get the battery bag and unzip that. Even worse, I had the Hero 9 inside the Media Mod, which meant that changing the battery was a long and complicated process. I really hate that aspect of the Media Mod.
I finally got all this done, and I packed up all my stuff and put it away and remounted the GoPro on the scooter. And, luckily, the local dogs hadn’t pounced on me yet. I had been worried all this time that the dogs would notice me, a stranger in their village, and a dozen of them would surround me and bark at me and make my arrival even more of a drama. But that hadn’t happened, and I was grateful for that. But then when I turned on the GoPro, the battery level read 11%. And I didn’t even get 11% out of it. The GoPro simply shut down before I started up my scooter. I had no choice but to get off the scooter and do everything all over again and put in the next battery. This time, I checked the battery before I put the whole system back together, and this one read 33% or something like that. I thought I would be able to nurse some time out of that battery, and I thought I did. But when I got here to Tak City and started going through the video of the day, the video from that village was just gone. I have no idea what happened. I do have some video on the main road I followed after I left that village, but none of the video I shot inside the village ended up on the memory card. Was it my mistake? Did I forget to hit the record button? Was it the GoPro’s fault? I don’t know.
But I did manage to nurse that last battery along the countryside road until I got to the main village of Ban Huai Pla Lot. But I felt rushed because I was aware of that battery about to die at any minute. And just as I was at the main temple of this village, the last battery died, and that was it for the Hero 9 for the day. I had basically started the day with one fully charged battery, and that’s it. Such a rookie mistake. Such a dumb mistake. I still have no idea how that happened. It feels like all I do 24-hours-a-day is charge batteries. How it happened that I set off on this trip with dead batteries is a mystery.
And then, because it can go no other way, I had issues with my other cameras. I got out the Hero 7 first, and I spent what felt like a long time at the temple getting it ready and set up with the Rode Wireless Go microphone. But I’d forgotten that the Hero 7 no longer works with the Rode. And I don’t know why. Some months back, it just stopped working. And I’ve never been able to figure out why. I thought it was because the cord on my GoPro Mic Adapter had broken. But I have a brand new Mic Adapter, and the same thing happens when I plug in the Rode. I filmed a bunch of stuff at the temple, but when I stopped to review it, I realized that the audio wasn’t working. I had done a quick audio test at the very beginning, as I always do, and it had seemed fine. But once I started filming longer sequences, the audio shut down. There was just static and hiss and long audio dropouts.
Luckily, I could turn to my new DJI Pocket 2 and use that. I was grateful to have it in my knapsack and ready to go. Its battery, at least, was fully charged. But after all this camera hassle, stopping to put away the Hero 7 and get the Pocket 2 set up and ready was so stressful and frustrating. And it was even more stressful, because this temple just happened to be a kind of dog shelter. I couldn’t tell you how many dogs there were. Twenty? Twenty-five? More? But I CAN tell you that these were big dogs. I was told by another visitor to the temple that the head monk of this temple just happened to be very artistic and love dogs. And that’s why this temple was so ornate and also why there were so many dogs. But I can add to that story. Based on the nature of the canines constantly barking at me, this head monk didn’t just like dogs. He liked big dogs. The bigger the better. He didn’t mess around with the little yappers and ankle biters. He liked Huskies and other really big breeds. And these dogs never quite got accustomed to my presence. They treated me like an intruder and a deadly threat during my entire visit, and I had dogs barking at me and rushing at me and surrounding me during my entire visit.
Dog places like that always puzzle me. I remember staying at a hotel in Indonesia that also served as a kind of dog rescue. And even though I was a guest at the hotel, it was very difficult for me to even leave my room. The dogs attacked every time they saw me. And this clearly had been going on for years. At what point, as a hotel owner, do you finally realize that having a bunch of dogs that attack your guests at every opportunity is not a great idea? Based on many places I’ve been over the years, the answer is never. And this temple was the same.
And it’s not like the monks weren’t aware of the problem. Every time I took a step, the dogs would bark at me, and the monks would come out and shoo them away and chastise them and drive them off. I’d stand still and make friends with the dogs. I’m nothing if not the dog whisperer. I love dogs, and I’m comfortable around them, and they can sense that, and they eventually calm down and I pet them. But a few minutes later, I’d turn the corner at a new part of the temple, and the same dogs would see me as a new threat, and they’d start barking again. A couple of them would rush at me as if they were about to attack. They couldn’t help it. And the monks would rush to my defense again. And if this happens with every visitor to the temple, a temple that depends on donated money from the community around it, then you’d think at some point this policy of having twenty-five large and somewhat aggressive dogs on your premises would start to be questioned. The issue would at least come up at the next meeting. But apparently at this temple, it never did. And I really see it being a problem. I love dogs and I don’t mind the challenge of befriending an aggressive dog, but even I was uncomfortable at this temple. Lots of people are afraid of dogs, and they wouldn’t last two seconds there. They’d probably never get out of their car or off their motorcycle if they came for a visit.
The story of how I ended up at the Huai Pla Lot temple with all the dogs is an interesting one, and it begins with the planning of my entire day’s small adventures. I decided to take the main highway to Tak instead of the smaller mountain road. And with that decision, came the decision to stop at the Chao Por Phawo Shrine to light more firecrackers, to stop at the new Doi Muser Market for good coffee, and, finally, to look for any interesting new detours I could take. And I found such a detour in a small road leading from the Muser Market to a village called Ban Huai Pla Lot, nestled deep in the hills. The village and the road and the setting on their own would have been enough, but this village also appeared to have a quite ornate and interesting temple. That settled the matter, and I decided that after my coffee at the Muser Market, I would visit this Muser village.
My stop at the Chao Por Phawo shrine was quite entertaining, by the way. I was there very early in the morning, since it is just a few kilometers outside of Mae Sot. But, luckily, the little shop that sells firecrackers was open, and I bought a small box of 100. I didn’t feel the need to go crazy and buy 500 or 1,000 or more. And I had this idea to film the firecrackers from below. I was going to put my GoPro on the ground directly beneath the string of firecrackers. At the last minute, I wisely decided it wasn’t a good idea to risk my precious Hero 9 in this way, and I broke out the Hero 7 to do this. I filmed the experience itself with the Hero 9 as usual, but I put the Hero 7 on the ground directly underneath the firecrackers and pointed straight up at them.
I had to sit down at a table first and spend some time getting both cameras ready to go. I’m still struggling with a lack of memory cards in my life, so that was a process. But I got something figured out. And then I went to the back area where it was safe to light the firecrackers. And then I did something dumb. I had the Hero 9 rolling, and I was talking to the camera and explaining what I was doing as I unboxed the firecrackers. But, like a dummy, I tried to hold up the string of firecrackers by the fuse at the bottom, and the fuse pulled right out. I was now standing there holding a string of explosives in one hand, and the fuse in the other. It was clearly a scene out of a thousand movies and TV shows as the hero has to figure out how to safely light the explosives without a fuse. For me, being very inexperienced, the wisest course of action would have been to simply buy another box. Why risk blowing off my fingers for a dollar’s worth of firecrackers? And on my own, perhaps that is what I would have done. But with the GoPro running, I thought I’d take a chance. The story needed an ending. Questions needed to be answered for the video. What happens when the fuse comes out of your firecrackers? Can you just stick it back in? Then will the fuse just fizzle out and do nothing? Or is it now too short? Will it set off the firecrackers way too early and blow off a finger? I was going to find out.
It wasn’t totally obvious how to reinsert the fuse. I hadn’t taken a close look before to see how it was attached. I guess I had assumed the fuse was physically tied to the individual fuses of the firecrackers themselves. And that’s why I had tried to dangle the string from the fuse. But it pulled out so easily that it was clear that it wasn’t physically tied to anything. The manufacturers had simply stuck the fuse into the end somehow. And it was just held in place by friction or perhaps a bit of glue. I saw what looked like a kind of tube that the fuse might have come out of. But if so, I wasn’t able to put it back in. In the end, all I could do was jam the fuse into the end and hope for the best. The problem was that for it to stay in place, I had to stick it in quite far, and that meant a much shorter piece of fuse was available to light. And that meant there was a risk that the string would go off much sooner, perhaps while I was still too close.
I decided to risk it anyway, and I set up the cameras as best I could. Then I lit the fuse and backed away fast. I did manage to get to what I thought was a safe distance. But the initial force of the first firecrackers going off again took me by surprise, and I jumped back a couple more feet. I can’t be completely sure, but it did look like the firecrackers went off in a different sequence this time. And it could have been because of the new fuse placement. But no damage was done except that the Hero 7 on the ground was covered in red and black dust. It got really dirty, and I was glad I hadn’t subjected my Hero 9 to that onslaught of noise, force, and dirt. GoPros are designed to take punishment, and I see people on YouTube treating them very roughly. But these people also routinely break their GoPros and then just replace them. But I don’t have bank accounts filled with $500 chunks of cash that I can use to buy a new Hero 9 every time I break one. I need this Hero 9 to last as long as possible. I don’t think I would ever even risk taking it underwater. I’d use the Hero 7 for that. I don’t trust the waterproofing enough to go swimming with the Hero 9.
I didn’t make any other stops between the shrine and the Muser Market coffee shop. I just hopped on the scooter and rode straight there. I was so happy to see that it was open. The early morning air was surprisingly cold, and I was chilled to the bone by the time I arrived at the market. The thought of a hot cup of coffee was a welcome one. I realized that I’d probably need to pick up a jacket before I head to the north on my scooter trip.
My hot latte at the coffee shop was just as good as the first one I’d had there. It wasn’t quite as hot, but the strong coffee flavor was there, and it was just hot enough. But, best of all, the woman who made and served my coffee spoke enough English for us to have a conversation. And I was in such a good mood and so full of energy that I chatted with her like a nutty bunny. I was very curious about the coffee that they sold, and I was astonished to learn that her family grew and processed this coffee themselves. So it was true that there were coffee plantations up here in the hills. I had a feeling there had to be, but I had never seen a coffee farm anywhere. And I had seen no evidence of coffee beans being harvested, dried, roasted, or transported at all. And it turned out that the tea they served was not made from traditional tea leaves. It was a special brew that they made from roasted coffee fruit – the husk that is around the fruit of the actual coffee bean. I never would have learned any of this if she didn’t speak English.
And then after we talked about the coffee for a while, I asked her if she could teach me how to say the name of this village: Ban Huai Pla Lot. And she told me that that was her village. That was her home. I thought that was a great omen for my plans to go there, and soon after, I turned the wheel of my scooter down the access road, which led for about fifteen kilometers through some nice scenery. I had those issues with my GoPro batteries and a bit of a problem with the dogs at the temple, but I quite enjoyed that side trip to the village. It was clearly a Muser village with a completely different atmosphere and appearance compared to a regular Thai village.
While I was at the village, I got a notification about a message on WhatsApp, but I was unable to read it. I guess my connection to the Internet wasn’t strong enough. When I left the village and rode back to the highway, the connection got stronger, and I was able to check. And the message was from a mystery benefactor. He had seen my morning posts on social media about my trip to Sukhothai, and he had booked four nights at a nice hotel in the old city for me. The hotel is called the Orchid Hibiscus, and it is located just on the outside of the old city walls, basically right in the heart of the city and near everything. It also looks like a very nice place. It even has a swimming pool on the grounds. It remains to be seen whether I actually take a plunge in the pool. I should, of course, but it’s not an automatic thing for me. Swimming pools are a bit like bathtubs and saunas for me. I understand their appeal, but I quickly get bored while inside them. Even going for a swim in the pool would feel like I was tearing myself away from other things I would enjoy doing more, even if that thing was just typing in my journal.
The rest of the day consisted of a fairly straight shot down Highway 12 to Tak City, where I checked into Room 102 at the Dome Thong Residence Hotel. The same friendly women were staffing the small office, and checking in was as simple as handing over 400 baht and getting the key. The only formality was their need to take a photocopy of my passport’s information page. The room was nearly identical to Room 202 from my previous visit. I had hoped to get a lot of things done in the world of social media with the remaining time of the day, but I was too tired. I had woken up quite early in the morning, and I had expended a lot of energy during the day. I couldn’t relax enough or think clearly enough to settle into any kind of productive routine. It had been a good day, though, and I looked back on all the experiences I’d had with pleasure.