Tuesday, November 16, 2021
6:10 a.m. Room S5, Orchid Hibiscus Guest House
Sukhothai, Thailand
Here it is. My last day in Sukhothai. Today, I’m riding my scooter to Tak City, where I’ll be spending the night at the SOHO Boutique Hotel once more, thanks to a donation from a mystery benefactor. I don’t feel like I got the full Sukhothai experience. I’d have to spend another week here to feel like I got to know the town itself. There is so much I still haven’t seen. But life pressures prevent that. I have to go to the immigration office in Mae Sot tomorrow to get my visa stamp. I have no choice but to leave.
I thought about turning today into a small adventure. I could ride my scooter through the countryside to the north of the main highway or head south and go around and alongside the mountain range. I might still do one of those two things. However, it’s pretty clear that I wouldn’t be able to find the time to work with any video that I shot on those trips. I suppose I could turn it into a Relive experience and nothing more. I’ll go over some maps and make a decision over breakfast.
The alternative, and what I’m leaning toward, is to simply ride straight to Tak City down the main highway. That would conserve both time and energy, and I need as much as possible of those to catch up on my video projects. Plus, this is supposed to be my last month at the Green Guest House in Mae Sot. It seems impossible now, but the plan is to return to Mae Sot, pack up, and get right back on the scooter and head to the north of Thailand for more of an extended trip. And I am not nearly ready to do that. I have a lot of things to do in Mae Sot before I can leave. Though, to be honest, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. My main task is to sort through all of my gear and decide what I’m taking with me and what I’m going to do with everything else. And then it will be a big surprise to see if I can fit my entire “take with me” pile into the backpack and then lift it off the ground. As I’ve learned in the past, the stuff you bring with you tends to multiply on the final day. You think you are bringing next to nothing and your backpack will be pleasingly empty and light. But at the last minute, stuff shows up out of seemingly nowhere, and all this seemingly extra stuff puts you over the edge. That’s what always annoys me about the standard “what I’m bringing with me” YouTube video that everyone posts. They generally present a carefully curated selection of gear that was laid out and organized days in advance of their departure. But this selection doesn’t contain all the stuff that will also go into the backpack at the last minute. I’m thinking of the toiletry kit that is still hanging in the bathroom, the towel, the extra pair of shoes, the power bar and chargers, and a ton of other items that are still in use in the home. All that stuff can sometimes double what you bring with you. Three days before your departure, it feels like your backpack will be half empty. But on the day you actually leave, the backpack is suddenly full to bursting.
A few days ago, I finally created the Planet Doug Behind the Scenes YouTube channel. I haven’t told anyone about it. It’s just sitting there on YouTube kind of hidden. I posted the first three video journals. The very first video is pretty standard journal stuff about my days. The second video contains the gecko in my shorts story, which quite amuses me. And the third entry consists of only the story of losing and then trying to find the microSD card. I like that journal entry the best, and it probably represents my ideal for what I want this channel to be about. I’d still like to create a Planet Doug website. I haven’t done so yet simply because I haven’t been able to find the time or summon the energy to do it. And it annoys me that the dot com URL is already taken by some idiot that isn’t even using it. So I have to choose another top-level domain, and I don’t know which one to choose. Plus, to be honest, I’m reluctant to spend the money. I’m still paying for all my various domains and for the web hosting, and I don’t have any time to do anything with it. I still have the Doug Nienhuis domain name, and I don’t use it either. The smart move would probably be to use Doug Nienhuis dot com for my main website and not bother with creating a Planet Doug website. But I like things to match. I always like to complete the set and keep things organized. I’ll probably end up using Planet Doug dot co. That appears to be the most popular top level domain if the dot com is already taken. It is actually the country code for Colombia, but it just became a major domain by accident since it is so close to dot com and it rolls off the tongue nicely.
I’m hoping to arrive in Tak City at the SOHO early today. And then I will spend some time this afternoon recording the next set of journals. One thing I like about the video journals is that very little time is required to edit them. I don’t add any title cards or have to do much of anything at all. I simply record the journal. And then I listen to the video once to catch any mistakes I made. And then I export it and post it. And I’m done. It’s so fast. If it wasn’t fast, I wouldn’t do it. I’m hoping to catch up to real time eventually. And perhaps I can set up a routine where I post the video journals once a week at a regular time. Or I can do it even close to real time. We’ll see.
I ended up being quite happy yesterday that I changed my plans and did NOT go to the other historical park. That would have been too much for me to handle. I was too tired and too worn out from all the temple explorations I’d done here in Sukhothai and previously in Kamphaeng Phet. I just pictured myself arriving at this third historical park and being somewhat overwhelmed at the sight of dozens more temple ruins, none of which would be markedly different from the ones I’d already seen. Instead of doing that, I dedicated the day to tracking down the famous Sukhothai noodles. In an unusual twist, I used the Internet to find a local restaurant that was famous for its Sukhothai noodles. I would normally just go to any local restaurant that I stumbled across. But I decided to go to a famous place. I got the name of a restaurant from a food website. It was called Ta Puy Noodle, and this place was located about ten kilometers away just on the outskirts of the new city of Sukhothai. Since I had the scooter, it was easy to go there. And I figured that I could get gas along the way, and I could stop off at the computer and camera stores I knew about along that road.
Riding there was pretty easy. It was just a straight shot along Highway 12. I knew that I had to travel just ten kilometers, and the restaurant was right across the road from one of those giant PTT gas station complexes. I filled the tank on my scooter for 80 baht at that station. I gave the gas station attendant my usual 20-baht tip. And then I did a quick U-turn to cross the highway and go to the restaurant. It was an interesting place. I’m not sure if they were all connected, but there was a restaurant plus a kind of vintage coffee shop and another vintage shop. This third place looked like a junk store. They had a big parking area out back that ended at a kind of swamp. The whole place had an interesting vibe.
The restaurant itself was basic in tone. It wasn’t a high-end fancy restaurant, and that pleased me. But it also surprised me. For some reason, I was expecting a fancy spot. But this was more of a busy local lunch stop. There was nothing in English anywhere. I didn’t even see a menu at all. I was hoping that there would be a big picture of Sukhothai noodles, and I could just point at the picture to place my order. But there was nothing like that.
However, I’ve been developing a new technique to deal with these situations. I simply walked up to a table of Thai people and asked them for help. I simply spoke to the table at large in English, and then I scanned the faces to see if anyone looked like they understood me. And a woman on my left responded in very good English, and I asked her my questions about this restaurant and whether they served Sukhothai noodles. And then I asked her if she’d mind helping me place an order for a simple, standard bowl of these famous noodles. This woman helped me with that, and then I found a place to sit down.
The restaurant was busy, and it took a few minutes for my noodles to arrive. I was surprised about that as well, because my experience at these places is normally that you get your food almost instantly. The food can arrive so fast that I usually wish I had more time to relax and anticipate it. I don’t want it to show up at my table so quickly. But it took enough time here that the woman who helped me place my order actually came over and told me that I would have to wait a few minutes.
The bowl of noodles didn’t seem that special to me when it finally arrived. I suppose a noodle expert could tell me a dozen ways in which this bowl of noodles was perfection itself. But, to me, it seemed like some noodles and nothing special. And the bowl itself was quite small. I was shooting video on my GoPro at the time, and I commented in the video that I could have three or four of these bowls without much trouble. It was that small. It was definitely tasty, and I’d go back and have those noodles again if I had the chance. There was nothing wrong with them. But I didn’t think there was anything special about them either. And the bowl cost only 40 baht, which is about $1.20 US.
While I was leaving this restaurant, I was reflecting that I might as well have just stayed inside Old Sukhothai and had noodles at any restaurant there. But since I was on the road, I stopped off at a Big C shopping center to visit a Big Camera outlet. I was thinking that if I ever saw a 512GB microSD card somewhere in a good store, I’d buy one. But this Big Camera outlet wasn’t a particularly big one. They had some good cameras in the window, and I got to drool over an Olympus OM-D E-M5 III and a Canon G7X III. And I got to see my first DJI Action 2 in the wild. But they didn’t have much gear overall. I thought I might even spend the money to get a fourth GoPro Hero 9 battery, but they didn’t have any. They only sold Hero 7 batteries, which was kind of weird, and it is a good indicator of how poorly stocked they were. Who still stocks Hero 7 batteries?
I thought about extending my small adventures by going to some cafes in old Sukhothai and wandering up and down the streets. And I would have done it except that I don’t really have the time to edit any new video. I have to get caught up with editing old video while getting ready for my trip to the north. And there is now the sense that my departure from Thailand is looming. I think this visa stamp that I’m picking up today could be my last, and I have no idea what is going to happen next in my life. It depends on what countries may or may not be open to foreign visitors in January of 2022.
As far as pop culture goes, I’m watching a few TV shows. Perhaps the most interesting of my current shows is something called Invasion. I don’t think this show has a very good reputation. Critics were particularly disappointed in the resolution of the story. Apparently, it remains frustratingly vague all the way to the end. It promises and hints at much, but then it just doesn’t deliver. And I’m worried about that. I really don’t like stories that remain open ended and unexplained, particularly when much of the narrative drive of the series was predicated on this sense of mystery and trying to figure out what is going on. When the tension and suspense in your entire show comes from trying to understand all the weird things going on around you, it comes as a big letdown when the series ends without providing any answers.
To an extent, I don’t mind. I don’t need all my movies and TV shows to have a perfect ending all wrapped up with a nice bow. Open-ended non-endings are fine with me. But there is a certain type of show that requires clear answers, and I think Invasion is one of them. Hopefully, I’m not too disappointed by the ending.
I also watched the movie Finch. It fits nicely with my interest in post-apocalyptic survival tales. Plus, it has a robot. And I hate to criticize the movie. In many ways, it is exactly the kind of movie that I would approve of. It quite deliberately does the opposite of what you would normally expect a movie like this to do. It nods at the standard and expected tropes and plotlines. It hints that they are there. But then it simply ignores them and focuses instead on the core emotional story line. And I get it. I understand it. And I kind of approve of it and like it. As a movie, it has actually stuck around in my head precisely because it is so unusual in its approach.
But at the same time, it’s difficult to ignore that nothing really happens. There is no story. And it is extremely grim and sad. And it is also a bit pointless and lightweight. The stakes are very low. Basically, the main character, as played by Tom Hanks, is a technology genius. He happens to survive the apocalypse and he is living in a devastated world. And he is dying, and, for reasons we eventually learn about, he is passionate about his dog being cared for after he dies. So he builds a robot whose sole purpose is to take care of the dog.
And, to be honest, the whole thing ends up feeling a bit ridiculous. This robot is an extraordinary accomplishment. It is a true AI. It is a learning AI. It appears to be self-powering and has an unlimited power source. It is super strong and super intelligent. It is, truly, probably the greatest human achievement in all of history. And yet, it was built with a can opener in its chest because its sole purpose is to take care of one dog. It has all that power and intelligence, and it is designed to open cans of dog food and play fetch with a dog.
And I understand that this dog is important to Tom Hanks. Caring for the dog is his way of atoning for a major failing in his life. Through cowardice, he allowed two people to die. And he feels guilty about that. And caring for this dog is his way of making up for that failure. And I get it. But, still. These are very low stakes. The entire human race is on the brink of being wiped out. The planet is a wasteland populated by savages. And you’d think that if you could build super powerful, super intelligent androids, they could do more for the human race than just open cans of dog food. The whole thing felt kind of empty and pointless.
And I do admire the discipline the filmmakers displayed in NOT following the usual tropes. Yet, they kind of hinted that the tropes were coming. So, as a viewer, I was a bit disappointed when nothing happened. What I mean is that there was clear foreshadowing that Tom Hanks was going to be in danger when they went on their road trip. He hints that people are starving and have resorted to the usual crime and savagery that you always see in post-apocalyptic movies. And there was clear foreshadowing that the robot, being super powerful, was going to save him from the bad guys. How could it be otherwise? And I was looking forward to the inevitable scene when the bad guys capture Tom Hanks and are about to kill him and steal his motorhome and his food. And then the robot was going to appear out of nowhere and effortlessly toss the bad guy around like they were children and beat them up or kill them. But this never happens. There is one scene where the bad guys were chasing them. But Tom Hanks manages to hide his RV with the help of the super-strong robot, and then the bad guys never find them. And they never make another appearance.
Basically, I kept waiting for the actual movie to start. Everything was building up to the moment when the plot would kick in. But it never did. The plot never happened. The movie never really started. Tom Hanks was dying, and then he died. And the robot started feeding the dog. And there was a tiny bit of a hopeful theme and a promise for the future as the robot and the dog were standing on the Golden Gate Bridge and seeing photographs and messages from other survivors. But that was about it. It was a very unsatisfying movie.