Wednesday, November 24, 2021
7:30 a.m. Green Guest House
Mae Sot, Thailand
I experienced a small triumph yesterday. At least, I would call it a triumph in my world. For everyone else, it would just have been another Tuesday. But for me, it will go down in history as the day I got my pants repaired. In my videos, I keep saying that I have only one pair of pants. And that has been true for at least the last year. I have and wear only one pair – a pair of sporty-type beige travel pants made out of a thin, quick dry material. I don’t even like the pants. It has been decades, I think, since I’ve had a pair of pants that I actually like. I think I bought them in Kuala Lumpur at some kind of outdoors shop, and they were the only pants in all of Malaysia that came close to fitting me.
However, if you are just talking about material that is sort of in the shape of pants, then I had two pairs. And that’s because I still had an old pair of pants that were worn out. The material of the thigh area and the knees and the area below the knees had been so worn out by friction and the sun that it had become as weak as tissue paper. And it just tore to shreds. There was really no material left there at all. If I just touched the material that was still solid, my finger just went right through it and poked a hole. It was that thin and brittle and weak. Normally, when my clothing tears, I would sew it back together. But these pants were different. The material was so thin and the area affected so large that there was nothing to sew together. If I sewed two edges together, the edges themselves would just tear open.
I kept intending to throw the pants away, but I hesitated. I hate shopping for clothes, and I wondered if some kind of tailor could fix the pants some day. Or maybe I could remove the pant legs and just use them as shorts. The pant legs come off with zippers. Or maybe I could use them as lounging around pants inside my room. Or I could cut them up and keep the pockets. In any event, despite being unable to wear them for the last year, they were still hanging on a hanger.
And yesterday, I was continuing all my work in terms of getting ready to leave Mae Sot for my trip to the north, and I remembered that there was a small tailor shop just around the corner from my guest house. I had the pants in my hand, and I was just about to toss them into a big bag of stuff that was going in the garbage, and then I changed my mind, and I put them into my knapsack instead. Then I got out my phone and I typed “Can you fix these pants?” into Google Translate so I would have something to show to the tailor in Thai.
These little expeditions of mine usually don’t go well. I rarely get a good reception because of the language and culture barriers at play. And I almost never find the things I’m trying to find or track down the service I need. In short, these expeditions are usually a giant waste of time, which is why I hesitate. But my lucky streak of late is continuing. At first, I thought I would have my usual bad luck. When I pulled my scooter up at the tailor shop, I saw that it was empty. No one was sitting at the sewing machine and I could see no one around. But I went inside and it turned out that an elderly man was sitting on a sofa just around the corner out of my line of sight. He jumped up when I came in, and he greeted me with a big smile. I did my best to reciprocate with a Thai greeting, and we got down to business. He said that he spoke some English, but I showed him the translation on my phone anyway. And he instantly said that he could fix my pants. He hadn’t even seen them yet, but I guess he had confidence in his tailoring ability.
A funny thing is that I was embarrassed about showing him the pants. It’s a bit like going to the dentist or taking your car to the mechanic, and you feel like the expert tailor, dentist and mechanic will judge you and the condition of the item you’ve brought them. This man probably handmakes beautiful brand new outfits for his customers. He can make me an entire suit out of any material I choose. And here I was handing him an old pair of pants that is full of giant tears – clothing that is clearly best consigned to the rag pile. Obviously, I should just buy new pants. But that would be such a hassle here in Mae Sot. I can’t face that ordeal. Oddly enough even these pants never fit properly, not even when they were new. The only pants I could find in Kuala Lumpur that had legs long enough for me had a waist that was way too big. And I had to do a bunch of sewing to pull in the waistband so that the pants would fit me. And this had done something weird to the crotch area, and the pants had never quite fit right. But I was thinking that it might be cooler in the north when I go on my scooter trip, and pants made out of a thicker material might come in handy. Plus, it would be nice to occasionally change out of one pair of pants and put on a different pair.
Another issue is that even if this man was able to fix the thigh and the knee areas that were so weak and torn, what about the rest of the pants? That is something I’ve learned in my life. Usually, when one part of a knapsack or a jacket or a bedsheet starts to tear because the material is worn out, it means that the whole thing is worn out. Even if you sew together the section that has torn, a brand new tear will appear somewhere else in a day or two. One tear like that usually means that the whole article is on its way out.
But I had a bit of hope for these pants. For one thing, I tested the other areas, and they felt okay. These pants are very modular. They’re made up of very distinct sections, like panels. And the other panels felt stronger when I pulled on them. I’m sure they’re weaker than when the pants were new, but they felt like they had a bit of life left in them. Plus, the sections that had worn out had come under some very brutal and specific wear and tear. I wore these pants a lot when I was cycling. And two things would happen: One, the sun would beat directly down on my thighs and knees. As you ride a bicycle, your thigh is kind of parallel to the ground and gets the full force of the sun. Two, the thigh and knee portions would be sliding back and forth over my legs thousands of times as I drove the pedals around. And this friction thinned out the material at the same time as the sun weakened it. Hence, it turned into tissue paper. But the other parts of the pants didn’t experience the same wear and tear. So if the tailor replaces the big panels over the thighs and knees, perhaps the rest of the pants will be okay.
In any event, the tailor seemed more than confident that he could fix these pants up. There were a couple of issues that I had anticipated. And I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to convey these issues because of the language barrier, but he seemed to get what I was talking about. One issue was the color. And I didn’t care at all about the color. A tailor probably wants to use material that matches the color of the original material. And I wanted to make sure he understood that I didn’t care. I didn’t want him to say that he couldn’t fix them with the reason being that he couldn’t match the color. He could use bright blue with red polka dots for all I care. Any color would be fine with me.
I also didn’t care about the extent of the repairs. I imagine in most normal situations, a person would want to keep the item of clothing as close to the original state as possible. Kind of like a surgeon who wants to make the smallest incision possible so that there is no scar afterwards. I also don’t care about that. A surgeon could leave as big a scar as he wants on my body, and I wouldn’t care. Same thing for these pants. He could replace the entire pant legs for all I care. He can remove entire sections. It doesn’t matter to me. And I think he understood that. My concern was that if he tried to keep the repair area as small as possible, he might leave parts of the pants that look fine now but will then tear apart later. So I indicated with my hands that the entire sections of the pants could be removed and replaced. I indicated large sheets of the pants.
Finally, there was a tricky issue with the zippers. These are those travel pants that can be converted to shorts. And the lower pant legs can be removed by unzipping a zipper. However, the weakened area of the pants extended all the way to the very edge of the zipper. In essence, there was no material left at all that you could sew new material to. That’s the main reason I hadn’t attempted any repairs myself. I couldn’t think of a way to make any strong edges that would hold. I’d just be sewing new strong material to old weak material, and the seam would just tear open.
But as I was thinking about this repair, I realized there was a solution. The top part of the pants has a flap that falls over top of the zipper to hide it. It’s like an extended hem. And that material was still in good condition. Therefore, any new material added to the section below the knees could be sewn directly to that flap, and it would hold. The problem is that the zipper would no longer work. The pants could no longer be turned into shorts. And I thought that the tailor would then reject that solution. But that would be fine with me. So I tried to show him my idea for how to do the repair and how he could use that flap over the zipper as the anchor point for any new material. And I tried to get him to understand that I didn’t care about the zipper. He could cover it up. And he seemed to understand me perfectly. I was impressed that he grasped the idea so quickly. But I guess I shouldn’t be. He is a professional tailor. He probably saw that problem long before I brought it up.
The final problem I anticipated is that he wouldn’t be able to do the job before I left for the north. I probably shouldn’t have worried about that at all. Repairs like this get done fast in Asia in general. But I grew up in Canada, and in Canada, you are always told that it will take weeks if not months to get anything done. I don’t know why that is, but when you take your lawnmower or your air conditioner or your car or your pants in for repairs, you just assume you are going to be told that it will take weeks and months to get the parts and do the repairs. That’s just normal. Heck, you’ll be lucky to find anyone that can do repairs at all. And then you’d be extremely lucky that this person could even get the parts or the tools to do the job. And if you finally get your pants or your lawnmower back before the year is over, you’ll be thankful. But this tailor in Mae Sot asked me if the next day was okay. He was actually considering doing it that very day. And he kind of asked me if it was okay that it wasn’t ready until five p.m. the next day. Obviously, I was very happy to wait a day. I was astonished that I’d even found someone so easily that agreed to fix my pants. And for him to do it basically overnight was like a miracle. We didn’t discuss the price. I figured it couldn’t possibly be very much. And it made sense to me that it would be hard to estimate the cost to him in terms of labor before he’d even started the job. I didn’t want to force him to come up with a price before he even knew how long it would take to do it. I wanted him to feel like he could take as much as he wants to get the job done right and then charge me accordingly.
So, that was my small triumph from yesterday.
Another good thing is that my two items from Lazada arrived. I have no idea what happened, but they both got here at practically the speed of light. I thought it would take a week, but the delivery took just two days. It turns out that the battery for my G85 came from a company in Chiang Mai. And that might explain why it got here so fast. But the RAM GoPro mount definitely came from Bangkok. I have no clue how it got here so fast. In fact, on the Lazada site, the delivery status showed the truck still in Bangkok even as the package arrived here at the guest house.
Everything seems fine with both deliveries. The battery is identical to the ones I bought in Kuala Lumpur long ago. And it slides in and out of the camera’s battery compartment no problem. We’ll have to wait and see how long it takes for it to swell up and become useless, too. But for now, it works perfectly, and I now have two good batteries. I have the original Panasonic battery, which is still in good condition. And I have this new battery. I’d rather have three. But I’ll see if I can get by with two for now. I almost ordered another battery for my GoPro Hero 9 as well. I currently have three batteries, and those three usually don’t last for a full day. I need a fourth. But that is with my current filming habits, and I want to change those habits. I want to shoot less video in a day, so I’m hoping that in the future, three batteries will be sufficient for one day. If I need four batteries in one day, it means that I shot far too much video. I’ll never find the time to edit it anyway. Plus, I didn’t want to spend the money. Batteries are expensive, and I’ve spent so much money on camera gear. It’s getting kind of crazy.
Other than those small adventures, most of my day yesterday was spent on YouTube videos. I’m trying to get caught up with my journal videos. So I recorded another hour’s worth of journal. I’ll do the same this morning at some point. I also edited a one-hour video journal and exported it and uploaded it. If I do this routinely, I should be able to catch up with real time. I also finished editing the Kamphaeng Phet City Walls video. I have to go over it again this morning to make sure it is okay, and then export it. And then I started editing the P. Resort Hotel video. So, I’m making progress.
Today, I will continue with the P. Resort Hotel video and upload the City Walls video. I will also do a trial packing for my trip. In theory, I’ve reached a point where nearly everything in this room should be able to come with me. The only extra items left are the Logitech K220 keyboard and mouse, the gimbal, the Galaxy Tab, and the PacSafe knapsack. I still haven’t decided what to do with those. I asked Steve if I could leave them at his house while I go north, and he said that would be fine. Then I can deal with them when I come back later. It would be better to deal with them now, but there’s no hurry. I’m also thinking that I might as well hold on to them to make absolutely sure that I don’t have a use for them. I don’t need the Galaxy Tab S3, because I have the newer Tab S5e, which I like better. But it’s possible that my current Tab will break or get stolen on this trip to the north. That’s unlikely, but it’s possible. And if that happens, I would then kick myself for getting rid of the Tab S3 too soon. If I keep it for now, then I still have it as a backup just in case. And the same theory applies to the PacSafe knapsack. Who knows? By the time my journey to the north is done, I might decide I want to keep it. I’m positive I will never use the smartphone gimbal, but if I’m keeping the other stuff for now, it’s no big deal to toss it into the box as well and decide what to do with it later.
Anyway, what I want to do today is organize all my stuff for my trip to the north and confirm that it will fit into my backpack. I think it will all fit. It will be a bit tighter than my previous trips because I’ll be adding a little bit more clothing, the Panasonic G85 and two lenses plus filters, the cooking pot, the travel kettle, the pasta strainer, the MSR Dromedary Bag, and maybe the mosquito net. I was thinking that I could put the cooking pot and kettle into the helmet compartment of the scooter. That would be convenient. But on my previous trips, I got into the habit of putting a 4-liter bottle of water in there, and that water came in very handy. I liked having it. This is a lot to add to the backpack, but I think it can be done.
And today, I might drop by the second-hand shop to see about buying a jacket. There could be some cold mornings on this trip up in the mountains in December and January. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a new jacket. And I doubt I can find a jacket that is big enough for me anyway. But maybe the second hand shop will have something big and cheap and serviceable and ugly.
Things are looking good for my departure. The only problems that remain are the usual ones. I don’t have enough money. I have no idea if I will be able to stay in Thailand beyond January 24th. I have no idea where I will go after Thailand or what I will do or what I can do. And it takes far too long to make my YouTube videos, the videos that nobody watches. But with all that being noted, I’m still very excited at the thought of this trip. I really want to be on the road.