Saturday, January 8, 2022
5:44 a.m. Room 7, Lilu Hotel
Pai, Thailand
My ride to Pai was truly wonderful. I didn’t leave at the crack of dawn, but I left early enough that it was still quite cold. From my Relive record of the journey, I see that I left at around eight in the morning. The PLP offered a type of breakfast, but I didn’t bother to check it out. Even when I crossed the road to the restaurant to give them my key, I didn’t see any kind of breakfast prepared. My guess was that trying to take advantage of their breakfast would be an annoying and frustrating process, so I just had coffee in my room and didn’t bother.
My backpack continues to be quite heavy once it is fully packed. It is so heavy that it would probably be embarrassing if another person ever tried to lift it off the ground. But I’m still able to handle it without any problem. And every day, I refine my packing system to improve it. And now I have a very good and efficient system worked out for packing up and for strapping the backpack to the scooter. The process takes time and effort, but it goes like clockwork. And this time, I finally prepared a bit more for the cold. That’s always a difficult thing to do because when I’m in my room and even when I’m getting the scooter ready, it doesn’t feel that cold. In fact, I don’t even feel the urge to put on my orange jacket. I start to sweat and get overly warm if I wear the orange jacket. But the very second I turn the throttle on the scooter and start moving down the street, the cold air hits. Everything changes in that second, and you really need to be dressed properly. I don’t have anything like the clothing I should have, but as I realized a couple of days ago, I could wear layers by putting on extra shirts. In particular, I thought I could wear my immigration shirt over top of a T-shirt and then put on my orange jacket over both of them. My immigration shirt is made of thicker material, and I thought it could serve as a wind barrier. That turned out not to be true. That shirt is thicker and warmer, and I was glad to be wearing it. It helped a great deal. But the cold air still cut right through it and down to my skin. I was cold even right inside Mae Hong Son. And it got colder and colder as I climbed up into the hills.
Just outside of town, however, I spotted a really nice coffee shop. I had had no idea it was there. I don’t know the name. On Google Maps it only has a name in Thai, and it translates as Chang Thai Coffee Shop. But I did see a sign there that read 1095 Coffee. 1095 is the name of the highway. It’s very easy to spot, though, because it has a large white marker out front that has the number 1864 on it, which is the number of curves on this road. Plus, the coffee shop sits at one end of a gorgeous agricultural valley. It’s a combination coffee shop and scenic viewpoint. It was only seventeen kilometers from my guest house in Mae Hong Son, and it was too early to stop for coffee, but I couldn’t resist. Plus, I still didn’t have much of an idea about the day in terms of making a video for YouTube. I’d done a few montages lately of me packing up and then leaving my guest house and riding my scooter out of town, so I didn’t want to do that again. I thought about doing something different, such as a rapid-fire series of extreme close-ups of things like tightening straps, zipping zippers, clicking snaps, attaching bungee cords, and turning keys. But I didn’t do that. The problem was that I didn’t know what came afterwards either. I knew I was going to be riding down a winding mountain road for over a hundred kilometers to Pai. I knew it was going to be pretty if not beautiful, and I knew it was going to be fun. But I didn’t have any sense of how to capture it on video. I didn’t know what I was going to do. In fact, I was leaning towards doing nothing. I hadn’t even gotten my cameras ready in Mae Hong Son. And so I thought that perhaps if I stopped at this place for coffee, inspiration would strike. I could at least record an opening for a video and then see if that led to doing other things. And that’s what I did.
I had my usual funny moment when I arrived. I parked my scooter outside the coffee shop, and then I couldn’t really tell if it was open or not. I saw two or three women inside busy doing things. But I didn’t see any customers. I didn’t see any lights. And the women seemed to be setting up and cleaning and preparing. One woman came to the door holding a broom, and I got her attention from my scooter, and with sign language I tried to get some indication from her whether the place was open or not. And I guess my gestures were some kind of magical spell that froze people or turned them into stone. She turned into a statue and just stared at me for the longest time. I ended up making a complete fool of myself as I waved my arms around and made crazier and crazier gestures to try to ask my question and get a response. This is something else related to systems and organization that I often think about. It often seems to me that it shouldn’t be that hard to guess what a customer is trying to ask. The list is a short one. If I worked at a hotel, and a person came into the lobby, it would be a safe guess that they were looking for a room. They’d want to know if rooms were available and how much they cost. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure that out. If I worked in a candle store, and a person came in, I could assume they were interested in buying a candle or two. I’d be able to guess what their needs were even if they didn’t speak English. At least I could try. But I wouldn’t just stand there and stare at them like I had no clue what they were doing there or why they had come inside. I’d know how to initiate our interaction. So, if I were working in a coffee shop like that, and a potential customer rode up on a scooter and looked inquiringly at me as I was standing there at the door holding a broom, my assumption would be that this customer wants to know if we are open and he can get a cup of coffee. What else could be going on? It’s a coffee shop. That’s all it is. There could be no other reason to stop there. It’s not like this person could be asking whether they had the latest Stephen King novel. And if I worked there, I would take a guess, and I would make welcoming gestures to this customer and make it clear that the doors were open and I was welcome to get off my scooter and come inside. I’d smile and make welcoming gestures. And if that didn’t work, then I’d move on to something else. But this woman – and most people I come across in Asia – simply stared at me as if she was completely puzzled about what possible reason I could have for being there.
In the end, I just shouted in English, “Are you open?” This woman remained frozen in place, but a woman behind her shouted back “Yes”. And I got off my scooter and made my way inside. It turns out that my concern wasn’t completely unwarranted, because it was clear that they had just opened the doors and turned on the lights. They were open, but barely. Their coffee machines weren’t even warmed up and ready yet. So I simply took a seat outside by the fields, and enjoyed the scenery while I waited for the cappuccino I ordered. It eventually came, and it was good. Of course it wasn’t hot enough, but the cup of tea that came with it was piping hot, so that was nice.
I set up my GoPro and I babbled a little about riding my scooter to Pai and about a few things that were going on. I’m sure I sounded like a moron, but at least the scenery around me was nice, and it broke the ice on filming for the day. And when I left from the coffee shop, I decided to film a segment of myself riding down the road alongside this beautiful valley. I made some mistakes doing it, such as putting the microphone in the wrong place, but if I play music over the segment, it should be okay. Or I can cut and paste audio from another section. The first few times I did this, I worried a lot about getting the audio right. But when I edited the sequence and added music, I realized that audio didn’t matter that much. I lowered the engine noise by so much that you could just hear it beneath the music. And if the audio of the engine noise cut out for a fraction of a second here and there, it didn’t matter. You can’t hear it. And if there is no audio at all, I could just extract engine noise from another clip and lay it over top. I’m not speaking over these segments, so it’s just engine noise. It doesn’t matter that it comes from somewhere else.
It was a bit tricky and dangerous to do this because of the heavy traffic. I had to make very wise decisions about where to put the GoPro, where to park the scooter, and when and where to do my u-turns to go back and retrieve and then move the GoPro. And it occasionally became very frustrating. There was so much traffic that I found myself stuck waiting and waiting and waiting for a break in the traffic so that I can do my ride past the camera. I wanted the sequence to match, of course, and the only way to do that was to ride past the camera when the road was completely empty. It’s not like I could arrange to have the same cars, trucks, and motorcycles ride past multiple times for my various shots. So I had to do all this only when the road was empty. And it could take a long time for that to happen. And sometimes I would start to ride, but then a fast-moving vehicle would come out of nowhere and ruin the shot and I had to do it again. I occasionally had to do it three times to get it right. And each time was time-consuming and dangerous.
I did this three times at three separate locations. The first was just past the coffee shop. The other two times were in the mountains. One time, I noticed that the light on the winding road was quite attractive. The morning light was filtering through the trees on both sides of the road and creating a beautiful dappled look. It was a beautiful spot, and I decided to set up the GoPro to film myself riding through the curves. That was a lot of work. It took a lot out of me physically and emotionally, to be honest. There was the actual work of the filming and the dangers of the traffic. But there was also the GoPro to deal with as it would overheat and shut down at exactly the wrong times and all my work would go to waste. Part of the problem here was that I started filming in 50 frames per second again. I was chatting with ExPat Pete the other day about video quality from a GoPro, and he talked about how the best results come when you shoot at higher frame rates. I remember coming across this fact before, and I shot at high frame rates for a while, but it was technically challenging, and I stopped. But after chatting with Pete, I decided to do it again. And I think the video really does look much better. But it also is more demanding. The GoPro overheats more easily. And I think it uses up a lot more battery power.
The third and last time I did this was on a very steep and very sharp series of switchback curves going up a mountain. I have high hopes for that sequence because when I briefly reviewed the video clips yesterday, they looked sharp and bright and beautiful. But it was hard and hazardous to film. And though it really was ridiculous, I couldn’t help but worry about the GoPro being stolen. I say that worry is ridiculous, because most vehicles were moving very fast, and the conditions were such that it would be difficult to even stop. It would take a determined thief to be able to stop their vehicle, run to the side of the road, grab the GoPro and then take off. And this thief would have to be very confident that I wouldn’t see them and wouldn’t then chase them on my scooter. But the biggest reason this concern was ridiculous was that the GoPro would be extremely difficult to spot. I knew where I put it and I was looking for it, and I often couldn’t see it. For a random person to be driving past and spot it by accident is unlikely. But even so, there were multiple times when I worried about it as I waited for a break in the traffic so I could ride past. During those waiting periods, I was far away with my GoPro completely out of my sight around several corners. And then when I returned to get my GoPro, I wouldn’t see it at first, and I’d have a small adrenaline surge as I thought it had been stolen. But it was always that it was so hard to spot. It was there, but I just didn’t see it right away.
The video of this trip might consist entirely of these sequences, because there wasn’t much else going on. I passed a bunch of scenic viewpoints, and I stopped at them all to take pictures, look at the scenery, and babble into the GoPro. But I didn’t have much to say at those times. I certainly didn’t say much of interest. The only other moment of note was when I rode my scooter into Pai itself and tracked down the Lilu Hotel and checked into my room. It was so fitting, however, that that exact moment is when my GoPro batteries all started to die. I really should have spent the money to pick up a fourth Hero 9 battery. I didn’t do so, because I was tired of spending money on camera gear. But it’s the one thing I really should have bought. I knew I had one battery that still had 20% left when I removed it. And I stuck it back in to document my arrival. And I almost made it. I filmed a bit as I arrived a the hotel. And I showed a bit of my room. And then just as I was finishing up and trying to record a conclusion, the battery died. It died mid-sentence. It was so frustrating. And my battery charger was buried deep inside my carefully packed and sealed backpack. One thing I’ve learned is that I should always keep the Hero 9 battery charger in my daypack. I need access to it during the day.
The Lilu Hotel has been an interesting experience. Since my five-night stay here is a gift, and since this hotel is far nicer and more premium and luxurious than anything I can afford on my own, I should not say anything negative at all about it. However, I will anyway. I was disappointed in particular about the tone of my arrival. As with many businesses in Thailand, the place seemed empty and deserted. The lobby area was dark and kind of grim. There was no one at the front desk. There was no one in sight anywhere. Eventually, a woman showed up, and she wasn’t the young, friendly, English-speaking, welcoming clerk I was hoping for. She was an older dour-faced woman that expressed no welcome in any form and spoke no English at all. She did her job, so there was nothing to complain about. She checked me in, handed me a form to fill out, gave me a key, and even gave me a slip of paper with the WiFi password on it. But neither did she make me feel welcome in any way. She did the minimum required and that’s it. She didn’t do anything wrong. But she didn’t do anything particularly well either.
I was also not blown away by the room. I guess I had built the place up in my mind as someplace quite fancy. And my first impressions were not to that level. The room had clearly been around for a while. It was a bit worn around the edges. However, and this is a very big however, I’ve since come to love this room. During my night and morning here, I’ve come to appreciate it much more as I discover new things about it. For one thing, it offers a sense of privacy. The walls are thick, and I’m not aware of having any neighbors. I feel relaxed and comfortable. I can play my podcasts. I can record this journal on video. I can do anything I want, and I don’t have to worry about bothering anyone. I don’t have to worry about neighbors snoring, talking loudly on phones, slamming doors, playing TVs loudly, or anything at all. The bed and the bedding are fantastic. Sniff as I like, I get no odor of laundry detergent. The thick comforter feels wonderful, and it smells fresh and clean. There are electrical outlets conveniently located around the room. The WiFi is fast and strong and reliable. The mini-fridge is ice cold. There are tons of windows letting in a lot of light. Yet, the curtains are thick and heavy. The bar of soap in the bathroom is not your standard-issue tiny white sliver. It is some kind of fancy herbal Mangosteen Soap. The shampoo is a similar herbal concoction inside a glass bottle. There is an herbal body wash in a similar glass bottle. Best of all, the hot water in the bathroom comes from a central water heater. It is not controlled by an individual electric heater. And there is a tremendous amount of water pressure. And there is an overhead rainfall showerhead. The result is that you can get hot water in the sink. There is a single tap, but you can mix cold and hot water to get any temperature you like. I don’t think I’ve had hot water at a sink in decades. And the water that comes out of the overhead shower is glorious. It thunders down and massages your whole body. And the heat is amazing. I forgot what a real shower feels like. It felt so good.
There are lots of other simple touches in the room that you don’t notice right away. For example, the ceiling fan is controlled by a light switch on the wall. You don’t have to mess around with pulling cords and trying to figure out how to operate it. You just flip the switch. The door has a nice peephole on it. The door lock is controlled completely by a key. When you leave the room, you insert the key and turn it to lock the door. It’s a very good lock. And you turn a knob on the inside to throw the same bolt.
When I first arrived, I was really hungry, and I wasn’t in the mood to unpack or even shower. I simply dumped my backpack on the bed and then left the hotel to get something to eat. I picked out a local burger place that has a good reputation. And while I was walking there, a man on a scooter signalled to me and then pulled over into a parking lot. And this turned out to be an American guy from Texas that I will call Leon. He watches my videos on YouTube, and when he saw a post I made saying that I would be in Pai on this day, he hopped on his scooter and rode here from Chiang Mai hoping to meet up with me.
He had trouble at first, because the Lilu Hotel isn’t listed clearly on Google Maps. So he couldn’t find me. But then he just happened to be riding past on the road, and he spotted me. He checked into a hotel right around the corner, and then the two of us went to the burger place together. It was an interesting experience hanging out with him, because he had watched all of my videos, and he knew a lot about me. He really paid attention to the details in my videos. He’s staying in Pai for two nights, and we have plans to visit a local tourist attraction or two together today. That should be an interesting experience. At ten o’clock, we’re riding out to a Chinese village that has turned into an attraction. And then I imagine we will go to the Walking Street Night Market together tonight. He’s quite interested in the whole process of making YouTube videos, and the idea is for me to vlog the experiences as normal as if he isn’t there with me. He doesn’t mind that, and he wants me to do it, but he doesn’t want to be on camera.