Thursday, January 13, 2022
5:45 a.m. Room 11, Lilu Hotel
Pai, Thailand
I have since moved into my mini-suite at the Lilu Hotel. In fact, I’ve already stayed in this mini-suite for three nights, and then my Mystery Benefactor paid for four more nights for me. This past night was night number four in total with three more to go. The extra nights were the result of deciding to extend my stay in Pai rather than going to Chiang Mai. I decided that there was more than enough to do here in Pai, and I wasn’t that interested in Chiang Mai anyway. However, I may have changed my mind again. The thing is that my visa expires on January 24th, which is a Monday. And I wanted to go to the immigration office in Mae Sot before that date just to be safe. And that meant needing to be back in Mae Sot on the preceding Wednesday or Thursday. That really cut into my available days. But I’ve given it some thought, and considering just how much time and effort has gone into planning this trip through the north, it seemed a shame to cut it so short. And it seemed a shame to NOT complete the final section of the official Mae Hong Son Loop to Chiang Mai. Thinking about this, I think I’ve decided that it is worth the risk of planning to go to immigration on the 24th itself, the very day my visa expires. It’s a risk because the scooter could break down. I could be delayed. The office could somehow be closed for some strange reason. There is no margin for error. Everything will have to go perfectly. But the reward seems worth it. So I think I’m going to put Chiang Mai back on the itinerary. And that means my schedule would look something like this:
Jan 13 – Thu in Pai – Hang out in Pai
Jan 14 – Fri in Pai – Visit Nam Lod Cave
Jan 15 – Sat in Pai – Walking Street at Night
Jan 16 – Sun – Ride Scooter from Pai to Chiang Mai – 128 km
Jan 17 – Mon in Chiang Mai
Jan 18 – Tue in Chiang Mai
Jan 19 – Wed in Chiang Mai
Jan 20 – Thur in Chiang Mai
Jan 21 – Fri – Ride Scooter from Chiang Mai to Mae Sariang – 193 km
Jan 22 – Sat – Ride Scooter from Mae Sariang to Mae Moei- 94 km
Jan 23 – Sun – Ride Scooter from Mae Moei to Mae Sot – 140 km
Jan 24 – Mon Go Immigration
Or I could spend just three days in Chiang Mai and get back to Mae Sot on Saturday. Or I could spend an extra day and night at the bungalow in Mae Moei. And if things look touchy, I could even ride all the way from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot in just two days. They would be long days. The first would be the 194 kilometers to Mae Sariang. And the second could be 233 kilometers to Mae Sot. But that’s not unreasonable. Lots of people do stuff like that. Or perhaps I can stay in Pai one more day and ride to Chiang Mai on Monday instead of Sunday. That would make sense, too, because I want to go to the Walking Street on Saturday night. And it would be nice to be able to stay out late and not worry about waking up early the next morning. Anyway, those are my thoughts about the near future. It all hinges on that visa extension in Mae Sot.
I’ve been enjoying myself in Pai quite a bit. The day after my arrival, I met up with Leon in the morning, and the two of us went to the Yun Lai Viewpoint and then to the Chinese Village of Santichon. I had zero idea of what to expect at either place, and I was pleasantly surprised both times. The day started off a bit tricky. In fact, Leon called me at something like 6:15 in the morning to make these plans. We had left things rather vague the day before, and he knew from my videos that I am often awake pretty early. So he took a chance and called me before the sun was even up and he was still in bed. Luckily, my patterns hadn’t changed, and I was already awake and drinking coffee and on my computer when he called. And once we decided to go to Santichon, I spent some time reading about it. And that’s when I learned about the Yun Lai Viewpoint above it, and I convinced Leon that we should go there first, and then we could go down to the village.
I needed some time to do things for myself, so I arranged to meet Leon at his hotel at ten thirty. Leon had moved into an unlisted hotel right around the corner called the Diamond Guest House. From what I could tell, it was a great place. In fact, the room that Leon took was a kind of mini-suite itself. It was quite large, and there were separate rooms connected by a long hallway. It was quite spacious, and Leon got the room for 400 baht per night.
However, when I showed up at 10:30, Leon wasn’t there, and his scooter was gone. It turned out that we were victims of opposing forms of communication. I’m all about social media and sending messages through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Leon doesn’t use social media or apps at all. He’s old school, and he prefers to make phone calls and send text messages. And that led to problems because I don’t even know how to make phone calls or send text messages or even receive test messages. Leon had decided to go out to a coffee shop. And he called me on the phone to tell me. But I never heard the phone ring. I always put that phone away in my knapsack because I never use my phone as a phone. And then he had sent me a text message. But I never saw the text message either. In fact, my phone doesn’t even give me a notification when I get a test message. I just sat down outside his room at the Diamond and waited, and eventually Leon came looking for me.
With Leon’s encouragement, I decided to record the events of the morning on video. However, I had to do it in such a way that Leon wasn’t in the video. That led to a somewhat odd morning, but it all worked out in the end. I waited until we were separated before I did some chatting into the GoPro and described what was going on. Quite often, Leon was around, but I made sure to aim the GoPro away from him so he wasn’t in the video. And from time to time, Leon offered his services as cameraman, and he held the GoPro. We did that the first time when we stopped to check out one of those self-serve gas pumps. I was curious about how they worked. I assumed I wouldn’t be able to use them because you’d need a credit card or debit card or some kind of payment app. But it was cash-based, like a vending machine. You just inserted money and pumped your gas. That was fun to do.
Leon and I initially got into a bit of trouble at the viewpoint. We parked our scooters and then walked out onto a grassy area that led to the edge of the hill. But as we walked out there, some Thai men walked up and told us we weren’t allowed to be there. It turned out that this was a camping area. Only people who had paid to set up a tent were allowed into that area. However, this wasn’t made clear. There was no barrier or closed gate. And I saw a sign that said something about a camping area, but I couldn’t make any sense out of it. And the Thai man was quite rude. He just flicked his hand at us like he was shooing away insects or something disgusting. That gesture made me reflect on the stories you often see in Thailand’s media where a foreign tourist and a local Thai worker get into an argument and sometimes a fight. And I think it is usually situations like this that set it off. I’m just being a tourist. I went to a viewpoint to look at the view. And then suddenly, there is this Thai man being quite rude and trying to tell me to go away with rude hand gestures. And I have no idea what he is talking about. The problem is often one of information. This Thai man assumes that everyone knows this area was off-limits. But I had no way of knowing it was off-limits. How could I? It’s a scenic viewpoint. And then we get the misunderstanding.
Just the previous day, I had come across just such a story in which a Russian tourist, a woman, got into a physical fight with a Thai man at a scenic viewpoint. The Russian even went to a police station afterward to file a complaint against the Thai man accusing him of physical assault. It was one of those typical things where no one really knows what happened. There was some video of the encounter, but it was limited, and everyone in social media was arguing back and forth ad nauseum about who was in the right and who was in the wrong. But the heart of the issue appeared to be one of unclear information and a lack of systems. This Russian woman had gone to a scenic lookout point and was taking pictures. But then this Thai man came up to her and said that she had to pay 50 baht to be there. And the Russian woman didn’t want to pay and I guess argued that there weren’t any signs about this. And I’m assuming that the Thai man said or did something that the Russian woman felt was rude, and she dug in her heels, and the whole thing spiralled out of control. It happens all the time in Thailand.
It was interesting to be up at that viewpoint and then at Santichon with Leon. I’m so unaccustomed to being around other people. I really enjoyed Leon’s company, and I had a lot of fun. Just being with another human being is such a different experience to being alone. Your energy level and your sense of fun goes up considerably. I did a bunch of things and acted in ways that I never would have had I been alone. And that’s a good thing. But at the same time, you suddenly now have to take into account all the quirks and behaviors and attitudes and desires and opinions of another person. Leon, for example, is not comfortable in the sun. His skin is sensitive to sun, and I could see the evidence of that myself. His face got extremely blotchy and red and sore-looking when he was out in the sun. So he was constantly trying to get out of the sun and find shade. Yet, I’m the opposite. I’m always out in the sun. Leon kept telling me to get in the shade and sit down on a chair or a bench. But that’s the opposite of what I wanted to do. I wanted to be out walking around and exploring, and if that meant being in the sun, that was fine. And, of course, I’m all about taking pictures and taking videos. I want to keep walking and go everywhere and take video of everything. But Leon always wanted to sit down in the shade and not move. And that’s what happens when you spend time with other people. You have to find a middle ground where you can compromise.
The same thing happens with food, of course. Since my arrival in Pai, I’ve been taken with the idea of all the Western food that you can have here. When I first met Leon, I’d convinced him to come with me to IP Burger for a cheeseburger, fries, and a soda. I was very hesitant to make that suggestion. I assumed Leon would be more about traditional Thai or Chinese food. But when I ran into Leon, I was on my way to IP Burger. I had my heart set on that burger, so I pushed my preference forward. And after our visit to Santichon, I really wanted to go to Cheese Madness for a grilled cheese sandwich. This place had been calling out to me from the moment I started planning my visit to Pai. I could sense that Leon would prefer Chinese or Thai food. In fact, he spent a long time at Santichon asking local people about traditional Yunnan cuisine. Leon speaks Thai, so he was able to talk to people, which was amazing. But I felt that I had altered my normal style to a huge degree already just by spending my morning with Leon. And I kind of dug in my heels when it came to this grilled cheese sandwich. I really wanted one, and I kind of insisted on it. Leon finally agreed to go there, but in the end, he couldn’t quite do it. When we got to Cheese Madness, he said that he was going to go somewhere else and get some Vietnamese food, and then he would bring it back to Cheese Madness and eat it there.
All of this speaks to this idea of the conflict inherent in spending time with other people. You have a lot of fun, and it’s enjoyable. But it can also lead to so many problems. I hadn’t really done anything all morning in the way that I would normally do things. And now I was in this awkward situation of wondering whether I should order my grilled cheese sandwich or wait for Leon to come back. And, to be honest, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of him sitting at a table at Cheese Madness while eating takeout food from another restaurant. Lots of people do stuff like that all the time, but I would never be comfortable doing that. It would feel disrespectful to the owner and staff at Cheese Madness. So now I felt apologetic but on Leon’s behalf.
But there was a lot of positive, as well. For example, Leon was very much into taking selfies. I’m not, so I generally don’t take them. But Leon insisted, and while we were at the Chinese replica village Santichon, he convinced me to pose with some replica M16 assault rifles. The idea was to adopt a funny pose like Rambo. Personally, I wanted nothing to do with the guns. I don’t like guns in general. And I felt awkward posing with these guns because they didn’t belong to me. They were part of a shooting range where you could shoot at a target with BB pellets. I hadn’t paid to shoot the guns. So I didn’t feel like I had the right to pose for pictures with the guns. But Leon really insisted, and I ended up with some pictures of me with the guns.
Then as we were leaving from Santichon, we were discussing the popularity of certains types of YouTube videos and how clickbait and thumbnails feed into that. And we joked that a thumbnail of me with the M16 rifles would probably get a lot of attention and result in more views. I was interested in this as a kind of experiment. But I realized that in order to use that image as a thumbnail, I would have to actually fire the guns. Otherwise, it would make no sense and just be pure clickbait. So, Leon and I turned around and went back to the gun range. And I paid to shoot at the target. Leon became the cameraman for that sequence, and he filmed me and the target and the guns as I took my shots at the target.
In the end, I enjoyed shooting at the target. And I don’t know that I would have done it if I were there on my own. Probably not. You just tend to do more things and become more of a participant in life when you are with other people. When you are alone, you tend to fall back into the role of an observer.
Our evening was also a classic example of the problems and benefits of spending time with other people. Leon and I went to the Walking Street together. Again, normally, I would never have done that. I was exhausted. I wouldn’t normally have such an active day. If I had plans to go to a night market, I would do very little during the day. The night market would be my one big event of the day. I would never go to a viewpoint, go a tourist village, shoot arrows, shoot guns, and then go to a fancy cheese restaurant all during the day before going to a night market. Instead, I would relax and rest up and plan for the evening. My night market visit would be my one big event of the day. But because I spent the day with Leon, I did all of those things and more.
And things got even more complicated, because as often happens, I got quite sick. The idea of the Walking Street, of course, is that you walk from one end to the other and try all the snacks and drinks. But for whatever reason, I was hit with my usual bad stomach problems. In fact, it was so bad that normally I wouldn’t have gone to the market at all. Being that ill would have meant staying at the hotel at night to be close to a bathroom. But I’d made plans with Leon, and out I went. I had to somehow break the news to Leon that I wouldn’t be eating or drinking. That is always embarrassing as I had to explain the reason. And we walked up and down the night market streets a few times. Leon even bought a couple of cans of ice cold beer, and we drank them as we walked. This is also something I never would have done on my own. And then Leon wanted to stop somewhere for dinner. At that point, I had no choice but to make a run for my hotel. Within a short time, I knew I was going to be doubled over with massive painful stomach cramps while being very sick. This is something I deal with all the time in my life. But I normally just do what I need to do. I don’t have to explain myself. But now I found myself in the embarrassing position of having to tell Leon about my problem and how I would have to leave him to have dinner alone. I had to find a bathroom very fast. And I knew that the situation would be so dire that it would be very bad to use a public bathroom. I needed my own hotel bathroom. Luckily, the Lilu is quite close to the market, and I made it back in time. And again, normally, after an experience like that, I would not be going back out into the world. I’d just stay at my hotel recovering and close to a bathroom. But Leon was waiting for me, and after the worst of the episode had passed, I went back out to rejoin him.
Leon said that he had kind of given up on me. I was gone for a long time, I guess, and he assumed I wouldn’t be returning. But I did return, and Leon and I went looking for a place where we could sit and have a drink. That, too, was complicated. Of course, I have certain ideas of the kind of place I like and where I would be comfortable sitting down and having a drink. And Leon has his own ideas. And since we don’t know each other, we have to try to figure out what the other person wants to do and take that into account and find a place where we are both happy. In the end, I guess it was relatively easy because I really only had one requirement: it had to be quiet. That was my only desire at that point. Beyond that, I didn’t care. And we ended up at a place called the Blue Ox. I don’t know why Leon liked it, but he really responded to that place. I didn’t see any appeal at all, but I really didn’t care where we went other than the noise thing. And the Blue Ox was right on the edge. Most of the bars we passed were far too noisy. Many even had live music, and it was so loud that I could tell we’d end up screaming at each other if we tried to have a conversation. And the Blue Ox had some kind of horrible music playing pretty loudly from a variety of hidden speakers. And the table we settled on was somewhat close to one of these speakers. It was definitely not my kind of place and not my kind of table, but it was just possible to have a conversation despite the music. I only had to lean in and ask Leon to repeat himself a few times.
Even the drinks were completely outside of my normal world. This was a fancy place, and they served high end whiskey and cocktails. Leon and I had talked a lot about whiskey, and I kind of assumed I’d be ordering Scotch wherever we ended up. But the whiskey here was pretty expensive. There was no Johnny Walker Red on the menu. Just fancy stuff. And then there were somewhat expensive cocktails. And I know nothing about cocktails. But with Leon’s influence and me trying to be social, I ordered their specialty cocktail called the Pai Village. This was made with rum and vodka and blue curacao and other things. Leon ordered a mojito. I don’t even know what a mojito is. My drink ended up being a shocking bright blue color. It was a very unusual thing for me to order and be drinking. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It tasted good, and I could feel the effect of the alcohol right away. And I kind of needed that effect in order to loosen up a bit.
Despite being out of my element, I enjoyed myself at the Blue Ox with my bright blue drink. I had a beer chaser with the cocktail. And after we left, Leon bought two more large beers at the local shop, and we drank those as well. We’re not talking about a great deal of alcohol, but with my being sick and dehydrated and being unaccustomed to drinking, the three cans of beer (two large and one small) and one strong cocktail led to a bit of a bad night and a slight headache the next day. Even so, I found myself awake very early and on my scooter and heading back to the Yun Lao Viewpoint. My idea was to go to the coffee shop up there and enjoy a morning coffee as the sun rose.
The views from the Yun Lai Viewpoint were fantastic. I was very surprised at Pai’s beautiful setting from up there. When I rode into town on the highway from Mae Hong Son, I wasn’t that impressed. I honestly didn’t see what the big deal was about Pai. But from up high, I could see how beautifully the town was situated in the valley and surrounded by hills on all sides. I spent some time enjoying the early-morning views of the mist and rising sun, and then I walked over to the nearby coffee shop on a hill. My experience there was somewhat typical of Thailand in general in that the place confused me. It took me a while to even figure out what the place was. I roamed around a bit first, and I discovered that they had some unusual rooms kind of built into a hillside. And they had a large garden with a pool spread out down the hill. Plus they had a restaurant and a coffee shop and a variety of places to sit. There was one area up on a large raised platform with normal tables and chairs. And there was a verandah right in front of the service counter where you sat on the wooden floor on pillows. And, finally, there was a long bamboo platform off to the right and separated from the main building. One could also sit there on the bamboo floor on pillows and mats, and, I assume, enjoy the sunset.
I also had my usual trouble just finding out whether the place was open, whether I was welcome, and whether I could get served. I don’t know how the Thai people do it. But no one greeted me. No one was standing behind the counter. I couldn’t see anyone anywhere. However, two customers appeared to be sitting on pillows and eating food and drinking drinks. So, I persevered, and I hung out at the counter for a while and waited. It took a long time, but a woman finally showed up from somewhere, and I was able to place an order for a coffee. I then tried to get comfortable on the verandah, but it was a struggle. I’m never happy trying to sit on the floor with just pillows. Plus, my plan was to record a video journal segment, and I felt I would be disturbing the two other customers no matter how far away from them I sat. My coffee eventually arrived, and it was pretty poor. It was small, lukewarm, and barely had coffee flavor. But the coffee gave me the right to sit there, and that was really all I wanted. But I couldn’t get comfortable, and I decided to move to the bamboo platform, where I could sit far away from everyone. It took some effort to gather up all my stuff and my coffee and carefully make my way to the bamboo platform and settle down there, but I managed it. I was equally uncomfortable sitting on the pillows there, but since there were no people around me and I was able to move about as much as I wanted, I managed to create a suitably large pile of pillows against a type of backrest and settle in. Then I had my usual issues with setting up and running the GoPro. More and more, I’m thinking that to continue with a YouTube life, I have to get at least one camera that is useful and problem-free in these situations. I have so many cameras, and yet none of them really work. The Panasonic G85 is simply too big and heavy and won’t focus. The not being able to focus is the biggest problem. The Panasonic LX10 doesn’t have a microphone input or stabilization, so it doesn’t really work either. The Pocket 2 is fidgety and delicate and weird to work with its exposed gimbal. And the GoPro is so glitchy with such short battery life and is so poor in low light. I keep using a GoPro simply because it at least is reliable and more or less works in every situation. But it is such a hassle.
Anyway, I fought through the multiple problems, and I recorded a long journal entry talking about everything that has been happening over the last couple of days. I really enjoyed it.