Thursday, January 27, 2022
6:52 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
I’m back, sitting on the bed, ninety degrees to the window. The sun has been rising for a while now, and the world out there is slowly getting lighter. I hear a lot of birds. The grounds of the Phannu consist almost entirely of cement and asphalt, but there are still a lot of trees and bushes and plants around, stuck into the spaces of open ground between the sections of cement and asphalt. It’s a bit overgrown and jungly and dirty and out of control for my tastes. But looking directly out my window, you’d think I was sitting in the middle of a rainforest. And that’s not a bad thing. I guess the trees provide a nice home for a lot of birds.
Birds were a surprisingly large part of my trip through the north of Thailand. Apparently, the last region I visited, the area of Chiang Dao, is well known for the large number of bird species living there. I stayed at a very affordable but also quite comfortable place run by a man from the Netherlands. And from my bungalow in the morning, I could hear a variety of birds. Some of the sounds they made were quite foreign to me. But it was lovely to wake up to. I didn’t know this at the time, but Chiang Dao offered very nice places to stay if you wanted a kind of farmstay experience or the feeling of being in the wild. Thailand’s third-highest mountain sits right there and looms over the town of Chiang Dao, and a large number of nice resorts and guest houses and farmstays have sprung up on the forested slopes leading up to the mountain. I got the sense that there was also a certain leaning toward the organic, the vegetarian, the vegan, and the natural lifestyle around Chiang Dao. It was certainly a beautiful area. Unfortunately, my timing wasn’t the greatest, and I didn’t have much time there. And a freak weather system passed through just as I arrived, and it rained during much of my visit. On top of that, I made the snap decision to take four days to return to Mae Sot rather than just two days. And all of that combined to limit what I was able to do while I was there. I think I’d also spent so many days on the scooter exploring the mountainous countryside by that point that I wasn’t super excited about seeing more of it. But I can see that it would be very nice to base yourself in Chiang Dao for a week or two and explore the region. There were a lot of roads that were just crying out for some scootering.
The process of settling back into Mae Sot continued yesterday. I had been hearing a lot about covid booster shots in Thailand, and people I know encouraged me strongly to look into getting a booster while I’m here. Apparently, the definition of fully vaccinated is changing. And to be considered fully vaccinated and therefore be allowed to stay in hotels and enter national parks, you might need a booster on top of your original double dose. I was told that just having two doses of a vaccine such as Pfizer was no longer enough. It has only been four months since I received my vaccination, and that seems far too early to get a booster, but I was in the mood for a walk yesterday, and I decided to walk to the main hospital containing the vaccination clinic and inquire. I enjoyed the walk there very much. As I wrote earlier, I’ve missed the slower pace of walking with enough time to look around and see everything in my surroundings. If I still had the scooter, I’m pretty sure I would have ridden to the hospital. And that would have been fine, but going on foot was a nice change after my many months of scootering.
I just heard some loud and excited barking from outside. And I knew that meant the dogs were going to be let out of their cages for their morning romp. I sat outside for the duration, and I’m slowly becoming part of their routine of things to check out. This time the husky didn’t bark or growl at all. You could see that the dogs were torn. They really liked the attention they got from me, but they only had so much time, and they had a lot of things to investigate on their regular rounds. They couldn’t waste all of their precious free time on me.
I’m back inside now, of course, and the dogs are back in their kennels. It appears that my neighbor, he of the screaming water pipes, has the job of letting the dogs out every morning before he goes to his delivery job. The first time I interacted with the dogs, this man kind of panicked. He assumed that the dogs were bothering me, and he came over at a run to chase them away. I had to assure him that I was fine with the dogs. He’s seen me with the dogs several times now, and I’ve managed to convince him that I’m being genuine and honest when I say that I like the dogs.
But back to the story of the booster shot: My walk to the hospital took me right through downtown Mae Sot, and I enjoyed taking in all the activity. I brought a GoPro with me, and I babbled my thoughts into the camera. I may or may not post the resulting video when the time comes. I have quite a backlog of video from my trip to the north to edit and post. As I approached the hospital, a young guy on a scooter pulled over and asked me in English if I wanted a ride somewhere. It’s unusual for anyone to walk in Thailand, particularly when the sun is out. I appreciated the offer, and I thanked him, but I was just a few feet from the hospital.
I was glad to see that the vaccination clinic was open and operational when I made my way up to the sixth floor. I don’t think they are open every day, so I got lucky with my timing. And I was lucky in that an English-speaking staff member was at the main window, and I was able to get clear information. She told me that the current policy in Thailand was to get the Pfizer booster after six months. I don’t know if I would be eligible to get a booster at this public hospital, but even if I could, I’d have to wait another two months. I asked her about all the stories I’d heard about other people already getting a first booster and even a second booster, and she said that those people had gotten the Sinovac vaccine, and they had received it earlier in 2021. And the policy was for them to get a Pfizer or Astra-Zeneca booster within a shorter window of time. I came away with the sense that I was still okay with just my double dose of Pfizer. I would still be considered fully vaccinated under the current rules in Thailand.
When I left the hospital, it was lunchtime. I might normally have skipped lunch, but I was in full swing in terms of recording on my GoPro, and I decided to add to the day’s adventures by having lunch at the Casa Mia restaurant. I’d mentioned on video during my walk that one advantage to staying at the Phannu House is that it is right across the road from the Casa Mia. This restaurant is an institution among the expat community in Mae Sot. They serve Thai, Burmese, Mexican, Italian and classic American diner dishes. I’d only eaten there a couple of times in the past. But I thought that since it was part of my new neighborhood, I should check it out and perhaps make it a part of my routine.
A problem I have with Casa Mia, and this applies to nearly all restaurants, is that it is usually empty when I walk or ride past. When a restaurant is completely empty, I’m reluctant to go inside. It feels like an imposition to make the staff go to work to serve just one customer. If the place was active and there were other people sitting at tables, I’d be more inclined to go inside. In this case, the restaurant was completely empty, as usual, but since I’d made a big deal out of it on video, I followed through and went inside. I had to ask them if they were open, and they assured me that they were. I spent some time going over their vast menu. I think another reason I was always reluctant to go to the Casa Mia for a meal is that I knew they couldn’t really make all the items on the menu. In fact, they have some kind of a routine where they will take the time to make one of the speciality Western dishes, such as lasagna or quiche, and this information somehow filters out into the expat community. And everyone will just know that Casa Mia has spinach quiche or cannelloni and the place will fill up that night. I don’t know how people find this out. I guess there is an expat grapevine that I’m not a part of. But when you just drop by casually, chances are that you will try to order five or six items from the menu before you happen to stumble across one that they can actually make. I saw a ton of interesting items on the menu, but I was reluctant to select them because I was pretty sure they would just tell me it wasn’t available. That happens a lot in Thailand. With my logical brain, I always end up wondering why they don’t reverse the process. Why don’t they indicate what they DO have rather than have the customer cycle through the entire menu until they finally get to a dish that they can actually make? I was so concerned about this, in fact, that I defaulted to a simple item that I felt sure they really could make and wouldn’t be a bother to make for just one customer: a burger and fries. And even then, I was wrong. They couldn’t make the regular beef burger I ordered. But they could do a chicken burger, and that’s what I got.
It’s all pretty silly. I also wanted to get a fruit smoothie. But I never know what fruit is actually available. The menu will list every fruit that exists. But whenever I select one, I’ll be told that they don’t have that fruit today. And then I have to go down the list until I get to one that they have. And even then, the waitress will usually have to run back to the kitchen to check. And if they don’t have it, there might even be discussion of whether they could quickly go to the market and get some bananas or some mangoes. And then it turns into a big and complicated transaction, when all I wanted was a simple lunch. And with all those thoughts crowded into my brain, I defaulted to a Coke. So, there I was, a typical foreigner in Thailand enjoying his burger and fries and Coke.
I ended up being very happy with my order, though. The chicken burger was exactly what I was hoping for: large and tasty with tons of sliced tomato and sliced cucumber and lettuce. It was a real gourmet kind of burger. And you can never go wrong with a Coke poured over ice. And the waitress returned often to refill my glass of ice water. It was a good meal, though quite a bit more expensive than just having a local meal at a typical Thai place.
It’s not part of my usual routine, but I’m thinking about hopping across the street right now for one of their breakfasts. It might be nice to start today with a good meal. I took a picture of all thirteen pages of their menu, so I can pre-choose my breakfast by looking at the menu on my phone before I get there. When I was contemplating spending more time in Mae Sot, I was thinking that I might make more of an effort to eat regularly and to deliberately try a variety of restaurants and dishes. I often end up with a favorite dish at a favorite restaurant, and I will go back to that same place over and over. It’s just simpler. I like to keep confusion to a minimum. But it might be fun to develop a kind of project where I have to try X-number of new restaurants. Make it a type of Mae Sot resolution.