Monday, February 21, 2022
5:02 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
My neighbor is busy retching, but he sounds farther away, as if he has moved to a different room. I can only hope.
I followed up on my urge to clean and organize my world yesterday, and I gave the place a good scrubbing. I was very happy about that. It felt nice to wake up this morning in such a clean environment. And today I will keep my eyes open for the woman at this guest house that speaks English and tell her about the kettle. And now if she needs to come in and investigate, I can fling open the door without any concerns over cleanliness or privacy.
Cleaning my room had an interesting effect on my mood. I found that I was lifted out of my total focus on editing video, and I started looking at the world around me with fresh eyes. And before I knew it, I was contacting Eddie to ask about renting the scooter again, and I started counting days on my calendar to see if I could reasonably go on a road trip next month. I was pretty excited about this idea for a while. But this morning, my interest has waned a little bit. A lot of practical issues and concerns are involved, and I’m not sure that it makes sense. It probably is more sensible to rent this room for another month and stay here in Mae Sot. I haven’t fully committed one way or the other, but I’m now leaning toward staying here.
For my big meal of the day, I went to Borderline, which continues to be one of my favorite places in Mae Sot. It’s not surprising that Borderline is quite Western in its style and approach to customer service. I was talking the other day about the frustrating habit of local Thai restaurants being erratic in their opening hours and even in what they can and can’t serve. And even the table service and customer service in general is erratic and usually not organized. But Borderline caters mainly to foreigners. And over time, they have adapted to our wishes. They have set and established hours. And they stick to them. They can serve everything that is on their menu all the time. And they have a clear ordering system, which I love. They have their entire menu listed on pieces of paper with the prices marked. As a customer, you come in and sit down at a table and go over the menu and make your choices. There is a working pen on each table, and you simply tick the box for each item to indicate what you want and then write down how many of that item. And there is a space for you or them to write the price of each item and then a spot for the total down at the bottom. Once you have filled out your order, you bring this piece of paper over to the kitchen counter and they take it.
Within a minute or two of sitting down at a table, one of the waitstaff comes over with a glass of water. So you know they saw you and noted your arrival. In a typical Thai restaurant, I often go in and sit down and then get completely ignored. Nothing happens. And I don’t know what to do. I’ll sit and wait for as long as I can bear it. And then I just get up and leave. Borderline operates more like a restaurant in Canada would. They have really good service and are very organized.
I was surprised yesterday at how busy the place was. It was a Sunday, and I think weekends are busier for them. But it felt very different from at any time during the pandemic, as if the town is changing and people are starting to return. Mae Sot, being on the border with Myanmar, is known as a place where NGOs operate. Mae Sot’s somewhat unique qualities come from the larger number of foreigners working for NGOs that lived here in the past. It feels a bit like they are starting to return. I’m starting to see more foreigners on the streets and in restaurants like Borderline.