Sunday, February 27, 2022
6:38 a.m. Junpituk Bungalows
Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand
Packing that morning went well. Since I had left the cooking pot and kettles and food out of the equation, there was much more volume available in the backpack, and there was no need to pack carefully or efficiently. Everything fit easily. In relative terms, I suppose it was still somewhat heavy. I weighed it when it was all packed and inside its rain cover and wrapped up with straps, and it came to 15 kilograms (33 pounds). My other bag, my knapsack, which contained most of my valuable camera gear, weighed in at 6 kilograms (13.22 pounds). My backpack is definitely overkill for what I’ve used it for so far. It is an Osprey Farpoint Trek 75-liter hybrid backpack, and it weighs 2.1 kilograms all by itself. So the gear inside it actually weighed only 13 kilograms or so. I love that backpack, though. I feel bad that I haven’t used it enough to take advantage of all its features and capabilities. I hope that a few more years of this kind of life are ahead of me so that it can become a beloved companion. Here in Thailand, all I’ve done is strap it to a scooter. It could climb mountains and go around the world effortlessly, but I just use it like a suitcase these days.
I don’t know how much my backpack weighed on my last trip. I didn’t weigh it. But it was definitely much heavier. I remember how it felt when I hoisted it to my shoulder like a bale of hay and carried it out of my room to the scooter. It was heavy enough to really feel like a burden and knock me off balance. It took effort to pick it up and hold it in place. But this time, I picked it up with ease and didn’t really feel any effect from the weight on my shoulder.
I was all packed and riding out of the Phannu parking lot at 7:30. But the big steel gate wasn’t even open yet. I guess I was the first to leave the hotel. It took some effort to remove the padlock and lift the latches and swing the gate open without making any noise. I didn’t want to wake people up or set off the dogs. And once I was out on the street, I went back and closed the gate again. I wasn’t sure if they expected the first person to leave to just leave the gate wide open. I erred on the side of caution and closed and locked it again. My habit of making copies of my keys worked well for me this time, because I needed the padlock key to open the gate. Yet, I also had to leave my keys behind in my room. Normally, I’d have to make the long trip to the gate with my keys, open the gate, and then go all the way back to my room to deposit the keys there. But since I had my own copies, I didn’t have to worry. These locked gates have been a problem for me everywhere I’ve ever gone. Hotels get so crazy about security, and they lock the gates at night. And then in the morning when I’m trying to leave, I’ve often been locked in. And there won’t be anyone around to open them.
It was surprisingly cold once more when I got the scooter up to speed and was racing along the highway heading north out of Mae Sot. I kicked myself for not buying gloves. I had fully intended to buy a pair of gloves while in Mae Sot. But somehow, I’d completely overlooked this task. I’d also not bothered to layer my clothing. I was wearing just a T-shirt and my orange jacket. And I was soon shivering hard. The cold morning air cut through my clothing like it wasn’t there. And my hands quickly turned into frozen claws.
I had no plans to take small roads with interesting detours through the mountains. I did that the last time I left from Mae Sot to go north, and that turned the day into a big challenge, for me and for my poor scooter. I ended up on some very rough roads that threatened to tear the scooter apart. For this trip, my plan is to be more sensible. Scooters are not designed as off-road dirt bikes. They are meant for pavement, and I planned to stay on pavement. With that in mind, I stayed on the main road out of Mae Sot the entire day. My first stop was the small town of Mae Ramat about 35 kilometers to the north. There is a Cafe Amazon there, and I like to pop into this cafe to gather my thoughts, warm up, and physically and mentally reset before I continue on. In fact, my plan was to write there. I felt like I had more thoughts on my brain, and I looked forward to hanging out at this coffee shop for an hour. However, when I arrived, I was not in any condition to do that. My hands were locked into a claw position from the cold, and I could hardly move them. And my body was so cold that I was tense and stiff. On top of that, I found I was sick to my stomach and going through severe stomach cramps. That didn’t seem fair considering that I hadn’t eaten a thing for the previous 38 hours. I did stop at the coffee shop and get a coffee, but I wasn’t able to relax. I thought that even if I couldn’t type, perhaps I could just talk into my phone and have the phone record a transcript. But I was so cold and out of it, that I couldn’t even do that.
I realized that Mae Ramat was probably just large enough a place that it would have some kind of local hardware store. And when I rode up the main street, I spotted one. They still had strict covid controls, and customers were not allowed inside the store. The place was roped off, and customers were expected to tell clerks what they wanted, and the clerks would go inside and get it. Luckily, the concept of gloves was easy to get across with sign language, and the clerk soon returned with a collection of gloves. And they were exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t need fancy leather motorcycle riding gloves. I just wanted a cheap pair of construction gloves, and that was what they had. I bought a pair for 23 baht (70 cents US), and I was soon back on the road with warmer hands. These gloves are the cloth kind that have rubberized fingers and palms. Nothing fancy. Of course, they were a bit small. Everything in Thailand is too small for me, but I just managed to pull them on.
Not a great deal happened on the rest of the journey to this village of Ban Tha Song Yang. I stopped in the small town of Tha Song Yang to grab something to eat. I also had to deal with a smartphone issue. I don’t understand it, but the way my SIM card works, I now have to keep a certain amount of money loaded onto the card in order to keep the phone number and card active. I never had to do that before. All I do is buy a certain amount of Internet data that lasts for 30 days. And when I run out, I buy more. But a few months ago, I started getting messages that my phone number was going to be cancelled unless I topped up my phone with a certain amount of credit. I don’t know what the credit is for. I assume I could use it for sending text messages and making phone calls, but I never do those things anyway. So I don’t even know how the credit gets used up. It probably just expires after a certain number of days. In any event, I discovered as I was riding my scooter that morning that I didn’t have access to the Internet. My SIM card had been deactivated. And I got a message that to reactivate it, I had to top up the phone. And I don’t even know how to do that. It’s all very complicated. But I tracked down a smartphone shop and showed them my problem and the message, and they helped me load 100 baht onto the phone. I paid them the money, and they transferred the credit from their phone to mine. It was fantastically complicated to do based on how long it took and how much the clerk had to type on their phone and then on mine. And at the end of it, I still didn’t have Internet access. And this was a problem because I had plans to stay in a somewhat remote bungalow for a few nights, and I suspected there would be no WiFi. I needed my phone to be operational. But I had this idea that it just took some time for this extra credit on my phone to work its way into the system and for my SIM card and phone number to be reactivated. And that turned out to be the case. A couple of hours later, I checked again, and my phone was working normally. But I don’t know for how long. I just checked, and my account shows a balance of 84 baht. I loaded 100 baht onto it, and I have done nothing with my phone since then, but somehow it still used up 16 baht worth of credit over the past day or so. And it says that this credit will expire on March 27. I don’t know why. It’s all a mystery to me.
One feature of this road from Mae Sot to Ban Tha Song Yang is that you go by the largest Burmese refugee camp in Thailand. And because of that, and because the road follows the border with Myanmar, there is a lot of security and a lot of military and police checkpoints. None of them gave me a hard time. They are usually just looking for anyone who might be in the country illegally. I was asked where I was going, where I was coming from, and where I was from, but that’s it. And then I was waved on. No one ever asked to see my passport. And I got the impression that even those three questions were unnecessary once they saw that I was a foreigner. But sometimes one of the soldiers would be able to ask those questions in English, and I think he would ask them more for entertainment for himself and his fellow soldiers than anything else. It was just a fun thing to do, and he would show off his English ability.
I find that refugee camp to be fascinating. I wish I knew more about it. These refugee camps are up and down the border, and they are a big deal in this area. But I don’t know how they work and what the rules are for the people living in them. From the outside, this big one looks like a prison camp. There is a heavy military presence all around it. Thai soldiers are stationed everywhere. And there are military checkpoints at all the entrances and exits. And there is a lot of barbed wire and other fencing. However, the place is also really beautiful. The camp is in a stunning location of gorgeous countryside and rocky cliffs and hills. It’s a strange juxtaposition. If this were a normal village or town, I’d instantly turn off the highway to go into it and look around and hopefully find a guest house so I could stay there. It looks so appealing. But there is no way to go into the place unless you have official business.
And I don’t know if the people inside the camp are allowed to leave the area. I know that they can leave the camp proper. I saw lots of people going across the highway and into the surrounding land to look for firewood and do other things. The barbed wire and fencing is quite broken up and irregular, so they can get through the fence easily. The soldiers don’t seem to worry about that. But I don’t know if these people can go to Mae Sot. I’m sure they would need special permission to do that. But if that’s the case, how do they survive? I’ve heard that people have been living in these camps for decades. They have spent their entire lives in them. But then how do they live? Can they earn money? If not, where does the food come from? Medical care? Electricity? Internet? Entertainment? Money for clothes? Money for computers or smartphones? School books? Education? I have no clue. Can they work towards getting Thai citizenship or are they stuck in these camps for their entire life? They will never be able to return to Myanmar. That much is clear.
A couple of times, I met people from Myanmar in Mae Sot. And they were in the unique position of being from Myanmar, but also not having official refugee status in Thailand. And this appeared to be a problem. They explained to me that they would like to leave Thailand and go to someplace like Canada. However, it’s not possible for them to go through the official government or NGO channels as refugees, because they don’t have official refugee status. They are essentially nobody. They are not Thai citizens. But they aren’t refugees according to the law either. So, they can’t go anywhere or do anything. They would actually like to be in the refugee camps, because then their status would be normalized. Quite a few times, I’ve asked people questions about all of this, but no one has ever been able to explain how things work. I don’t think anybody really knows.
The place I was heading toward was somewhat special. I had seen these bungalows in Ban Tha Song Yang on my previous trip, but I was unable to find the owners. There are just five bungalows set in some fields outside of town. But there was no office or address or anywhere I could go to rent one. I eventually just left town and rode up the highway to Mae Sariang and spent the night there. But I had taken a picture of a sign for the place, and it had a phone number. And Eddie’s wife called that number for me and reserved a bungalow and made arrangements for me. The owner just needed to know when I would be arriving, and he would meet me at the bungalow. Since I had plans to leave early, and it was only 140 kilometers, I knew I would arrive before noon, and I said I would be at the bungalow at 12:30. And everything was set.
However, this is Thailand, and no one was there at 12:30. I settled in to wait, and an hour later, I was still sitting there waiting. I waited another fifteen minutes, and I was just starting to think about leaving. I didn’t want to waste the whole day waiting and then have no one show up. The town of Mae Sariang is about 100 kilometers up the road, and there are plenty of hotels there. I was also annoyed at being kept waiting for so long, and I knew I was going to feel some resentment towards the owners of the bungalows even if they did finally show up. At least if I just left and rode to Mae Sariang, I would be reclaiming a bit of my dignity. I would be standing up for myself to an extent, and just saying, “Screw you. If you can’t be bothered to show up on time to greet your guests, then I’ll just go somewhere else.” I wanted to stay in this village. It’s a beautiful and interesting place. But I also didn’t want to waste the whole day.
But just as I was gathering my things to get back on the scooter, someone showed up. It was an older woman with a young boy and they were sitting on a scooter that came puttering up the dirt road. I was disappointed in that. I was hoping the owner would come. And then perhaps, I would get an apology for them being late. They might even speak a word or two of English. But it was clear this older woman had no authority. She was just there to clean rooms and do things like that. But she did bring a key for my bungalow, and she did take my money. Though she charged me 400 baht per night instead of the 350 baht that we had agreed on. And she not only spoke no English, she had no interest in dealing with me in any way. She was quite abrupt and rude. She could overcharge me because I just handed her a 1,000-baht note for two nights. And she gave me 200 baht in change instead of 300. I tried to explain that she owed me another 100 baht in change, but she just ignored me and left.
My bungalow and my experiences here in the village have been a bit of a mixed bag so far. In terms of basic services, this bungalow is far overpriced. My room in Mae Sot cost 350 baht per night on a daily basis, and that includes everything: air conditioning; fast WiFi and Internet; nice bed with nice bedding; hot water shower; kettle; TV; tables; chairs; window screens; sofa; good security. This bungalow has WiFi and a kettle and a small fan. But that’s it. It is essentially a shack with thin wooden walls. There is no mattress or bed frame of any kind. There is just a thin mat on the floor. And that’s the whole room: just a thin matt on a bare wooden floor. There’s only cold water in the bathroom, and it gets REALLY cold. Ice cold. And during the day, it gets brutally hot. The sun beats down on the thin metal roof and on the thin wooden walls, and it heats up the interior like an oven. You can’t even breathe inside, it’s so hot. And you can’t open the door or even the one small window because there are no screens, and mosquitos and other bugs would just pour inside.
And those are the big things. The small things are also a bit weird. I’m a big fan of places that look after the small details. It’s understandable that a place like this doesn’t have air conditioning and nice beds and hot water heaters. They save money that way. But there are so many things they could do to make the place more comfortable that cost next to nothing. Door latches are a good example. The bathroom door has no latches or hooks at all. And it swings open and bangs around if there happens to be any wind. And that lets all the mosquitoes in the bathroom into the main room. This could be fixed with a simple screw-in hook and ring. But the owners can’t be bothered. The main door has a latch at the top and a latch at the bottom. The latch at the top doesn’t work at all. The latch isn’t lined up with the hole. That could easily be fixed by drilling a new hole. But they never bothered. The bottom latch works, but it’s very awkward and difficult to reach as it is right at floor level. The door could be made so much better if they just screwed in a simple hook with a ring. It would cost nothing and would last forever.
This room does have a kettle and a fan. And they keep the kettle on a bench on the front verandah. That’s because there are no tables or desks or anything inside. But there is no electrical outlet near the bench. So they put a power bar out there with the kettle. And you have to plug in the powerbar into an outlet on the other side of the door from the bench. But now the electrical cord blocks the door, and you have to unplug the kettle every time you want to go in or out. There is a fan on the inside, and there is an electrical outlet up on the wall. But the cord from the fan isn’t long enough. It won’t reach the outlet. This could be fixed easily with a short extension cord. Or you could just put in a cheap plastic stool to raise the fan up by a couple of feet. But they did neither. The only option is to use the powerbar, but if you bring in the powerbar to plug in the fan, you can’t use the kettle outside anymore. You have to choose one or the other. Luckily, I travel with my own powerbar and extension cord, but most people don’t do that.
I could go on and on with all the problems in this bungalow. And many are problems that could be fixed with almost no money and little effort. But they just can’t be bothered, I guess. It’s a very uncomfortable place to live: extremely cold at night; extremely hot during the day; lying down on a thin mat on the floor all the time. Yet, they charge the same or more as a real hotel in an actual city like Mae Sot. I guess they can get away with it because the setting is quite nice. That’s what you are paying for. And there are no alternatives for 50 kilometers in one direction and 100 kilometers in the other. You can stay here or nowhere. And they can charge what they like because of that. There is no competition.
All that being said, I’m perfectly happy here. I always get by. I just notice these things, and I end up wondering why hotels don’t fix all the problems I see. Very poor customer service.
My first morning was yesterday, and I woke up early and went to a rocky hill with a temple at the top that I had noticed on my previous visit. I wanted to be up there for sunrise and to watch all the mist and fog get burned away by the sun. The climb up was much tougher than I expected, but I was still able to do it pretty easily even in my sandals. And it was beautiful up there. I got a wonderful view of the town and the river and all the mountains around and Myanmar on the other side of the river. I spent a couple of hours up there shooting a timelapse of the mist and fog on the mountains and the river.
Unfortunately, my main camera has fallen apart. This is my Panasonic G85. I decided to bring it on this trip and use it a lot more than before. In theory, it produces a much nicer video quality than a GoPro can. But it has broken down. It’s very annoying because the camera is practically brand new. I’ve hardly used it since I bought it. Yet, it has broken down, and I can’t use it. It’s now just dead weight that I have to carry around with me for the rest of this trip. I might as well have just left it behind in Mae Sot with all my other gear.
I’m staying here today and tonight, and then I’ll be moving on. I’m not sure how far I will go. I’ll probably go to Mae Sariang again, which is just 100 kilometers from here. The ride will take me through some beautiful hilly countryside, and I should have lots of time to enjoy it. The alternative is to ride all the way to Mae Hong Son. That’s a trip of 255 kilometers. Considering my preferred slow pace and the hilly road, that’s probably too far for one day.
In my downtime yesterday, I watched the animated Disney movie Encanto. I had high hopes for it at the beginning. And there is much in the movie that I enjoyed. But the story is lacking any kind of internal drive, and it simply fell apart partway through. As I was watching the movie, I was wondering where the story would go. And then when the key moment came for the plot to establish itself, it just gave up. I guess some stuff happened and it led to a conclusion and a happy ending, but it was really just a pointless exercise. There was no strong storyline at all that made any sense to me. The movie is quite popular. On Rotten Tomatoes, I think it gets a 93% approval rating from critics. Everyone is raving about it. But I found that I agreed with the smattering of negative reviews. Overall, it’s perfectly fine. I’d say it’s even worth watching. But it could have been so much more if they’d had a better idea of what the story was.
At least the movie led me down some enjoyable rabbit holes. And that’s because it was a musical, and I really enjoyed some of the songs. And the animation that went along with them was great. My favorite song by far was called Surface Pressure. And on YouTube, I found a ton of reactions to this song and the other popular songs from Encanto. There is a range of reaction videos on YouTube from specialistists. In this case, vocal coaches descended on the songs from Encanto and reacted to them and then talked about the vocal techniques being used. Songwriters also reacted. I don’t really understand anything that these people say. They get very technical about vocal techniques and musical jargon, and I don’t understand any of it, but it’s still interesting to see their reaction and hear what they have to say. The other big hit from the movie is a song called We Don’t Talk About Bruno. I watched a bunch of reactions to that song as well. These reaction videos from rappers, singers, vocal coaches, and songwriters can get millions of views. They’re quite popular. I didn’t even know that there were so many vocal coaches in the world.
And that might be the end of my thoughts for this morning. I’ve been running my GoPro outside all morning to capture a timelapse of the sunrise and the fog burning away. It’s finished now, but it doesn’t look that interesting. There isn’t enough movement, so it just looks like a still picture that gradually gets brighter. And I don’t have any big plans for today. I just wanted to relax and hang out before getting back on the road tomorrow morning.