Sunday, March 13, 2022
7:13 a.m. Bungalow 2, Chan and Cees
Chiang Dao, Thailand
I did go to the cave yesterday, and I had a wonderful time. I decided not to bother with the lookout point. I rode straight to the cave.
The couple from Romania and Poland told me a bit about the cave. They had just been there. They told me that it cost 40 baht to enter the main set of caverns. This long cave tunnel is well lit from end to end and it is perfectly safe to walk its length without a guide. But then there is a second set of caves. These caves are unlit, and you enter those with a lantern guide, just like at Nam Lod Cave in Pang Mapha. That costs 200 baht. They didn’t use the services of a guide to go into the dark caves, so they couldn’t tell me what it was like.
I planned to use my Panasonic G85 camera for this cave as well simply because it is better in low light. But I also brought along a GoPro and a chest harness. I wasn’t sure if I was going to bother with it, but I thought I might as well bring it along. And then I made my usual dumb, dumb mistake. I really have to stop making these mistakes. Since I was bringing the GoPro, I put my small camera accessory case into my knapsack. This case contains all the extra batteries, memories cards, battery compartment doors, microphones, and other small items. And since I had that case plus the chest harness and the grips for the GoPro in the knapsack, I decided not to bring the bulky protective case for the G85. I figured I didn’t need it anyway. The G85 was going to be in my hands all the time. I was never going to want to put it away. So I didn’t need the G85 case, and I didn’t pack it.
But I completely forgot that in the last week or two, I had moved all the batteries and memory cards for the G85 from my usual accessories case to the G85’s special camera case. So in leaving behind the G85 case, I also left behind the G85 batteries and memory cards. Had I realized this before I went into the cave, I would have turned around and ridden the few kilometers back to the bungalow. But I didn’t realize my mistake until I was partway through the cave experience and the memory card in the G85 had filled up. I sat down on a bench inside the cave to change the memory card, and then I remembered where the memory cards were and I didn’t have any extra ones with me. I was saved in this instance by a bit of luck, because I had also brought along my Panasonic LX10 compact camera. I had it in a pouch on my belt. And that camera uses the same type of memory card. And since it was also a Panasonic, it is possible to switch it from the LX10 to the G85, and it would work. That saved me as far as memory cards were concerned. But the LX10 uses a completely different battery. Luckily, the G85 is a very efficient camera, and the single battery I had with me lasted for almost the entire experience. It was only as I was leaving the cave and about halfway back to the entrance that the battery died. At that point, I just switched over to the GoPro. And I used the GoPro for the rest of the cave experience.
A funny thing about this mistake is that I absolutely knew better. In fact, almost every time I make a mistake like this it is because I ignored my own systems. Long ago, I had realized how important it was to have just ONE single case that contains everything important. Shooting video is so complicated that it is impossible to remember to pack everything every morning. It is a physical and mental impossibility to sit down and gather together all the items you are going to need. You will always forget something important. I knew this from long experience, and I set about putting together this accessories case. It’s basically one bag that contains everything I need, and then I never have to think about it. When I leave in the morning, I need to have my camera in my hand and that case in my knapsack. And then I’m done. I know that everything I’m going to need is in that one case. This system saves so much mental stress and prevents so many mistakes.
But recently I started using the G85 more often, and I frequently left the GoPro behind. And then I ignored my own system by moving a couple of items from the accessories case to the G85 case. And that was the mistake. I was ignoring my own system. I have the habit of always stopping at the door of my hotel room and thinking for a minute about whether I have everything I need with me. I generally pack up very carefully. But then I don’t rush out the door. I stop at the door and look back over the room and think through the day. Do I have my room key with me? Do I have my passport? Do I have money? Are all my valuables secured somewhere? Do I have my smartphone? Is it charged up? Have I left anything in the room plugged in when it shouldn’t be? Have I locked the windows? Have I unplugged the kettle? And then I mentally go through all my camera gear. Which cameras am I using? Do I have extra batteries? Are they charged up? Do I have extra memory cards? Do I have my microphones?
When I did this before leaving for the cave, I thought everything was fine. I had my camera accessories case with me. And that case is where I keep all the charged batteries and the extra memory cards. And off I went to the cave. And I had completely forgotten that I had moved the G85 batteries and memory cards to a different spot. I had ignored my own system, and I paid the usual price.
It’s kind of astonishing how much of your brain and your time gets used up when you have photography and videography as your hobbies. When I arrived at the cave temple parking lot, I had to get my cameras ready. And I decided at the last minute that I would mount the GoPro on a chest harness. And since I hadn’t really planned for that, it took about thirty minutes before I was finally ready to go. I won’t go into all the details about what I had to do, but using the chest harness meant I had to change the GoPro mounting system and use a completely new microphone. And that takes time. And going into a cave environment is quite different from shooting video outside in bright sunlight. And that meant adjusting a lot of settings and testing things. I should have done all this in the comfort of my bungalow. But I didn’t, and I had to do all this while crouched down in the hot sun in a parking lot beside my scooter with all my gear spread out over dirty pavement and dirt and rock. I was a sweaty mess by the time I finally rose up and was ready to start my cave trip.
And these weren’t my only mistakes. I’m sad to say that my final pair of pants have reached the end of their useful life. Just before I left from Mae Sot, the area around the thighs and knees ripped wide open. And as I mentioned, I tried to repair them. However, they’ve been tearing more and more. By the time I got here to Chiang Dao, the pants consisted of more tears than actual pants. Most of my left leg and the whole of my right thigh is now exposed. It’s just ridiculous to try to keep wearing these pants. There is also no way to repair them. Luckily, I do have a pair of shorts. These shorts are actually older than the pants. I’ve had them since I left from Taiwan, which is kind of astonishing. But they are now my only option in terms of not going out into the world naked. And shorts aren’t a bad idea now anyway. It is getting hotter and hotter. Long pants are not even suitable anymore. And I was going into a cave where I might be doing a lot of climbing and even crawling. So I put on the shorts.
But the moment I pulled into the parking lot, I realized my mistake. This cave was part of a Buddhist temple. And technically, you aren’t allowed to wear shorts in a temple. You must wear long pants. This is actually why I’ve been wearing long pants all the time I was in Myanmar and in Thailand. I go into temples all the time. And so I just wore long pants all the time. I never switched over to shorts, even during the hot season. And now here I was, at the cave temple, and I was wearing shorts.
It turned out to be fine. The cave is a big tourist attraction. Lots of people show up in shorts. To be honest, even when it comes to temple etiquette, it’s usually women that they are worried about, not men. Women can’t have bare shoulders or a bare midriff or a short skirt or any type of revealing clothing. And those rules will get enforced. But if a man shows up in shorts, they usually don’t worry about it. And I saw that all the Thai visitors at the temple and inside the cave were wearing shorts. So I didn’t worry about it. Still, it was another dumb mistake.
Just as at Nam Lod Cave, much of my brain was occupied in figuring out how this cave worked. What were the systems? And there was much to figure out. Just finding the entrance to the cave took effort. Luckily, they had installed a lot of quite large signs and I followed them until I reached the cave. It was just much farther away and buried deeper in the corner of the temple than I expected. In fact, based on the initial placement of the signs at the parking lot, I thought the cave was separate from the temple. When you ride up to the temple, you encounter a very large temple entrance. But then there is a sign with an arrow pointing in a different direction toward a parking lot where the cave is located. And the signs there lead to a very small gate, and it looked to me like there was a ticket booth right at that gate. And I was under the impression that this was the cave, and it was not part of the temple. And that made sense to me. I thought that if you wanted to visit the temple, you would go through the large main entrance. And if you wanted to visit the cave, you’d come to this tiny gate far off to the right.
However, once I went through this gate, I found I was inside the main temple complex anyway. And I had to walk through the entire temple complex to eventually get to the cave, which was located deep inside the temple grounds. In essence, it made no difference how you got there. Going through the main temple entrance and going through the tiny cave entrance brought you to the exact same place. There was no difference between them. This wasn’t a big problem, but it just made me wonder why they made such a big deal with the signage about going through a different entrance to get to the cave. The cave is inside the temple. And you just go inside the temple and then go to the cave.
There was also very poor organization when it came to the two ways of visiting the cave. As I mentioned, you could pay 40 baht to see the main cave, which was lit up by electric lights. And then you could pay 200 baht to hire a lantern guide to see the other caves. There were many signs informing visitors of this. And just as at Nam Lod Cave, there were many signs warning you of all the dire consequences you would face if you dared go into the unlit caves without paying for a lantern guide. However, there wasn’t a single sign or any information at all about just how you go about hiring a lantern guide. At the main table at the entrance to the cave, you pay 40 baht and you sign a book, and you get a ticket. But there is nothing there about paying 200 baht to hire a guide. I tried to find out how this worked. If I wanted a guide, did I have to pay here? Or did I have to go to another area? But there were no signs about that. And the people didn’t speak any English at all. And, as is common with Thai people, they weren’t skilled at communicating without words. To me, it seemed like a simple matter. There were signs all around me about paying 200 baht for a lantern guide. These signs were in both English and Thai. And I pointed at them and indicated I was interested in doing this. And the people at the ticketing table simply shrugged and ignored me. And when I left the main cave, I tried again. I went back to this table. Different people were there, and I tried to ask again. The man there managed to say in English, “I don’t speak English.” And then he ignored me. He wasn’t interested in doing more than that.
In the end, I didn’t hire a lantern guide, and I didn’t see those caves. But this wasn’t because of the difficulty of getting information. I could eventually have figured it out if I was truly serious about doing it. But I found that the main cave itself was so interesting and so much larger than I expected that just this main section was more than enough for one visit. Partway through this cave, I made up my mind that even if I did want to see the other caves, it would be better to come back and make that a completely separate trip. Experiencing the main cave and the dark caves with a guide would be too much for one visit. It would be best to do those on separate visits.
While I was in the cave, I noticed with surprise how quickly most other people were going through the place. I notice this pattern quite often as I’m out being Doug the Tourist. I think in my case, my instinct to document everything slows me down. I knew I was going to be writing about the experience. I was also taking video of the cave. And I was taking pictures of the cave. I was also talking about the cave on video. And all this slows me down, and it makes me pay attention to details and, I think, helps me to truly appreciate what I’m seeing. While I’m doing that, I see other people just racing by, and they seem oblivious to everything around them. I often want to stop them and point things out to them that they are missing.
The main cave itself felt much longer than it actually was. I felt like I’d gone a kilometer into the Earth, but it was listed as being 360 meters long. It began with an impressive area that was lit up by a large opening in the rock above that let in light from the sky. There were a variety of Buddha statues there. Something I noticed about the Nam Lod Cave is that it contained no Buddhist imagery at all. Inside that entire cave system, there wasn’t a single Buddhist shrine or statue. And that puzzled me. It still puzzles me. In Thailand, Buddhist shrines and temples are everywhere. It seems like every single mountain, hill, waterfall, or scenic spot of any type has a Buddhist temple or shrine. But Nam Lod Cave didn’t have any inside it. However, the Chiang Dao Cave made up for that. The cave was really more of a temple than anything else. Buddhist statues were everywhere from the start to the end. That didn’t bother me. It added some visual interest, I suppose. I imagine spelunker purists would prefer an untouched and natural cave. But the various Buddhist statues didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the place. There were more than enough astonishingly beautiful collections of stalagmites, stalactites, and other rock formations to keep me happy and keep my camera clicking away taking pictures.
My visit to the cave included some other temple pleasures. They had a large pond where I could feed the fish. At this place, the fish food they provided was an odd combination of a type of sliced fruit and some tiny cubes of some other material. For ten baht, you could get a dish of this food and feed it to the fish. I got two dishes, and the fish didn’t seem interested in the fruit. These were big fish, and they could swallow these large slices in one gulp. But then they’d spit them back out and let them sink to the bottom of the pond. I’m not sure what they were thinking to feed the fish fruit. The other day, I watched a YouTube video from a famous Thailand-based YouTuber called Mark Wiens. He is currently travelling through this same part of Thailand, and in the video he also fed some fish. Mark Wiens is all about food, and he commented that he was glad that at the temple where he was, they were feeding the fish what he called “natural food.” I guess he disapproves of the standard fish food pellets that I’ve seen elsewhere. But at the fish pond where he was, the natural food consisted of lettuce and popcorn. Again, I’m not sure why the powers that be think that lettuce and popcorn would be popular with fish. The fish I’ve encountered gobble up the fish food pellets. They go crazy for it. But they aren’t so pleased with popcorn and fruit slices. I think Mark Wiens was having a knee-jerk reaction where everything processed is supposed to be bad and everything natural is supposed to be good. And branded fish food fits into the processed category, therefore it had to be bad. But the fish clearly had no interest in popcorn and fruit. They wanted the fish food from the fish food store.
Just outside of the cave entrance, I spotted a set of stairs going up the mountain. I didn’t know where they went, but I can never resist any stairs, and I made the climb up them. And then I found myself a short distance from the edge of the big opening in the mountain that looked down over the entrance of the cave where all the Buddha statues were. It was quite tricky and a little bit dangerous to climb over and up to it, but I made my way over to this area, and I was able to look down onto the entrance to the cave. It was the kind of perspective that would terrify anyone that was afraid of heights. Even I felt a bit unsteady as I peered down. My footing wasn’t very reliable, and the terrain was quite uneven. I was also holding onto my camera. And a number of bats were flitting in and out of the opening into the cave. I felt okay there, but I wouldn’t want too many people attempting to get to this spot. While I was up there, exposed on the cliffside, I kept scanning the temple below me, waiting for someone in authority to start yelling at me to get down.
As I was making my way back down, I reflected on all the ways that the signage at this temple and the cave could be improved. I always find myself doing that. I can’t help but assess how places are organized (or not organized) and think about how I’d change things. The main problem at this cave was the lack of information about how you hire a lantern guide. They’d spared no expense when it came to bilingual signs telling you all about the 5,000-baht fine you’d face if you didn’t hire a lantern guide. And there were many more signs explaining that if you broke the rules and entered the dark caves without a guide, the temple would not be responsible if you got hurt or lost. But there wasn’t a single sign indicating just how or where you hired one of these guides. I also reflected that the first thing I’d do is put a barrier across the bottom of the steps that I climbed up. The steps didn’t lead to anywhere in particular. There was no need for anyone from the public to ever go up there. Yet, once someone like me saw those steps, we’d have to climb them. And then when we saw the possibility of climbing up the cliff to the roof opening of the cave, we’d have to go up there, at the risk of life and limb. We just don’t have a choice. I know lots of people would make this climb. So I would put a rope or some kind of barrier at the very bottom with a sign indicating that this area was off-limits or was open to staff only. Something like that.
When I left from the cave, I spent some time exploring the grounds of the temple. I found some old temple ruins and other very interesting places. I also found a bunch of information signs that I had missed on my way in. And I came across a quite bizarre display. I’d actually seen it on the way in, but I didn’t understand what it was about. This time, I asked a Thai man who looked like he might speak English, and he explained what it was. The display consisted of an animatronic skeleton. This skeleton was dressed in a strange assortment of clothes, sunglasses, gloves, and a typical covid-19 face mask. And this skeleton was folding its hands in the manner of a Thai greeting or prayer and bowing and saying something. And beside the skeleton was a large, glass donation box. The man explained that the skeleton was asking for donations to pay for grave sites for people who had died during the pandemic. I couldn’t quite figure out how this worked. How exactly would this money be spent? Why do these people in particular need financial help with their funeral costs? Why is the temple responsible for this? And, of course, the whole idea of using a skeletal figure in sunglasses for this purpose is quite odd. At least it is odd from a Canadian perspective.
Once I left from the cave temple, I rode my scooter back to Pronto Coffee, and I ordered a delicious mango/yogurt smoothie. It was everything I could have hoped for: delicious mango flavor combined with the tangy sharpness of yogurt. And the smoothie had lots of large cubes of mango. And it was icy cold, of course. It was very welcome after my quite hot time at the temple. The cave was several degrees cooler than the outside world. And when I emerged from the cave, the full heat of the day hit me like I had stepped into an open furnace. The mango/yogurt smoothie was a nice finale for the whole experience.
I don’t have any big plans for today. I’m going to work through all the video and photos I shot yesterday and do other stuff like that. And I have my eyes on a special restaurant that I want to try out for lunch. I think it is run by a Canadian. And I will do some research into what other things I want to do here in Chiang Dao. Perhaps tomorrow I will return to go into the dark caves. Or maybe I will go to the scenic lookout point and ride around the mountain on my scooter. That’s probably what I will do.