Wednesday, February 23
9:05 a.m. Room 1102, Phannu House
Mae Sot, Thailand
Everything seems to be coming together for my next small adventure. I’ve confirmed that I can get a scooter. In fact, it’s the same one that I rented before. I’ll be picking it up this morning. I spent some time yesterday getting organized. I’ve already reserved an amazing place to stay for my first two nights on the road. On my last trip, I passed a gorgeous village right on the river, and there just happened to be a set of bungalows there. It’s not a tourist town in any way, but the bungalows were there, and I really wanted to stop there for a night or two. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the owners anywhere. And no local people could direct me. I ended up just riding away and spending the night somewhere else. But with the help of Eddie’s wife, I contacted the owners, and I have a reservation for Friday and Saturday night.
And it turns out that staying here at the Phannu until Friday does not require paying for an extra night. I thought that my month at the Phannu was scheduled such that tonight, Wednesday night was my last night. But they have a different system here, and Thursday is actually my last night. So that works out well. The scheduling here is actually kind of interesting in the way that it contrasts with the Green Guest House. At the Green Guest House, when you paid for a month, the landlady calculated the dates in such a way as to shorten the period by one or two nights. But here at the Phannu, it is the exact opposite. What I mean is that the month, as written down on my Phannu receipt, runs from January 25 to Feb 24. I assumed that meant that I had to leave on the 24th. I assumed that the 24th was my checkout day. That’s certainly how it would have been calculated at the Green Guest House. In fact, at the Green Guest House, the month would have been from January 26 to Feb 24, for a total of 29 nights. But when I spoke to the manager at Phannu House about paying for one more night, she said that I didn’t need to. The month I had paid for included the night of the 24th. My checkout date was the 25th, she said. And that meant the month I had paid for consisted of 31 nights. At the Green Guest House, through odd bookkeeping, they always made the month 29 nights long.
Once I’d confirmed scooter availability and confirmed my plans with Phannu House, I ran some errands. Most importantly, I had to get money. And the ATM loved me that morning and gave me some cash. So, that’s good. I never know what will happen when I approach one of these lovable but frustrating machines. And then I did a bit of shopping. I needed a small item or two for the upcoming trip, including a couple of new bungee cords for strapping on my backpack. And I picked up a large but cheap kind of luggage bag. I never did get around to decluttering my life to the point of having no extra gear, so I will also be leaving some stuff at Eddie’s house while I’m gone. In fact, I’ll be leaving more stuff there than before, not less. And that’s because for my month at the Phannu, I had to buy the bed sheets and pillowcases. And I had to buy a bunch of cleaning supplies. I imagine I will be back at Phannu House after my trip, so there is no point getting rid of this stuff. I’m just going to pack it all up and leave it with Steve. And to make that easier, I bought a large bag. I love these bags. I’ve used them a lot when I’ve had to store stuff and pack up big gear temporarily to put it on an airplane or a boat or a train. I see these exact same bags all over Asia, and they are used by local families when they travel. As such, they can be gigantic. They’re just large rectangular bags with a cheap plastic zipper on the top. They have no frame or structure of any kind. They’re made out of a kind of tough plastic fiber, and they have a cheap plastic zipper on top, and that’s it. And they are usually extremely colorful. I intended to get a medium size, but by accident I ended up with a large. I probably don’t need such a large bag, but at least I know it will contain all of my extra gear no problem. And I figure it will be easier instead of having a cardboard box, a knapsack, and one other separate bag. I’ll just take the box, the two bags, plus the bag of cleaning supplies and put it all inside this one large bag. Keep it all together for convenience.
I also bought some fishing line. I was thinking I could try out some fun GoPro filming techniques that I’d seen online. The idea is that you can run this fishing line from a high point down to a lower point. Then you fashion some kind of a crude rig, like a zipline, that allows your GoPro to race down the fishing line, filming as it goes. So if my bungalow happens to be sitting up high and my scooter is down below. I could run some fishing line between them and send the GoPro flying through the air down to the scooter. I also thought that I could use the fishing line to sink the GoPro down into fish ponds. I’m always stopping at ponds to feed the fish, and I thought that since GoPros are waterproof, it would be fun to lower a GoPro into the water and get video of the feeding fish from underwater. I’ve also been thinking about buying a kite. I thought perhaps I could attach a GoPro to a kite and send it up into the air to get some aerial footage. Most of these techniques are better suited to a 360-camera. It will be hard to keep the GoPro facing in one direction. With a 360-camera, you don’t have to worry about orientation. But I might get some interesting video from a GoPro nonetheless.
I enjoyed yesterday very much. I love planning and preparing for a trip. And I needed a break from video editing. It was nice to feel active again and have something to look forward to.