Sunday, October 10th, 2021
4:45 a.m. Room 309, SOHO Boutique Hotel
Tak City, Thailand
My time in Tak is coming to an end. I’m sad about that. I’m particularly sad about leaving this room at the SOHO. I’ve settled in quite nicely, and that is why I am, once again awake so early. I want to maximize my enjoyment of this room, and I wanted to be awake and busy for a few hours before breakfast time and my return to Mae Sot. My one big complaint is that there has been little to no Internet access. The WiFi signal is strong, and I’m always connected to the hotel’s WiFi, but it rarely provides access to the Internet. And without the Internet, I feel as though one or two of my limbs have been cut off. It doesn’t make sense that they would have such a policy, but it seems like they turn off Internet access for much of the day and the night. I noticed that on my first morning, the Internet reappeared at exactly 7 a.m., as if on a schedule. All last night, there was no Internet access, and the Internet continues to be absent now that I’m awake and out of bed. It will be interesting to see if it suddenly appears at 7 a.m. again.
The highlight of yesterday was the breakfast. There had been some confusion upon check-in about exactly where the hotel’s breakfast was served, and I never quite understood what they were telling me. And the confusion continued yesterday morning as I was unable to locate any kind of breakfast buffet anywhere. I finally returned to the front desk and though I still didn’t really understand what I was being told, I got the idea that this breakfast wasn’t served inside the hotel at all but at a nearby restaurant. And that turned out to be the case. The restaurant was called the Awake Owl, and it was located on the street beside the entrance driveway to the SOHO.
No one had told me this, but I had been assuming that this would be a breakfast buffet from which you served yourself. But that wasn’t how it worked. There was a self-serve area where you could get toast and coffee, but for the breakfast itself, you were served as at a normal restaurant. I sat down at a table and looked over a menu, and when I had made my choices, I went over to the counter and placed my order. And a server brought the food to my table.
I really liked the Awake Owl. The seating was comfortable, though open to the outside world. And that meant that the noise of Thailand’s tens of billions of angle grinders wafted over me as I ate. One is never far away from an angle grinder in Southeast Asia. But I liked the happy decor of the Awake Owl. The walls were covered in large paintings of various owls with comically large eyes and perky expressions. These awake owls had clearly just consumed about ten cups of coffee each, and they were very much awake.
I was in a great mood, and I set up my Pocket 2 camera on the table and chatted into the lens as I enjoyed my breakfast and then a cup of coffee. The morning continues to be my time. The evening and night is wasted on me, but I love a good morning. That is when I feel my best.
I passed most of the day inside my room at the SOHO. I had lots of YouTube-related projects on the go, and I devoted most of the hours of the day to that endeavor. The plan was to emerge from my gloriously comfortable room once the sun had lowered in the sky. It was a Saturday, and my plan was to go back to the pedestrian bridge and then snack my way along the riverside market. I was going to bring one of my various cameras and film the experience. I was partially successful in this. I did go back to the bridge and then go snacking along the river. And I did bring a camera. But the actual filming didn’t happen. At least I didn’t end up with a full video record of the activities. I filmed much of the beginning of the evening, but it eventually became too much to deal with. I was far too tired. It was far too hot. The streets and the market were far too crowded and chaotic. I was dripping with sweat and unable to handle the camera and order snacks and then hold the snacks and eat them while operating a camera at the same time and talking about the experience.
In the past, I dealt with this situation by adopting squirrel behavior. I’d get my snacks one at a time, and then I’d run away with my snack until I found a spot where I could sit in relative comfort and attach my camera to a convenient post or garbage container or fence. This often put me in relatively dirty and cramped and weird places, but it was the best I could do. There is rarely anywhere to sit down. And when I finished that snack, I’d go back into the fray, buy another snack, and then find another secluded spot to enjoy them. I was a squirrel grabbing a peanut and then running away to consume it or bury it in safety somewhere else and then coming back for a second peanut.
But this particular street market felt challenging from that point of view. The stalls were not arrayed on the river side of the busy street. They were arrayed along the sidewalk on the other side of that very busy road on the opposite side of the river. It would have been nice to grab a snack and then sit on a bench near the river to enjoy it. But that wasn’t really possible. I could barely make it across that busy street just twice to go to the pedestrian bridge and back again. To make that difficult crossing multiple times with different snacks seemed far too daunting, and I found myself putting away my Pocket 2 and simply enjoying the evening without my camera companion.
Once I was well-fed, I returned to the SOHO and enjoyed another great night in this room. I admit it was a relief to get out of the heat and back into the air conditioning. I was reflecting last night on how different life is for me depending on the climate. I was thinking how nice it would be to be in a country where the weather is not a constant challenge of oppressive heat or steady rain. I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to go outside effortlessly and without thinking about it and just be cool and dry and comfortable the entire time. Imagine being able to wear jeans! I miss jeans so much. I imagine I will be in that situation at some point in future years. I’m kind of looking forward to that.
As for today, I am picturing another wonderful breakfast and a leisurely morning at the SOHO. I plan to time my departure for as close to the noon checkout time as possible. And then I’m hoping for a fast and enjoyable ride over the mountains along Highway 12 back to Mae Sot. I’m assuming that the weather will be okay. With the Internet being absent, I have no way to check the weather forecast or do any detailed mapping of my upcoming day’s small adventures. All I can do is hope for the best.
7:45 a.m.
Well, there does appear to be a pattern to this Internet thing at the SOHO. It came back at exactly 7 a.m. just as it did yesterday morning. It doesn’t make sense that they would restrict the Internet on purpose in this way. It’s not like it’s a limited resource like water, and they have to institute rationing. But the timing is weirdly consistent and specific. We’ll see how long it sticks around.
The weather outside looks perfect. There’s not a rain cloud in sight. And the forecast calls for sunny intervals with a gentle breeze: no mention of rain at all. That’s good for my day and my trip back to Mae Sot. I also wanted to doublecheck the distance I have to ride today, and I could do that now that the Internet is back. According to Google Maps, the Green Guest House in Mae Sot is eighty-six kilometers from the SOHO Boutique Hotel in Tak, and the ride by motorcycle will take one hour and fifty-one minutes. I anticipate riding much slower than the average and stopping for at least one cup of coffee at a scenic lookout point, so the journey will take at least three hours for me. Maybe four hours.
And that still leaves me plenty of time even if I leave here at noon. And now that the Internet is back, I can access satellite video on Google Maps and look for alternative routes with interesting sights. Already, I just noticed that there is a small road, number 2012, I can take out of Tak instead of taking highway twelve. I can follow this small road to a lake or a water reservoir and then continue through the countryside until I reach highway twelve. That route covers what could be a beautiful stretch of road for thirteen and a half kilometers. I’ll definitely do that. Oddly enough, on the regular Google Maps view, this lake doesn’t even appear. It’s not shown at all. It only shows up when I switch to satellite view.
Unfortunately, after that, there are no more opportunities for taking smaller roads all the way until I reach Mae Sot. There are two places where a small road does branch off, but it just does a loop to the north and then returns to highway twelve just a short distance ahead of where it started. Those roads would be interesting, I suppose, but they don’t actually move my journey along. They would simply be long circular detours that bring me almost right back to where they started. But, before rejecting them, I have to scour the landscape on Satellite View to look for interesting sights.
A couple of National Parks sit alongside Highway 12 between here and Mae Sot. The Taksin Maharat National Park is there. This park contains what could be the largest tree in Thailand. I visited this park last year by scooter. And the other attraction is the Mu Soe (or Muser) Hill Tribes Market. I’m thinking about stopping off there for a while and simply walking through the market. I don’t have anything I want or need to buy, but it could be an interesting place to visit. I was doing a bit of reading about the Mu Soe people. Their name is often spelled Muser. And they appear to also be called the Lahu. Their history is said to go back at least 4,500 years, and their name means “hunter” in Burmese. They were known for their hunting skills. They originated in China but fled from there and settled in all the surrounding countries, including here in Thailand. Wikipedia tells me that there are a total of one million Lahu people, and they are found mainly in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, the United States, and Vietnam. One hundred thousand of them are listed as living in Thailand.
There appear to be five subgroups of Lahu people, and as appears to be common with hill tribes, one group is distinguished from another by color, usually associated with their style of dress or ornamentation. Therefore, there are Red, Yellow, Black, White, and Lahu Sheleh. The most populous group in Thailand are the Black Lahu. And I believe the people that live in the area around this market are the Black Lahu. Their traditional costume consists of black and red jackets and shirts for women and baggy green or blue pants for me. When I visited the giant tree in the national park last year, I was joined at the tree by a large and vocal group of teenagers that I believe were Muser or Lahu. They wore this type of clothing.
Well, it is almost nine in the morning now, and it is time to have breakfast. In fact, now that I have made a rough plan for the day, I will probably pack up and leave a bit earlier than I had planned. With my countryside trip of thirteen and a half kilometers and a more extended stay at the hill tribes market, I think I’d like to leave a bit earlier than staying right up until noon checkout.