Mae Sot, Sunday

1153 Back at my 'main' hotel. I clearly didn't come far enough down this road last night; of course, had it not been for the dogs I would have. Anyway, all over now. I felt OK when woke up, checked and checkout was 12 so half dozed, got call at 1135ish saying to check out (not much English, just the word checkout) so I hastened down but no big deal.

1407 Still at hotel. They wanted to clean the room half an hour ago, couldn't come back in half an hour as I was last room. I told them it didn't need doing - after all, I didn't even sleep here last night.

Slacking a bit but have done some looking at guide book. Basically there is nothing special to see here in Mae Sot itself. I am not going to the border or crossing into Burma, it sounds dull, and it would reset my visa time to 15 days (tho that in itself is probably OK now). You only get to see one village over the border and guide book doesn't big it up.

There is a waterfall 10km out of town which might be cyclable but it is only in rainy season. There are hot springs there too but I'm not doing that.

There are the Pha Charoen Falls 41km from town, directions are "take any songthaew bound for kilometre-stone 48 from the depot on the southern edge of Mae Sot". Call me cowardly or unadventurous - it's true - but although as I write this I wonder if I could do it - I don't much fancy trying to convey this information to the driver, or struggling to get one back. (Actually, the guide book doesn't say anything about the seasonality of these falls, so there may not be anything to see anyway. It doesn't say they are seasonal, but elsewhere - near Umphang, I think - it says there are some falls which are unusual for Thailand in being all-year-round.)

I have mulled it over and I am not going to Umphang either. I cannot see any way to reserve accommodation on internet - to be fair, I found one site which covered one hostel and that had no availability. I could try calling via Skype but for reasons to be discussed, I am reluctant to trust my luck to a booking made in probably very bad English over the phone (the words "no" and "not" are in many ways too short and easily overlooked - "your booking is (not) confirmed" etc). The guide book has shitted me up a little about the journey out there, though in a way I would like to have done that. However, coming back, the guide book says after noon you would have to charter the whole vehicle yourself. So even if I had the stamina to go out and back the same day, it's not really possible (how the fuck would I go about chartering a songthaew?), even leaving Mae Sot on first out around 730 I'd be pushing it (arrive 1130 if really lucky, and have no time there at all before hoping 'about noon' hasn't passed). This is also why - especially after my minor scare on arriving here, though evidently it was not a big deal, since I was able to find not just one but two rooms for last night - I am very reluctant to turn up and take my chance on accommodation, if there isn't anything I am royally fucked as there's no way back til the next day.

This is all slightly shit, but this is supposed to be fun and there are just too many slightly worrying things piling up together. If I spoke Thai it might be different, if I had camping gear (not likely, but theoretically possible) it might be different, if I wasn't on my own it might be different, if I was with an organised group such as a trek it might be different, but as it is, cowardly/boring/pathetic as it might be, I'm not doing it.

(For that matter, while it might be stupidly risky - the road kills 50 people a year, apparently - if I could rent a motorbike I might also chance it. But for multiple reasons, including the very obvious and fundamental one that I don't know how to ride a motorbike, that isn't happening.)

So while I am kind of wasting my day sitting here in the hotel, it's fine. There really isn't that much on, I will try to go out in next half hour or so and maybe get a late lunch. Will be avoid Bai Fern after last night just out of embarassment. ;-)

Of course I need to decide where to go next, I might just pick somewhere about halfway to Chiang Mai and go there regardless of how dull it is.

1528 Finally heading out. FFS.

1546 My perambulations take me past last night's hotel, which is the *Pohn* Thep. Was going to go to Mickey Angelo's Pizza just up road from hotel, but I wandered in and  no staff (they were all round the back) paid me any attention at all, not sure they were open. Shame as would have been kind of welcome. May go there later. Obviously am not staying out late tonight, and by way of partially compensating for relative excess in this new doctor-ruled life I have not intending to go out for beers or anything. Also I may 'want'/need to be up early to get a minibus over to Tak to pick up a bus on to 'somewhere'.

1604 Just bougt what I am going to assume was a peeled and cored melon of a sort of orangey red from a little shop. It was kept in the fridge and wrapped in film so I am assuming probably reasonably healthy, plus as said before guide book makes out fruit is not that big a risk. Only 35 Baht. Oddly, to me at least, they had two (count 'em) apples wrapped up in the same way together for 150 Baht. Three quid for two apples?! They had loads of loose apples also in the fridge, unpriced, but apart from preferring the simplicity of a known-up-front price, the price of the wrapped up ones put me off. Maybe they're imported and an exotic luxury here? But they certainly had loads of the things.

1630 At Mickey Angelo's. Wandered, found myself in a market area, quite interesting. Quite tempted by the hot sausages but not chancing it. I obviously overthink it, but do wonder if the fact I so often have to get on a bus the next day unlike these people who seem to hang around more contributes to my overcautiousness.

The place has sprung into life around me. The pizzas only come in one size but fuck it. Not cheap - well, it probably is reasonable value, I am just ordering enough to feed a family - at 240 Baht for a pizza, plus 30 for a coke. Sod it. Will make my best efforts and leave the rest. I can go sit python-like in my room afterwards.

Was thinking earlier 'well, I could do a trek'. I easily have three days (more) before going on to Chiang Mai. But frankly I don't really think I want to, and I'm sick of all this 'you should see X' shit. I suspect it comes with a massive laundry list of things to bring with you - I mean, are my shoes 'good enough' for a start? As I've said before, I can't swim so any kind of rafting is either out or a bad idea. If it's not spider-ridden I'd probably enjoy the walk, but the guide book makes me worry about just how fit you have to be and if I'm physically up to it. Basically, while I might enjoy it if I did it, I don't particularly fancy it under these circumstances - just conceivably I might do it as a part of a brief holiday from work, or what have you, in the future - and I'm not going to do it.

I have this horrible feeling I'm not really making the most of my time here by basically not doing anything, but a) what can I do? and b) fuck it, just fuck it.

Oh, there's some 'famous' expensive restaurant 2km out of town. I'm not going there either. Did flirt with walking over this afternoon but so not in the mood.

1725 Pizza quite good but by no means huge, so it was a bit expensive. Still. Not sure what if anything I might do for 'dinner'.

265, made it 300 with tip. Will go back to hotel after. Feels a bit of a dull way to spend the night but I think it's sensible on multiple grounds, and I'm sure I can divert myself with web instead of planning onward trip...

2217 Spifferooni. The guide book advises you to travel on via Tak - and indeed, short of going direct to Chiang Mai, none of the other places you can get to from here appeal, or the journey itself doesn't. But it doesn't seem to have an entry for Tak at all.

2228 Was going to go to Lampang via Tak, but working backwards from the bus information in the guide book, there are only two buses a day from Tak to Lampang. So I am seriously thinking about having one night in Tak, then I can see about bus times and book a ticket for the following day. I'll still have more than enough time to see Lampang, although the guide book hardly gives it an enormous build up anyway.

2244 Yes, fuck it. Wikitravel hardly makes Tak sound like a paradise and the online bookable hotels are not massively tempting either on price or location, but it seems to be the convenient option. After last night I'm not in the mood for chancing anything, I want as much certainty as I can muster.

2248 Booked. At least that's sorted now.

Oh, I didn't go out for any more food. This is not solely a case of funk ;-) - while the idea of being on the street after dark is a little jitter-inducing, at 8-10pm sort of time I think the risks would be minimal with plenty of people about. However, I wasn't really sure where to go and didn't feel in the mood for finding somewhere, so although I'm not sure I was really hungry I just had some peanuts in my room. Feeling decidedly lethargic, a bit fed up of this seemingly continual rush of actually-physically-having-my-body-lugged-around travel (as opposed to seeing-cool-stuff-in-a-place travel) and as though I'm making a complete hash of my time here. But I have said this before and yet I seem to struggle to stay in one place for long. Still, I have four or five nights in Chiang Mai and I may stay three nights in Lampang and if it is boring then so be it.

2259 Tripadvisor seems to call last night's hotel the Porn-Thep. Fuck knows what it's really called. Fortunately it doesn't matter.

0008 Just packing and noticed a small head poking out above one of the pictures on the wall (which is a sort of 'corrugated wood' with different thicknesses, so loads of room behind the pictures). I went to peer at it, wondering if it was an insect or just an illusion, and it pulled back. I think it's a small lizard. I can't see it now and I'm not moving the picture. That's kind of cool, and I suspect they may even eat spiders, but at the same time I am very slightly disturbed to know it's there. (I am also wishing I hadn't left my bag open, which is a bad habit of mine. I don't want to find a live or dead lizard in there, it could give me a bit of a shock.)