I remember some time ago, reading his blog about this particular experience. Yes, his blog is interesting to read. He seems more cheerful and humorous most times in his videos but he expresses his other emotions such as bitterness and sceptism more in his writings.

Thanks! As I said in the video, Theroux's book brought back, in a rush, all the strange experiences with Conde. That was an intense trip in many surprising ways. I've wanted to return to West Africa for another bike trip, but I also get nervous when I think about it because of the inevitable encounters with corruption. At least, based on my time in Guinea, it feels inevitable. 🙂 Still, it's a rewarding part of the world to visit. Life as a tourist can be pretty straightforward and pleasant in Asia, but you can still have some true adventures in Africa, I think.

@@PlanetDoug Your experiences with Conde would make a great movie! I hope you write a book some day based on your life experiences because you are a very gifted writer.

@@PrimeDirective101 www.thecyclingcanadian.com

@@PlanetDoug As you say Paul Theroux is a great author on many subjects. I like the railway travel books because I like trains, The Family Arsenal is sinister work about terrorism in London. The Mosquito Coast about one mans failed dream Made into a film starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Your story about Guinea would make into a good film. Have you ever thought about selling the script ?

I find I'm fascinated by the Cannonball tree now. As I said in the video, I don't think I'd ever seen one before. I feel like I would have remembered such a unique tree with actual cannonballs and those elaborate flowers. I think in the video I said that the fruit was like a bowling ball, right? But they are actually much more like cannonballs. It's a fitting name.

The Cycling Canadian I’m always enjoy looking at trees and plants anywhere I travel. I first saw the Cannonball trees when I was 9 or 10 years old on a school trip to the Botanical Garden in Penang. The other tree that is very fascinating to observe is the Baobab tree : it’s near to my primary and secondary schools and my science teacher used to talk about it. It’s claimed to be the oldest tree planted by the British during the colonial time in Malaysia. Another primary school trip that I found fascinating was to an aquarium. I never visited any aquarium after that until much later, about 10 or 15 years later. But I have never forgotten about the first aquarium I’d visited on that school trip.

I could hire a bike (or a scooter) pretty easily, I think. I thought about buying a used bike, too, but perhaps the time for that has passed. I might not be here long enough for that to make sense anymore. With the travel restrictions before, I guess I kind of got used to just staying in my neighborhood and not venturing into the countryside. But I could do that now if I wanted to. 🙂

I'm not really clear on the rules for masks these days in Thailand. I just err on the side of caution because I know people are still nervous about foreigners. I think it makes people around me more comfortable to see me wearing a mask. Yes, I'm a big fan of Graham Greene and Kafka. I've read most of their books over the years - some of them several times. I'd list them among my favorite authors, and I find I'm constantly referencing "The Castle" and "The Trial." I think a lot of people do when they encounter incomprehensibe and mysterious bureacratic systems around the world. 😀

@Chris Low Good catch, I didn't notice. To be fair, the Seiko label is pretty low at the bottom. 😅

The camera really does occupy a big part of your brain when you are walking around like that. In some ways, it makes me more aware of my surroundings. But I also completely miss a lot of stuff. I get flustered sometimes and confused because so much of my attention is focused on the camera. I often see things in the video later on that I completely missed while I was there. And I think if I were just walking around without the camera, I would have seen them - like the watch shop. I remember seeing a watch shop on these streets, but with the camera in my hand, I couldn't think straight and I couldn't remember where it was. 😁

It's good to know that. Now I won't be confused anymore. As I said in the video, every time I've ordered curry, I kept expecting the taste of curry powder from India. But it appears that the word curry means something different with food from Thailand and Myanmar.

@@PlanetDoug I think that if you substitute chilli for curry, you have the essence of Thai spicy food. The only 'curry' that comes close to the Indo/Pakistani variety is Massaman (muslim) curry, a specially in South Thailand

I guess I went to Guinea looking more for a certain type of adventure as opposed to a holiday. I went there to learn about what life was like in West Africa. And I certainly got my adventure, and I learned a lot. Probably much more than I expected.

Just to add... The term curry essentially means "blend of spices/ flavors". In Thailand depending on the region, curries can either be soupy, brothy, creamy or dense. I've eaten a Japanese curry once that was spooned over a fried pork cutlet, and the curry sauce itself was quite thick and rich... So understanding the meaning of the word can get the concept that all curries are Indian style out of our minds... Hope this helps 🙏😁... Also, there does exist a curry leaf, which I've seen used alot in Indian cooking.

Funny thing is he walked past at least one of the shop that you mentioned in this video.

@Mohd K That's true at 5.11 min. on this video.

Thanks for the links. I think I'll be heading to one of those watch shops this morning. I can finally get my Casio back on my wrist and I will know what day it is again... The funny thing is that I think I know one of those shops quite well. I have a memory of walking by it all the time when I was staying at the First Hotel. But when I started to look for a watch shop, I forgot all about it.

It really depends on which countries allow foreign tourists to enter the soonest and without long periods of quarantine and special insurance requirements. I haven't checked recently, so I'm not sure what the entry requirements currently are for Laos or Vietnam or Cambodia or Myanmar. I would enjoy returning to any of those countries (I've been to all of them in the past), but it depends on whether one can get a tourist visa and actually go there. I'm inclined to stay in this part of the world because I kind of need to return to Malaysia for at least a short period of time. But if that turns out to be impossible until very late in the year (or even until 2021), I might have to fly to another part of the world entirely - anywhere that currently allows foreign tourists. 😀

I see a lot of bicycles around, but I haven't asked about them. They look pretty old and dirty and not maintained. I might just rent elsewhere if I decide to do any cycling around Mae Sot.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the visas. I've been so happy over the last couple of months with the visa amnesty, since I didn't have to even think about visa problems. But the visa amnesty ends at the end of July, so it's time to start thinking about what to do next. ☹️ I have no idea if it would even be possible to get a visa extension now after having been in the country for so long. And it would probably be more interesting to go to a new country anyway by then, assuming it is even possible to go elsewhere. Time to start thinking about future plans...

Conde-scending

Clever. 🙂 Both certainly apply to my old nemesis, Conde. I remember that things got confusing when I was in Guinea because my nemesis was named Conde. And the country's president at the time was named Conte. And the opposition leader (and current president) was also named Conde. The name was everywhere.

Conde was definitely an extreme case, and I was most unfortunate to meet him on my very first day in Guinea. But even without him, my time in Guinea would have been challenging. There was so much corruption everywhere. I ran into it constantly as I tried to travel around the country on either my bicycle or in vehicles. There were roadblocks every few kilometers, and the soldiers would shake down everybody trying to pass through. Paying off officials, police, and soldiers was just a way of life in Guinea as far as I could tell. Even when I didn't encounter it myself, all the people I talked to were dealing with it daily. I came to believe that this kind of corruption is the worst thing that can happen to a country. It destroys everything it touches and makes it difficult to believe that things could ever get better. Perhaps I was there at a bad time and things have gotten better. Certainly, there was a lot of unrest in Guinea and in surrounding countries, and that maybe have contributed to the extreme mood. But it certainly seemed bad at the time. Hopefully, things have improved since then.

Yes, I am currently in Thailand. I would like to return to Malaysia at some point, but just have to wait for borders to open up again.

@@PlanetDoug oh im sorry mate take care of yourself always regularly wash your hands and don't forget to wear a face mask.In Malaysia safe and the case is getting down I hope you come to Malaysia again.Stay safe mate

Ah, Conde. You never give up, do you? 😂

@@PlanetDoug Good onya mate. It's great to have a smile eh.

To be honest, it would be quite interesting to get Conde's honest account of our interactions when I was in Guinea. In the book "The Lower River", there is a big moment at the end when Manyenga drops all of his lies and his pretence and just tells Ellis exactly what he thinks of him and why he cheated him and held him prisoner and did all the things he did. It was quite interesting to me, and I wonder if Conde was as self-aware about his own motives in dealing with me (and presumably other foreigners that he victimized).

I know I would enjoy another trip to Bangledesh very much. It's an interesting, exciting, and adventurous place for a foreigner like me to visit. I'd love to make more river trips by boat in particular. But I don't think that will be possible any time soon. It all depends on how quickly the world gets back to normal after this pandemic.

Next time please tell the immigration officer that you are a youtuber and make videos while travelling. I hope that might help a lot. Besides, you have already visited Bangladesh once so they will let you in without any hastle anyway In Shaa Allah.

@@md.tarekhossain7378 Oddly enough, I think telling immigration I was going to make videos during my trip would cause trouble. On my last trip, I was detained at the airport overnight by immigration. They did that because I wasn't traveling with a group and I didn't have a tour company reservation. So they thought I must be a journalist, not a tourist, and they were not going to let me into the country. They eventually allowed me to enter after I had long interviews with several immigration officials, but even then, they would only give me a short visa. If I'd said I was going to make videos, they probably would not have let me into the country at all. 🙂

@@PlanetDoug Actually you came during the advent of National Election which is held every four years. Bangladesh tends to restrict the entrance of foreigners during the election. But it is very common of them asking silly questions like "what is the Capital of Canada or USA" 😂. I have mentioned youtube because Bangladesh has one of the highest number of youtube and facebook users. These are serious mediums of entertainment for them and your legitimacy of being an actual tourist can be proved through this In Shaa Allah. Yes, don't jump onto that point initially. Tell them when you see them digging deep and for the invitation you can call Al-Razzaq hotel since they may not reply on e-mail. I think they can manage to send you a booking confirmation. But finally, Yes I am pretty sure that if you manage to show them you are a youtuber that will ease the process. Again, generally they ask some silly questions and let the foreigners go except during the election time.

Yes, I've been watching quite a few movies and TV shows. Since the last time I talked about this on a video, there are probably too many to remember. 😀 I'm not sure if I brought it up on a video, but I set out to watch all of the movies that were nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award in 2019, and I think I've watched all of them. And there have been a bunch more. Actually, I wonder if it's possible to share a link to the list of movies I've watched from Letterboxd. Let me try that. This is the link to my list of "Watched Films" on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/dougnienhuis/films As for TV shows, I just started watching the second season of Doom Patrol. I'm also watching "Alias Grace." And I just finished seasons 2 and 3 of "Killing Eve." Season 4 of "Rick and Morty", of course. That finished up recently. I'm a sucker for any superhero/comic book story, so I'm also watching "Stargirl." Going back in time a bit, I watched "The Outsider". I also watched Season 1 of "The Terror" (the one about the ship on the Arctic journey). Also "Devs" Season 1. And "The Stranger." "High "Fidelity" starring Zoe Kravitz. Plus "I Am Not Okay with This". And I just started to watch "Ozark" Season 3. There are probably others, but that gives you some idea of the things I've been watching. 😀

@@PlanetDoug Try Twilight Zone season 2. They seem to have found there feet in this season. Consistently good stories along the lines of the original series.

@@carrolus1 I don't think I even knew there was a new Twilight Zone series airing. I'll check it out.

@@PlanetDoug Not sure if you have mentioned seeing it but if you havent try "Black Mirror".

Yes, I'm a big fan of Black Mirror. I've seen every episode, many of them several times. I think of it as the modern and edgier version of the old Twilight Zone.

Just let me know what kind of reward you're looking forward. We can negotiate. Though I should mention that I'm pretty sure I know where my bike is - safely in storage with friends in Malaysia. 😀 If you actually have my bike, perhaps you can send me a picture of it? 😎😂

@@PlanetDoug G'day mate, i was just reading through most of the comments about you. Not being a clever tech type person i have never read any of your travel blogs. All i can do is look forward to your latest vids from Mae Sot. You must be really looking forward to moving on with your adventures, whilst Thailand is a great country, you must be very bored by now, what with your adventurist? way of life. I'm sorry mate for trying to put a smile ( no i'm not ) on your face to help you through your day. Your unknown friend ( Con ). PS, i'll continue to watch your vids as long as you allow us/we to go with you. Thank's mate.

Except that I don't think I ever forget to put on underwear. Lately, I've forgotten to put on a mask several times. But I always had underwear on. 😁

@@PlanetDoug lol. Some people refuse 😂 to wear underwear. I reject those people.

Lol