Thank you so much. That is a nice compliment. 🤗

Yes I agree. Especially seeing that the rest of the country is pretty much wide open; even if Mae Sot is undergoing a partial lockdown, this doesn't apply elsewhere. I'd be heading up to Nan or somewhere like that near the Lao border where things feel a lot less gloomy. Even expats who've lived in Thailand for decades haven't seen everything the country has to offer. I have the feeling Doug is itching to go back to Myanmar, but since that country likely won't open until early next year at the earliest, why not see some of Thailand and then go back to Mae Sot once it does open up? I know that's what I'd do. Actually, if I were him, I would have left Mae Sot the day the first new cases were announced! Even just heading up to Tak or Tha Song Yang, or down to Umphang, would have been a nice change of scenery.

I think under these special circumstances not a bad decision to stay put. Of course Thailand has so much to offer, I'll vouch for that! But, for Doug, keeping safe and comfortable during a testing time is totally understandable.

Better leave while you can. You can always return after it settles down. You can fly off from bkk for Australia.

@@malcolmwar977 He's from Canada. And why would Australia necessarily be better right now? All he needs to do is leave Mae Sot. The rest of the country is mostly OK (well aside, from the protests but those are mostly limited to downtown areas of Bangkok).

@@therock8224 The local yakuza might just get some ideas because the drugs trade is down. Just grab the guy for ransom across the border.

Papaya tests positive for covid19, carefull

I'm not concerned for me, personally, about being close to the border with Myanmar and the risk of covid-19. That whole situation seems to be largely under control here. And overall, I'm just not in a travel frame of mind, especially concerning Thailand. I've been to Thailand many times in the past, and I've travelled around different parts of the country to the north and south to all the popular islands. So I don't have a strong urge to revisit any of these places. I'm just living a simple life here in Mae Sot and I'm enjoying that for now. It's also extremely economical, and that's a bonus at the moment. To be honest, if I left Mae Sot, it would probably be to go somewhere comletely new - like a new country or back to Canada. But we'll see. Things could always change.

@@PlanetDoug !

@@PlanetDoug I can understand, though have you really seen every corner of the country? If I were you, I probably would have moved to some quiet beach town, say in Trat province near the Cambodian border and would just while away there...swimming and enjoying the forested hills. Perhaps even doing some light trekking somewhere like on Koh Chang.

It's an interesting question, and I don't know the answer. It's not something I've looked into, but people have commented that there is less testing in Thailand compared to some other countries. So it's possible that the rates of infection are higher around Thailand than we know, and that would be revealed through broader and more extensive testing. But that's probably true of every country. More testing just naturally leads to more positive results, so I guess you have to be cautious in interpreting all the numbers that get tossed around in the media. Have to take them all in context.

Thanks. I just had the idea the other day of carrying around my GoPro even if I wasn't actually "vlogging." I just held it in my hand and took short shots of things that looked interesting to me. I guess the vlogging pros would call that "B-roll". 😎 So, I was shoting B-roll. And since I had all these clips in a folder, I thought I'd just toss them in as kind of a transition between me talking about things. I don't know if the final effect is pleasing to most people, but it was fun to do. I'll probably continue in the habit of shooting random B-roll clips. You never know what might end up looking interesting. I was thinking I should use my other camera (my "real" camera) for that, though. Then, at least, I could get things like the ants in focus. The GoPro doesn't exactly lend itself to close-up focusing. 🙂

I'm not sure what the technical term is for shots like those - but you should include them. For a while at least the camera can sit on one subject and be still. I am a fan. Last year in Vietnam, I would film the monsoon falling through beachfront palms; the unexpected peacefulness of quiet, shaded backroads and byways; the faded grandeur of once impressive hotels, etc. Picking up on the local detail helps to bring the viewer into the place. Your style of video-making (slow, ponderous) lends itself to the inclusion of these kinds of shots.

@@philipford6183 Interesting idea - to let the camera sit on one subject and not move for a while. I like it. I was just watching some travel vlog videos on KZfaq, and I found myself wanting to reach into my phone's screen and grab the guy's camera and hold it still for a couple of seconds at least. It was moving around like a palm leaf in a wind storm, and it just got exhausting. I wanted the camera to just stop moving for a while and focus on something. 🙂 So I should take to heart and do it myself. Interestingly enough, I find that the way I shoot video changes dramatically depending on the camera or even the camera grip that I'm using. I haven't used it in a long time, but I also have a Panasonic G85 - more of a full-sized, regular mirrorless camera. And it has a zoom lens. I noticed before that when I took it out onto the streets, I just naturally started shooting more "cinematically". I was thinking visually with that camera. But with the GoPro I rarely do. I guess it's because of the wide field of view and the way everything is in focus. I don't instinctively think about just using it to capture visually interesting clips. I have to really force myself to do it. But with a normal camera, that just happens.

Not a bad idea. I'll probably do a Tesco run today or tomorrow just to have some food available. Though the new measures don't seem to affect normal shopping at grocery stores. It's just the schools, temples, restaurants, and coffee shops that are closed or restricted. That's definitely going to affect my new cafe lifestyle, but I think Tesco and such places will remain open. 🙂

@@PlanetDoug Hopefully you can resume your cafe lifestyle in November if you're still in Mae Sot then.

That's unfortunate for everyone. I was really hoping the situation would just get better and better in all the countries here in Southeast Asia, and then borders could open up and life could go back to normal for you and for me. But I guess it's going to take even more time. 😢

@@PlanetDoug Yes, indeed. The earliest things might more or less get back to normal will be in January. Now assuming that borders were to re-open then (or say February or around then) will you be heading back into Myanmar? Somehow I get the feeling you are hanging around in Mae Sot so you can get back into Myanmar as soon as it's possible to do so.

@@therock8224 At the very beginning of all this, I stayed in Mae Sot because I thought/hoped that the border back into Myanmar would open after a few weeks. As that possibility receded, I found I had other reasons to stay here. Of course, had I known most of the borders around the world would still be closed as late as October/November/December, I would likely have done something different. But there always seemed to be a reason to stay just one more month. Then one more... And here I am, still in Mae Sot. One factor is that before my trip to Myanmar, I left a lot of things in storage in Kuala Lumpur. That included my touring bike, all my pannier bags and touring/camping equipment, and a whole bunch of electronic and camera gear and other valuable items. I was sort of in the middle of completely changing my life - moving from taking pictures to shooting video, for example, and revamping my entire bike touring setup with new wheels for my bike, new pannier bags, and other stuff. So I had all this new stuff, but I hadn't sold or dealt with my old gear yet. I planned to do all that when I returned to Kuala Lumpur - sell all my unused camera lenses and make a final decision about the gear for my bike. So I just ended up with a whole bunch of stuff in storage. So I've been waiting for Malaysia to open so I can return there and deal with it all. It never occurred to me that Malaysia would remain closed this long. 😁 My lack of planning and inability to make decisions ended up really shooting myself in the foot...

@@PlanetDoug OK I see where you're coming from. Unfortunately it appears that Malaysia may be dragging it's feet on a quick re-opening even more so than Thailand. Still, I'm optimistic about some possibility of being able to travel there not too far into the new year. What are your next steps...let's suppose Myanmar and/or Laos and Cambodia opened first but not Malaysia, would you first spend some more time in these countries and only retrieve your stuff in KL later, once that country opens? BTW we're all dealing with this most unprecedented of situations. Glad to hear you're doing well up there. If I feel things are getting back to normal and you're still there in say January, perhaps we could meet!

I suppose that's true. 🙂 When it comes to stuff like that, I fall into a probably bad habit of moving too fast. That thumbnail, for example, wasn't technically chosen by me. The KZfaq program just automatically selects three still images from your video and suggests them as thumbnails. And the path of least resistance is just to click on one and say okay, use that one. It's obviously much better to make my own thumbnail and add text and graphics and make it more interesting. The professional KZfaqrs out there probably spend as much time on designing their thumbnail images as they do on their videos. They wouldn't even use still images from their video. They would actually stage and shoot a photograph with one of their professional cameras to use as a thumbnail. I often think I should do that, but I usually forget or don't bother. I find that if you take care of all the little details that social media actually demands, it can take hours. The easy path is to upload the video, let KZfaq select the thumbnail, and then you're done. But, if you're serious, uploading the video is really just the starting point. Then you have to craft a professional thumbnail, write a catchy title and description, add a hundred carefully selected tags, and then cross-promote your video across Instagram and Twitter and your website and Facebook, each with a full set of thumbnail images and links. But that can take hours to do. And it's particularly challenging on a phone. In the old days with my Dell laptop, I kind of put a bit of effort into stuff like that. But since I started using my phones, I hardly do anything. It's just too much work and takes too long. 😂

The only reason I stopped using PowerDirector is that the app broke down. It just wouldn't work on my phones anymore. Any time I tried to add a video clip, music, or text to a timeline, it just froze and crashed. And all the video files on my phone were read as broken and unreadable by PowerDirector. Every other program could read them and play them, but PowerDirector couldn't. So I had no choice but to switch to a new app like Kinemaster. But, yesterday, out of nowhere, PowerDirector just starting working again. And I have no clue why. I didn't change anything, but it suddenly worked smoothly again. And I found that, as much as I liked the Kinemaster interface and features, the video it exported was quite a bit worse (pixelated and fuzzy) than the video exported from PowerDirector. PowerDirector just seems to produce better quality video even given the limitations of using my old phones. So I'm back to using PowerDirector for now. It also maxes out at 720p video for output on my phone, but it allows me to input 1080p video. Kinemaster won't. So maybe that is why PowerDirector video exports end up looking better.

Oh really.

I've certainly thought about changing the name. 😁 The name dates from when I set up a website. At that time, the website was meant to document a bike trip when I left from Taiwan. And then I ended up with a full suite of social media accounts all using the name "The Cycling Canadian." The name is hardly appropriate anymore. In fact, I don't think I've even ridden a bike once since I started shooting video. The goal was eventually to get back on the bike and do some bike touring. Then I could reclaim the name. But that hasn't happened yet. If cycling doesn't become a big part of my life anytime soon, a name change might just happen. Though, to be honest, I don't even know that names matter anymore. In the old days, people found you by typing your name or URL into search engines. Now it's all done by links. I am subscribed to a ton of KZfaq channels, and I couldn't even tell you the name of the channels. I just like the content, and I click on the subscribe button, and the name of the channel never makes an impression. Oddly enough, I actually went to a couple of bicycle stores yesterday. And I'll be going to another one this morning. 🚴🚴🚴

Yes, shutting down all the coffee shops and restaurants will definitely be a big change in my current lifestyle - at least as far as my GoPro is concerned. Perhaps I will shift into more of a market mode. I've been to all the markets here several times, but I haven't really explored them in depth or shot any video there. Perhaps that can be my new goal. Mae Sot does have a small regular night market. There is also a weekly night market that takes place on a street right beside my guest house. And there is the main market, of course. It's unclear to me how much the lockdown will affect the markets. But anything that is kind of outdoors seems to be allowed to stay open. So perhaps this lockdown will give me the push I need to take my GoPro into the markets and go snacking there. As for PowerDirector, it does seem to produce better video quality than Kinemaster. It's difficult to understand why, though. Even if I start with the same 1080p video input with both, the output seems better from PowerDirector. Both Kinemaster and PowerDirector are limited to 720p exports on my phones, but the final video from PowerDirector seems to look better. Less pixelated. That's disappointing considering how much I like using Kinemaster. But things might change because I'm thinking about buying a new smartphone or even a tablet. With a new device, I think Kinemaster would be able to process and export 1080p or even 4K video. If not, some other program would be able to. A more powerful smartphone might open up a lot of options. In fact, I'm going out shopping today.

Yes, that's great news. I intended to race out first thing this morning to have a coffee somewhere and see if the coffee shops were actually open. But I got distracted, and I totally forgot that the lockdown was supposed to have been lifted. So I had my morning coffee in my guest house room. I haven't seen or heard anything official about the lockdown being lifted. I just saw some chatter about this among expats on a Facebook group. But it appears to be true.

@@PlanetDoug Yep. I read about it in the Bangkok Post today, hence why I wanted to let you know.

That's true. I've done the Google thing in the past. Google is actually smart enough to know what it is I want without even asking. I just start typing in 82.3 and before I even finish inputting the number, Google gives me the kilograms to pounds conversion. However, that is because I am connected to WiFi right now. I don't generally have data or a network connection out on the streets of Mae Sot, so I can't do the Google thing. One other thing is that with this Unit Converter app, it doesn't just give the single conversion. When I input 82.3 kilograms, it instantly provides the equivalent in 15 other units. I get a reading in pounds, pounds and ounces, grams, milligrams, metric tonnes, US tons, UK stones, and a whole bunch more that I don't even recognize. So you can scan the list and get all these conversions at once. Plus, once you open the app on your phone, you have instant access to every other conversion you can imagine including length and area and volume and temperature and cooking and currency and time and speed and technical scientific conversions and power conversions and data and on and on. It's all just right there and you can flip from one to the other at the touch of a button. Anyway, as you can tell, I like the app. 😁 I end up using it all the time.

It does look better, doesn't it? Though sometimes it's hard for me to tell, since I only see the video on my phones anyway. Plus, a lot of the video in this video was actually shot in 720p. When I'm walking around, that video is in 1080p, but the inserts of quick clips with the music was all shot in 720p. So those parts can still look a bit fuzzy. Still, it is a bit of a mystery why the video looks better. Both Kinemaster and PowerDirector can only export to my phones in 720p. I can't produce a 1080p video even if I shoot in 1080p. However, PowerDirector and Kinemaster seem to work differently. In PowerDirector, I can input 1080p video directly. And then the output is in 720p. So it converts the video resolution as it does the full export of the final video. Kinemaster doesn't allow me to input 1080p video. If I try to use 1080p video clips, it converts each clip invidividually to a resolution it can handle, and THEN it exports in 720p. So maybe this difference in the way it imports and exports video files results in the poorer quality final product. I'm seriously considering buying a new smartphone. My phones still work fine for the most part, but they appear to be technological dinosaurs. A 2020 phone might allow me to use even higher resolution video with Android apps. I'm not sure about that, though. Even my GoPro can shoot in 4K, so it might be fun to try that out sometime - assuming a new phone could even handle that.

@@PlanetDoug Yeah i think powerdirector did justice on your video quality. While kinemaster look quite fuzzy sometimes. Why dont you try to buy a 2nd hand laptop? With proper software like window 10 i think you are good to go, in KL proper 2nd hand laptop is quite decent and cheap.

@@wesley4179 I think things would be quite different if I were in Kuala Lumpur. I'm sure I would have bought a brand new laptop months ago, probably right after my old one broke down. I'm just comfortable shopping in Malaysia and feel sure of my ground. Of course, that's mainly because nearly everyone speaks English, and I can navigate through the stores and go shopping and talk to store clerks. But I also feel comfortable and confident and secure doing that in KL. Thailand is different for me since few people speak English, and I just don't feel confident about anything. Even if I were in Bangkok, I don't know that I'd go out and buy a laptop. I just get intimidated in Thailand. 🙂 I'd wait until I got to Malaysia or returned to Canada.

Before COVID-19 I've slept over in Mae Sot. As I searched for my night meal I found no night market. Only found restaurant , pub even the local eatery are too few that I ended up on 7-11 instant food. Mae Sot not the kind of tourist city, no cultural attraction.

@kitten as trophy Ah I didn't know that, I was watching one of his previous videos in which he points at a street and mentions that is where a Saturday night market takes place.

@@kittenastrophy5951 Occasionally, there is a night market held in front of the Friendship Bridge no. 1. I don't know how often it is held (once a month maybe?) but have managed to run into it several times. It is unclear whether they wait for the border to close first (8.30pm) or if it starts earlier. The bridge is of course 5km from downtown Mae Sot, hence why those staying in town may be unaware of the border market. Mae Sot is not a tourist city, but seems to attract lots of NGOs, backpackers passing through to/from Myanmar and Chinese drifters (mostly those connected with the shady casinos on the Myanmar side). There are actually several quite good restaurants in town. The best is "Khao Mao Khao Fang" located around 2km outside of town toward Mae Ramad. Incredible dining experience, you won't a setting like that anywhere else in Thailand or dare I say in the world. It's very unusual for a place like Mae Sot! When I'm in town I dine at one of my usual restaurants (there are around 4-5 I frequent, including the aforementioned one). Interestingly, there are still so many more I haven't been to, despite regular trips to Mae Sot since 2011/12.

@@ihategooogle Oh, maybe that's the one I was referring to. It's the market held in front of Friendship Bridge 1. I think it's held only once or twice a month (not quite sure though). When I pass through town there is no specific day of the week I come; I might only stay for a night before heading into Myanmar (or vice versa) or spend 2-3 nights while doing day trips into Myanmar (Myawaddy) by car. I haven't been to Mae Sot since January and probably won't visit again until early next year (depending on the situation).

@@therock8224 That's why. I just searched around old town near my hotel by foot since I had to take a good rest before heading to Um Phang the next day.

I've definitely given up on the idea of returning to Myanmar anytime soon. I stopped thinking that would be a possibility months and months ago. But I did have some hope that the border with Malaysia would open up - even if as a kind of "travel bubble" with Thailand. But that appears to be a more and more unlikely possibility. It would make some sense to travel around Thailand, but I honestly can't get too excited about the idea. I've travelled around Thailand quite a bit in the past, and I don't feel the urge to revisit any of those places. I've already been to Chiangmai and most of the other places that people encourage me to visit. Budget concerns also keep me here in Mae Sot. It's much more economical to stay in one place and rent a simple room by the month. Traveling around would mean spending a LOT more money, and I just don't have a strong enough interest in Thailand to justify spending that much money. So, I'm pretty happy to just hang out in Mae Sot for now. If I had my touring bike and I could turn a trip around Thailand into something like a personal adventure, that would be different. But my bike is still trapped behind Malaysia's closed border, and I can't get to it. 🙂

@@PlanetDoug Pity you can't get the bike. Amazing how close Thailand and Malaysia are that it is such a hassle getting things sent from one country to the other. Was up at the Chatuchak market a few years ago and the freight costs from Bangkok to Malaysia were almost the same as to Europe. Even getting a car across the border is full of paperwork. Not hard if you have done it a few times before but to the uninitiated can be a challenge.

@@TS-pq8km Bringing a car across the border, especially to Malaysia is very simple. I've done it several times. I've also brought my car into every other neighboring country, including Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar (though with Myanmar it's a huge hassle if you want to drive beyond the border town).

@@PlanetDoug Ah...that explains everything. BTW if a travel bubble should emerge between Thailand and it's neighbors before a general reopening where the entire region/world reopens at the same time, then expect it to be with Laos, Cambodia and maybe Vietnam. These countries have recorded almost no new infections for weeks if not months, except for the odd imported case. Together, these 3 countries have recorded barely half as many cases as Thailand alone, even though Thailand's total is very small on it's own. Therefore, expect the possibility of being able to visit Laos or Cambodia before Malaysia. If that were to be the case, would you go there? Or are you waiting for your bike?

They're ramping it up.

I really don't know anything about the situation in Myanmar. I don't know how much testing is going on over there, whether it's more or less than here in Thailand. I'm not even sure if this driver tested positive on the Myanmar or the Thailand side of the Friendship Bridge. I assume it was here in Thailand, but I have no way to know that for sure. Just guessing. There's certainly a lot of concern over what is happening across the border in Myanmar, and I think that will have an effect on life in border towns like Mae Sot for quite a while into the future.

I can't explain what happened, but PowerDirector suddenly started to work on my phone again. I swtiched away from PowerDirector because it broke down, and I couldn't fix it. But, out of nowhere, all the problems disappeared yesterday, so I started using it again. I prefer the Kinemaster interface a LOT, but the output video from PowerDirector seems to look better. Again, I don't know exactly why. But, unless I stumble across a better alternative that will work on my phones, I will use PowerDirector for now. 🙂

Long term, I will be buying a new laptop, of course. My plan is to buy one at some point. I'm just reluctant to buy one here in Mae Sot. I'm having trouble tracking down a suitable laptop that fits my budget. I've started thinking that it's time for a phone upgrade anyway. Both of my phones appear to be quite outdated. So I think it makes sense to buy a new phone since I'll probably buy a new phone anyway even if I do buy a new laptop. And there is certainly no shortage of phone shops in Mae Sot. 🙂 Almost as many phone shops as coffee shops.