I’m breaking all of my own rules these days. One such rule is to avoid buying brand new tech just before a trip. It’s just asking for trouble. You’ve got to buy this stuff a month or two in advance to have enough time to work out any wrinkles and learn how to use it.

But, just four days before my flight to Myanmar, I made the amateur move of waltzing down to a local hypermart and picking up a GoPro Hero 7 Black. One of the reasons I did this was because I learned that the annual water festival (Thinyang) was taking place in Myanmar just when I landed. Everyone gets soaking wet during Thingyan, so if I wanted to take any kind of video, I needed a waterproof camera.

And, as I feared, I ran into a LOT of trouble. I was more than pleased with the video quality this GoPro produced, but the software/firmware/controls were wonky and glitchy. The problems got worse and worse as I tested out my new GoPro until I reached a breaking point. The aftermath of that breaking point is in the next video.