4th Jan Reflection

 

I hope the photos shows off the kind of vibrancy I experienced on my first day in Chiang Mai.

As I expected, Chiang Mai is indeed a lot more laid-back than what I have ever experienced in Bangkok. People here are very polite, and more culturally rooted. This can be seen by the locals who don their traditional costumes at the night markets that we have visited, adding to the vibrancy of the place.

With regards to my research topic: The relevance of nutritional labels to the Thai, there were a lot of interesting results; some of our sources contradicted one another, and we were able to observe some trends with regards to the various age groups. Our conclusion: Most Thai people value taste above nutrition.

I personally find this conclusion one that’s surprising, but not so surprising. I know I just contradicted myself, but allow me to explain. I have always known that Thailand is a country that values tradition and heritage. That being said, we all know that Thai people identify greatly with strong flavours and taste-the sweets, the sour and the saltiness. The next question would be – would they compromise their love for strong flavours for nutritional value? Our answer: It depends. But to what extent will Thai people be willing to compromise health for taste? Our answer: It depends.

As you can see, the first day’s conclusion left me utterly confused as well, as there were so many new perspectives added to our one simple narration that centres around nutritional literacy. I am just hoping that we will be able to tighten the narrative and our findings by tomorrow. I can’t wait to see how our research develops!

Last but not least, I love Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai > Bangkok in my humblest of opinions.