DAY 3 (6 JAN) ☀︎ DOI SUTHEP ☀︎

(DAY 3) ? –> ? –> ? –> ?

We started the day off later than usual, so I was feeling pretty energized and excited for the day ahead! Our first stop of the day was the Doi Suthep temple. I have heard a lot about the beauty and magnificence of this temple and was really looking forward to catching a glimpse of it. However, when our tour guide told us that we had to climb 306 steps to the top, I was slightly taken aback. Upon seeing our reactions, she offered a cable car ride up and down from the temple. Thinking about the huge amounts of Roti Kluay, Pad Thai and desserts I had consumed over the past few days, I figured it was probably best for me to climb up the steps. The climb up was a lot easier than I expected, especially since the weather was really cool and comfortable. Also, chatting with my friends on the way up made the journey whiz by a lot faster!

We were all so relieved when we reached the 306th step, and dumbfounded by the gorgeous shades of red and gold that made up the temple. I saw many people holding flowers while walking around the pagoda – apparently, this was done thrice for luck. I also saw many people burning candles and fervently praying.

After Doi Suthep, we had OTOT for the rest of the day! However, we realised that even when having OTOT, we still had lots of work to do due to the nature of our topic – smoking. The reason for this was because when it was time for us to do work and conduct interviews, it was difficult to find any smokers, so even during out OTOT, we had to grab any opportunity we had when we saw a smoker to interview them. After gathering all the data from previous days, we realised that we needed to find female smokers to interview such that our data will be more varied and credible. It was interesting to note that in Chiang Mai, finding a female smoker is so much more difficult as compared to finding one in Singapore. We were curious as to why this was so, hence we went on a hunt to find female smokers.

Our group decided to start our OTOT with  a nice massage before embarking on our interviews and surveys. However, I had THE WORST massage of my life because the staff there were so unhygienic and unprofessional. Wasted my 200 Baht. ?? So after that, we walked around the nearby markets and went on a long journey to have dinner. Mohn brought us to a cool and “hip” area frequented by many teenagers, especially CMU students. We had a super delicious dinner there, and bonded over laughter and food. Again, I was reminded of how lucky we were to have such a kind and friendly CMU student attached to us, because he was always so patient with us and took the time to translate practically the whole menu for us and helped us to order all our food before settling his own food. Watching the way Mohn hosted us really made me reflect on myself and  my attitude towards others.

After a scrumptious meal, my sub group asked Mohn if he could bring us to any bars or pubs because many locals said that was where we could find all the smokers. However, we were once again disappointed by the lack of smokers (is this the 3rd or 4th time now ?). We realised it was probably because it was a weekday, hence people are less likely to visit the bars and clubs. We decided to persist and continue walking, and luckily, we managed to find a few local male smokers that were willing to be interviews by us! Towards the end, just when we were about to wrap up and head back to the hotel, we chanced upon a female smoker! From a distance, we could not tell if she was local, however, as we walked closer, we heard her speaking in Thai. My group and I were so ecstatic because it took us SO long to finally come across a female smoker in public.

HOWEVER, once again, we were let down. She was not comfortable with us filming her, nor voice recording her. We did manage to talk to her and find out about her opinions on smoking, so at least that was beneficial in expanding our own knowledge and views. As expected, being a female smoker, she provided us with a lot of opinions that we have not heard from the men we interviewed, hence it was such refreshing and eye opening change!