Day 3 Reflection: Weaving stories

Day Three, Chiang Mai. Ahead of us faced 309 steps to Doi Suthep, one of the most sacred places in Chiang Mai. They say that if you do not go the Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, you have never really been to Chiang Mai. As we toured the temple, our guide, Peter, told us many stories about the origins of the temple and about Thai Buddhism. For example, he showed us 8 different statues of Buddha, telling us that each represented a particular day in the week and Buddhists would worship the statue whose day corresponds with the date of their birth. I was born on the 5th of December and on a Monday, which meant that my “Buddha” was the one who had one hand pointing to the ground. It meant being kind to others.

As I heard Peter weave his stories, I started to think about the various other holidays and places I had visited without a tour guide. It hit me that in all those places, I was not able to fully appreciate the culture and history of the attractions which, many a times, is what makes the place beautiful. Perhaps this could be an idea I could work on, an app which serves as an overlay to Google Maps to share the stories and culture of each particular place? Or maybe even one which provides audio guides to tourist spots much like what is sold at Gardens by the Bay?

After leaving Doi Suthep, we proceeded to go to a beautiful waterfall and spent the rest of the afternoon interviewing locals in the local mega mall, MAYA. One thing which we gradually found out was that there wasn’t the same kind of negative sentiment among the locals that the media had been depicting. In fact, I did not feel any resentment from the locals towards the Chinese despite the media reports. Having come back from Macau and Taiwan in the past year, I expected something totally different. There, I could feel the local resentment for Chinese tourists which had quickly caught on with me quickly, having faced their loud, rough and uncouth behaviour. In fact, in one incident, a local we had asked for directions from in Macau had a 180 degree change in attitude and became friendly when she realised that we were Singaporeans. The attitudes here are a big surprise to me and is probably something I will raise to my group once we go back.

After wrapping up our interviews, we went for a Thai Massage before proceeding to the local food street. Yok, our exchange student attached, brought us to a food street next to her university which had simple amazing food. It was a refreshing change compared to what we had been eating for the past two days which were mainly food designed for tourists. I got myself yellow noodles with curry sauce- a Chiang Mai speciality, and it was the best thing I had eaten since the start of the trip! It is this experience which is what we should be experiencing as tourists instead of visiting touristy spots which the locals themselves never really go to. I think that more time should be given in future trips to explore such places. Following that, we went to the Night Bazaar where everything was in Thai! Overall, I was really satisfied with today because I had managed to go to places the locals frequented and got to understand a small part of how they live here. A great authentic experience!