Day 3: The Importance Of A Break

Day Three, 6 January 2016

Candid of Heritage group enjoying ourselves by the CMU lake

Today, the entire USP went to Doi Suthep as a cohort. When we reached the entrance of Doi Suthep, we had to take a group picture and I felt like at that time, we were really being quite an inconvenience to other people. We had to block off the staircase to the temple for about 1 minute in order to take our group photograph. Of course I enjoyed the experience of taking the group photograph and having a group photograph is always nice but this also caused me to reflect on that action.

It was only 1 minute. A small, insignificant minute of obstruction. No one even came to chase us away and we had the self-awareness to do it quickly so as to not inconvenience others. It was quite well-executed. However, isn’t this an example of how even though we have the best intentions in heart, we are still being a nuisance?

Does this mean that all tourist activities, even if we “leave behind nothing but footprints and take nothing but pictures”, is still affecting the place of interest? At Doi Suthep there were so many tourists! It was extremely noisy and crowded. Wouldn’t this amount of activity and noise everyday change the way that the temple functions? From the group photo-taking exercise I just somehow got the feeling that even though we are trying to control ourselves, like it or not, tourist activity will always have tangible and intangible effects where we congregate.

After the temple visit was free time which my group was free to do whatever we wanted to do. We went back to CMU to do one interview first because our CMU student attached managed to find his friend who was willing to give us an interview. After that though, we went to this lake at CMU where it was so vast and clear.

Our whole group sat along a bank of the lake and just looked across. I looked at my group members and saw nothing but relaxed, content and smiling faces. In that moment, much like the second day, I felt a sense of belonging and pride to be part of this capable group. I tried to understand how I felt at that moment because it was just a lake. I was just sitting down. Then all of a sudden, there was this rush of contentment, happiness and calm. I did not really understand why I felt like I was in such a state of bliss.

I realised that it was because finally, for the first time on this trip, I’ve completely left behind the notion of work. I was not thinking about the research project at all. All I wanted to do was enjoy myself in that particular moment, to not think about anything and take time to do completely nothing at all. I guess this showed me exactly how important it is to not always think about work and at times, you just need to put everything down and take a break. This was definitely a highlight of the trip for me even though it didn’t involve much academic learning or effort.

Our group then went for a massage and shopping at CMU’s night market afterwards. The massage was off the charts though. Felt like an imaginary 10 kilograms of weight were lifted off my shoulders.

The day concluded with a nice night where all of us gathered in a room to once again seek the enjoyment of each other’s company and sharing of stories. It is becoming a nightly activity and I really like finding out more about my USP peers. Today was a well-deserved break after two long days of work. It couldn’t have gone any better.