Spooked out at Hotel 626 – Day 1

You know in horror movies, where the protagonist realizes that every room and hallway in a hotel looks eerily similar, but yet it gives off a creepy, sterile and inhuman vibe? And even though everything appears tidy and in order, something just seems really off? Well, I never expected to experience that myself on the first day of the trip.

 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start off by saying that I was extremely excited to start off on this overseas study trip – I never worked on a school project overseas before, and I was looking forward to working with my USP peers.

 

I always imagined Chiang Mai to be a quiet, peaceful and rustic place. I never expected Chiang Mai to be so modern and efficient. McDonalds, Starbucks, even Subway – All proud members of the American “embassy” could be found there, as well as international delicacies such as bingsu or Chinese dim sum.

 

On our first day, we quickly departed for Chiang Rai, a village that was reportedly more rural and “ulu” than Chiang Mai. It was a sleepy 3 hour bus ride, but I couldn’t help but marvel at how modern it was. It really showed how far Thailand has progressed at a country. Well-paved roads, shiny cars, and English signboards – It was really not much different from how things were in Singapore. To me, I was really surprised to see how even a Thai village was not immune to the effects of globalization.

 

We soon arrived at Wangcome hotel in Chiang Rai, which the exterior looked rather safe at first. However, the interior looks like the setting Hotel 626, a horror game which required players to escape a haunted hotel. Inconspicuous mirrors appeared at every corner, and eerie lightning illuminated the confusing hallways. I felt as though the more you ventured into the depths of the hotel, the more lost you get, as though you were trapped in a never ending nightmare.

 

We also conducted our first interview with a local doctor, and what she said really shocked us. We had expected a high number of smokers in Chiang Mai, and for the level of smoking to increase as Thailand develops economically. However, she revealed that her observations showed otherwise, and that smoking on the whole has actually decreased throughout the years.

 

We didn’t know what to do, and we wondered how we were going to continue the project. After all, it was completely different from what we expected at the start.
I think that it eventually taught us a valuable lesson that we need to be adaptable, and things that happen in reality often differs from what is theorized. As professor Natalie told us later, “Something is wrong when nothing has changed.”

 

Thus, we started to change our approach, deciding to focus more on the reasons why smoking has decreased, even though campaigns in Chiang Mai were not very noticeable. It was now time to conduct our first fieldwork in Chiang Mai, and naturally I was a bit nervous. Without being able to speak Thai, how were we going to conduct successful interviews or surveys?

 

We soon arrived at Central Plaza, which was a modern shopping mall. If I didn’t know better, it looked like a typical shopping centre in the heartlands of Singapore. It’s really crazy to me how everything look so advanced and modern – I’m not trying to be condescending or that I looked down on them – But I thought we were supposed to be in a ulu, remote village near the mountains in northern Thailand!

 

It’s fascinating to see how the tendrils of technology and globalization have penetrated even the most desolate of areas.

 

We soon commenced the interviews and surveys.  We soon found out that we were pretty dependent on our translators, Mohn and Pat, our Chiang Mai university student attached and our tour guide respectively. It was really difficult trying to conduct surveys and interviews without knowing Thai, and we soon realized what a challenge it would be.

 

Unfortunately, we got chased out by the shopping mall’s security guards, who reminded us that we were not allowed to film the front of the shopping mall. As such, we began to make our way to a nearby tulip festival, which was apparently rather famous.

 

The tulip festival was more like an old-school carnival, which was pretty cool actually. An amazing array of street food stalls greeted us, along with retro game stalls that looked rather nostalgic. It is a pity we don’t really get to see this anymore, besides the occasional pasar malam (Night market) in Singapore. Even then, the game stalls in Singapore are often being replaced by stalls selling handicrafts and accessories.

 

One of my regrets is not playing any of the games found at the game stalls, but we were busy exploring the massive carnival that awaited us. We could walk around here for hours! At the very tip of the carnival, we found the gorgeous and stunning tulip fields of Chiang Rai.

 

While I’m personally not really a fan of flowers, I concede that the tulip fields were simply a sight to behold. It gave off a sweet smelling aroma, and I thought it was really calming walking through the tulip fields.

 

After dinner, we headed back to the Wangcome hotel. It looked even scarier at night – Which I didn’t know was possible. The confusing twists and turns didn’t help one bit, and I was ready to bolt out of my room if anything out of the ordinary happened.

 

We also had a discussion on how to adapt and tweak our approach towards the project, and we began to develop more concrete plans. For example, we decided to try using the idea of a vlogumentary, which is basically a documentary filmed in a style of vlogs. We also changed our questions to gear towards more on the side of why smoking has decreased in Chiang Mai.

 

All in all, I thought that the first day sort of prepared us for what was in store for all of us. I was beginning to learn and understand the complex nuances of the Thai culture, especially since Mohn was sleeping in the same room.

 

With much trepidation, and hoping that nothing out of the ordinary would happen to me, I soon drifted off to an uneasy sleep.