Chiang Mai Reflection Day 1

Day 1 (Chiang Rai)

Today is Day 1 of our Chiang Mai trip. I have come into this trip, thinking that it would not be too difficult to spot bad behaviours of Chinese tourists. And sure enough, when we visited a spa village today, I saw china tourists putting their slippers into the hot spring (they did not remove them before soaking their feet inside). I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot more of such spectacles for me to see for the rest of this trip. Though other than that, I did not observe any other inconsiderate behaviours today. Perhaps I should start to be more conscious of my own actions as well.

After which, we talked to the hill tribes people. There were many hill tribe villages, arranged in such a way that is tourist friendly (i.e. in a trail arrangement). When we arrived, they put up a show; some sort of tribal dance that involves movement of some specially decorated sticks. I have seen such things before in my experiences in other Southeast Asian countries, though never have I seen one that is done with such lack of enthusiasm. Though it is not hard to see why, I can imagine them repeating the same actions every single day, every single time a group of tourists comes to visit, hoping that these actions will bring about a greater interest, and hence greater revenue. But such torturous, repetitive routine would drain the life out of most people, and I can see from their faces that they have become almost numb to it, their voices like a jukebox that had been put on repeat for years. There were no smiles at the end of the performances, no warmth that flows from them, just a hawk-like gaze that demands appropriate compensation for the work that they have done, and the sigh of disappointment as some of us turned to walk away.

In a way, I realise it was the arrangement of the villages that bothered me the most during this short visit. The fact that they have been so strategically placed, one after another, lacking almost any overlaps and superficially enhancing their distinctiveness through the promotion of certain artefacts like special scarves or headdress accessories (all of which are probably sold for a few hundred baht), reminds me of a type of place that I’ve been to many times, even in my own country – The Zoo. I don’t feel like I’ve gotten a peek inside the lives of hill tribes, just as how I wouldn’t consider visiting panda enclosures an “enlightening showcase of the daily lives of these magnificent beasts”. When we talked to one of the women from Yao village, she even revealed to us that someone found her in her old village where she was originally from, offered her this job, and so she was physically moved to one of these new “tribal villages” to start work. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

Yet she also told us that she was much happier here than where she was previously. She is making a better living, has better access to the facilities, and perhaps greater exposure to the world with the number of tourists passing through this area every passing day. So I guess there is still a silver lining after all. Though, I feel that I must make it clear, the zoo reference is not meant to be an insult, nor a mockery of their lives. If you, the reader, has felt upset towards my comparison of the Zoo and the hill tribe villagers, then surely you would understand how I felt when I see it so clearly in my mind. I feel that man should at least have the choice of choosing their neighbours, and that they will not be made to entertain others through an artificial, blown up re-enactment of their lives, It angers me so to think that they have to be subjected to this. But alas, I am speaking from the point of view of one who had, and has so much more, yet all I can offer is but a simple lament at their destiny. Perhaps there is more that which I do not understand, perhaps they really did feel happier living there.

During our interviews, I realise that the villagers are also not willing to say any negative things about Chinese tourists in our interview. This could be partly attributed to the fact that perhaps they thought we were Chinese tourists and do not want to offend us, or it could also be because they do not have any bad encounters with Chinese tourists yet. One must be open minded, I guess. They even said that they prefer Singaporeans or Hong Kong people over mainland Chinese tourists, which made it even harder for me to believe that they are speaking the truth. Perhaps they may have simply chosen to say the most politically correct things. As I’ve noticed, Thais are polite people, and since talking bad about others inherently puts you in a bad light, why do it if you can simply avoid it.

Certainly, we have to devise better ways to phrase our questions, not just so that it will be non-leading, but also to circumvent the possibility of them choosing to avoid saying bad things about Chinese tourists. This has been one of the issues we foresaw in our work plan as well, but it is still difficult to overcome it. Perhaps a disguise of some sort is required, I still have some face paint left from army days…

Fortunately, the video taking process went rather well, as we were able to capture quite a lot of footages, including interviews. However, in order to truly understand the material and put it into a complete video, that would probably take a lot more time and we are still not entirely sure of the general direction at this point. The people we interviewed are also surprisingly very friendly and did not seem to mind. And well, having a translator at hand is truly a blessing as we are able to find out so much more about the lives of the Thai people, notwithstanding the fact that having a familiar face talk to them would definitely help them to open up better.

All in all, I think this has been a rather successful first day. While there are times that made me rather upset, and times that I have spent brooding about certain matters, in terms of video taking, we have achieved quite a few objectives. I have also managed to chat with May, our local correspondence. I look forward to whatever there is to come tomorrow.