Day 5

Day 5

Fay, Fuyang Shen

I was clueless about the leadership amazing race the whole time. Finally, Day 5 is here. We were told to work within our own subgroups and try to finish as many tasks given as possible. We were supposed to find three locations according to the hints given. I thought it would be good to ask the hotel attendant because all of us were new to Chiang Mai and could not even name one location based on the available hints. It turned out that the hotel attendant was extremely helpful. He marked all three locations on a map for us. Very soon, we reached the first destination, a temple near the hotel. We were instructed to find five animals in the garden. With teamwork and coordination, we completed the task with flying colours. However, one small incident occurred when we tried to complete a general task, which was to take a jump shot in front of a local vendor. We got scolded by the vendor as well as a man (looks like a manager in the temple) for our “rude” behaviour. That was the second time that I realized religion is a very serious thing for Thai people.

 

We moved out of the area quickly as the man seemed to enjoy preaching/scolding us a lot. Jin Hu took over the map and became our navigator. I trusted him blindly because I had zero map-reading skill. Plus, I was sick that day and was not very energetic.

 

As we walked, I saw another temple and suggested we do another general task, which is to chat with a monk to know about his daily routine for 30 seconds. As we were waiting for an English-speaking monk to come to us, I realized we could complete another task, which was to engage in a 30-second conversation with a local, speaking only in Thai. Jin Hu took out our travel booklet, turned to the page where there were a lot of Thai phrases, and read Thai equivalent “Where is the toilet” to the monk who could not speak English. The monk understood what Jin Hu was saying but Jin Hu did not know how to carry on the conversation. I quickly pointed to him the phrase “Can you say that again?”. Then Jin Hu just repeated the question two to three times. The monk had a What-is-wrong-with-this-guy look on his face and repeated his answers a few times. It was really funny.

 

But the race did not go that well afterwards. Due to the complexity of the layout of buildings in Thailand, Jin Hu interpreted the map wrongly and led us the wrong way. However, none of us questioned him but just followed him mindlessly at the back. As a result, we walked about one full hour to reach our second location. By the time we got there, we had no choice but to take a tuk tuk back to our hotel so that we would not get penalised for exceeding the time limit.

 

Another thing worth mentioning was that we had to come up with a quote about leadership while making connection with the bottle of mineral water we bought. What my group had was: Leaders should be as firm as ice, as flexible as water and as ever-present as water vapour. I think that gave a pretty good summary about the key character traits that a leader should possess.

 

My personal reflection for the amazing race is that I should question immediately when I sense that something is not right. It is good to be supportive and place trust in the member that leads a certain task, but we can never do it blindly. Well, I may not have any map-reading skill, but I could have voiced out my concern to Jin Hu so that he would try to read the map more carefully, or I could have just asked some local people we met along the way for the correct route to our destination. But I did not.

 

However, I do see myself as a good initiative-taker who do not shy away from any task or duty. I want the team to yield the best outcome. If I see myself fit for a certain task, I will go for it without a second thought. If I do not think I have the necessary skills to do something, I will give the opportunity to those who are better at that field. If none of us is good at it, I will just try it out. After all, die die must try.  For me, a good leader may not be the one that always stands in the forefront. It is more precious if a leader knows how to listen to others and give others a chance to showcase their skills and talents should the opportunity arises. Also, leaders should step out and guide the team when nobody dares to make a move.

 

We visited Central Festival Mall in the afternoon and tasted very yummy Japanese food and yoghurt ice cream there. After that, we conducted two street interviews with Thai youths and some surveys in the cinema. It was our last day in Chiang Mai so my group felt that we should do as much as possible before we leave. At night, we did three more individual interviews at the hotel with CMU attached students. Their views were all very insightful. I enjoyed interviewing people throughout the trip.