Day 5

On our last day in Chiang Mai, we had the privilege of interviewing two CMU professors, who specialised in tourism and veterinary science respectively. They provided completely different perspectives from what we had expected, and this provided really great insight into our project. For example, we learned that the use of the bull hook is actually necessary to tame the elephants. And as long as these hooks are used in the proper way, the elephants will not be significantly harmed. I feel that the conviction with which the veterinary science professor insisted that the use of the hook was in fact necessary, actually really threw us off as we expected that the professor would condemn the use of the hook as it harmed the elephants. This further supports my conclusion from Day 4 that we cannot view everything from the surface level, that the use of tools to tame elephants are necessarily harmful. This made me realise the importance of speaking to a lot of different people to seek their views on the issue in order to find out the many different perspectives before formulating our own.

Thinking back, we had a rather narrowed perspective on the elephant tourism industry in Chiang Mai, and categorizing the treatment of elephants into ethical and unethical as though they were black and white. However, this is not true as there are different reasons as to why people make certain decisions. For example, it is necessary to chain the elephants to ensure that they do not escape and risk being lost, hunted or killed in the wild, and these chains do not harm the elephants. All this is information that we could not have attained online as I feel that such news are often over-reported and sensationalized, or the truths are under-reported because of the lack of “reporting value”. This imbalance skews opinions, and it is thus extremely important that we managed to embark on this trip to find out the genuine opinions from the locals and experts themselves, rather than relying on online sources alone.

Another significant event on the last day was the Leadership Amazing Race. Not only was this an opportunity for us to bond as a sub-group, I was also able to learn about my own and my group members’ different leadership styles. This is the first time I have had such an experience, where I was thrown into a seemingly casual situation, while I was secretly observed by the seniors to note my most genuine leadership style. I found that I did have the ability to make decisions and lead others, but I really needed to be more confident about myself. For example, during the race, I helped the team to make decisions and led them to destinations. However, when we were back in the hotel for self-evaluation, I needed the seniors to point these facts out to me and convince me to take more credit for my abilities. Since then, I have been learning to make the conscious decision to be more confident in myself and my ability to lead. I’m not there yet, of course, but I’m still trying and I definitely won’t be giving up any time soon.

I also felt that it was an interesting activity for us to map out the things that we learned at the end of the race; often, we go through experiences and forget about the impact it made on us at that moment. The importance of writing down my thoughts and feelings at the moment is something that has also resonated with me, and that’s the reason I keep a jar containing notes on my happy and sad moments throughout the year – and also why I still keep my map from the amazing race. Some moments are so fleeting that you could forget about it the next day, and I believe it is important to appreciate the little things. I keep the little memories so that 10 years later when I’m feeling a little down and out, I can open my box of memories and remember the things that made me smile. And I’m glad that this trip has given me so many little memories to remember.

This last night in Chiang Mai also turned out to be the most nostalgic as I walked through the night markets for the last time. It had almost been a little mundane as we visited the night markets every single night without fail. But tonight was different. As I trailed behind the rest of the group by myself, I reflected on what the trip had meant to me – I realized, of course, it had started out as a research trip on elephant tourism. But the lessons learnt and friendships forged are more invaluable than any 5,000-word essay could ever be.

P.S. Special mention to my roommates, Hui Shi and Suting – we survived 5 days of sleeping together, private karaoke sessions in our rooms, and 5-minute breakfasts (because for some reason us three sloths decided to room together)!!