Daily Reflections – 8 January 2016

My group mates and I conducted the last interview for our trip at the Chiang Mai Tourism Authority this morning. I was really excited to visit the Tourism Authority as it would be my first time visiting a government organisation in a foreign country! I also believed that interviewing the assistant director to find out the government’s opinions on how locals felt towards Chinese tourists would really help us in our research.

In our interview with him, the director affirmed for us that the behaviour of Chinese tourists had in fact improved since 5 years ago. What struck me most in his responses to us was how he emphasised the value of balance – in spite of negative reports about the Chinese, he chose to continue to target the Chinese market through collaborating with Tourism Authority offices in China. To tackle the issue of their bad behaviour, he worked with tour agents to bring the message of good etiquette to the Chinese. I thought this was a good approach he had taken; indeed, he has managed to achieve the best of both worlds today – healthy visitor numbers from China and improved behaviour of the Chinese tourists to Chiang Mai.

The Chinese tourists here do not seem unlike members of an organisation who may have character flaws but yet, may have value to add to a team or a project. In this regard, I feel the director has indirectly given me some insights for how I can better harness the best from people. In projects in future, will I refuse to work with people with bad character flaws or will I see that they can value-add to a team and try to help them improve on their behaviour? I think the answer to this question should be the latter now.

In retrospect, I am glad we made the trip to the Chiang Mai Tourism Authority. I not only got answers to my group’s research questions from a government’s perspective but I realised something about how to better manage people as well.

After our interview with the Chinese Tourism Authority, my group took a break and we engaged in some leisure activities on our last full day here in Chiang Mai. Today was also the first day I stepped out my comfort zone and relented to going for a foot massage! For the past few days, my group members had gone for several Thai massages while I did not because I was not interested. Even after going for this Thai massage, I did not like it very much to be honest. I felt uncomfortable when my feet was pressed on in various places so it could be massaged. Yet, there is a quote by Sue Fitzmaurice which goes, “You must go on adventures to find out where you belong”. Perhaps, some good has come out of my “adventure” to the massage parlour – I now know that I do not see myself going for massages in the future because they are not for me. In the future, I would probably try to be more open to trying new things for even if I do not enjoy them, I, at the least, learn that I do not.

To close the day, I joined my fellow USP group mates for a trip to the Cabaret Show. This was, again, a whole experience for me for I had never been to such a show before. I found it captivating watching the lady boys dance their hearts out on stage in their colourful costumes. In many countries around the world such as the United States and even Singapore, people who choose to change gender might be condemned. I guess that it is a good thing that Thailand offers them a place to be who they are and to be able to make a living through performances like this one. Prior to this trip, I thought Thailand was a country very centred on Buddhism. Their greater acceptance towards lady boys compared to other countries thus shows how open they actually are as a nation. As such, tonight has certainly been a fulfilling night where I got to understand Thailand better as a society.