Day 3 (6th Jan): Doi Suthep + old city

We went to Doi Suthep which is a temple that is situated at the top of a mountain. The view was amazing up there. I couldn’t agree more with what our local tour guide has to say “If you didn’t go to Doi Suthep, you didn’t go to Chiang Mai at all.” We could see the entire rural and cityscape of Chiang Mai. The temple was surrounded by huge jack fruit trees and shelters were covered with flowers. The main shrine of Doi Suthep was shimmering gold under the strong sunlight.

Since I was a Buddhist, I went to make some prayers inside the temple. After making a donation of 20 Baht, I got a few stalks of flowers and a yellow candle. Holding them in my hands, I walked three rounds around the main shrine. I prayed for happiness, fulfillment and good health for myself and my loved ones. Meredith and I went to a side shrine and I got my fortune told as well.

I wonder what is this fascination with divination. It seem ludicrous that you can know what your future entails just by doing a few simple steps. So far as I’m told, things are looking up for me though I have to be remain cool-headed in order to get what I want. Although I try not to look too much into it, the words that I am reading on this small piece of folded paper stay with me and read aloud in my mind. I believe them more than my rational self wants me too. Perhaps, it is my own need to anchor to a source of certainty in the face of unknown that lends credence to these words.

At Doi Suthep, a Caucasian guy adorned in the orange monk robes caught my attention. It was visually arresting as there was a stark dissociation between the clothes and the wearer. It is inevitable that we all form preconceptions from our experiences. A Caucasian man is slightly chubbier, wears a T-shirt and berms, with a rumpled map in his hands. This mental image is ingrained my mind and I feel that the standard chartered advertisement of a Caucasian man walking around the streets is partially responsible for this image.  A Caucasian guy and the saffron robes worn by a monk, on the other hand, are completely separate entities to me. Studying communications, I am aware of how popular media that we are exposed to on a daily basis can be rather removed from reality. Take how example, media constantly feeds us the notion of Iran as a oppressed state where despair and bloodshed is rife. On the contrary, we have less mainstream media in the form of documentaries that contradicts such notions and throw away Iran’s shackles of oppression and chaos. This goes to show that every media content is mediated, filtered through the creator’s perspective and stance. Nothing is a hundred percent accurate. Yet, as consumers we are too lazy to evaluate the content being fed to us and this could be narrow our field of vision.

I can infer that the Caucasian guy adorned in the monk’s robe was probably interested in the Buddhist’s teachings and is keen in fully immersing himself in it. I respect him a lot for this and would like to try the same thing he is doing in the near future. Personally, I am interested in exploring other religions such as Christianity and Islam. Not only would it expand my understanding, I feel that it would do me good in shaping and understanding myself.

After a wonderful morning spent at Doi Suthep, our coach bus travelled to one of the malls for lunch. We had good and flavourful food as usual.  Food in Thailand is cheap. A standard meal cost around 30-50 baht which is around one or two Singapore dollars.

We saw some smokers outside the mall and proceeded with interviewing them. There were new insights that my group gained from the interviews today. A banker we interviewed said that he felt current anti-smoking measures like television advertisements were not really effective in discouraging people to stop smoking since people continue to smoke even after knowing about the negative impacts on health. He offered a very practical suggestion: to raise the sin taxes on cigarettes. Going by market principles, an increase in price would lower the consumer’s ability to purchase the good (cigarettes) and consequently lower the willingness to purchase the good. I do agree with the banker’s suggestion as it is a policy with minimal cost. However, thinking critically, this could give rise to contraband cigarettes being imported to Thailand and sold at a lower price. Thus, it would be best if policies could work on making people not want to smoke.

Another learning point I took away when doing fieldwork is that the phrasing of the questions matters a lot. Leading questions should be avoided as they exert subtle pressure on the person answering to churn out politically correct answers. A leading question would be “Are you okay with smokers?” There is an unspoken pressure for people to agree and most people would do so. Better questions to ask would be “Do you allow your children to smoke?” or “Will you date someone who smoke?” These questions are more direct and layered in the sense that it is telling of the person’s predispositions.

The rest of the day was up to us to spend it. Along with some of my group mates, we went roaming the streets of Chiang Mai. Walking around aimlessly is a rather relaxing activity that people with the luxury of time can afford to do. We chatted up a woman who was walking her three-legged dog. A Caucasian guy told the girls in Chinese that we were all pretty and he had no idea who was the prettiest. Bryan ran through the clusters of pigeons but failed to scare them into flying. Everyone was enjoying themselves openly, naturally and uninhibitedly. It was so carefree and I was having fun tremendously. From Warorot market, we took the Song Tael to the old city of Chiang Mai. We met up with the rest of the healthcare group at night and Mohn brought us to a restaurant selling local Thai food.

This was us having a hearty dinner at the restaurant Mohn brought us to. There were a lot of people eating at the restaurant which is testament to the good-tasting food sold there. The streets that we walked were lined up with many cafes and restaurants that were really unique looking. I felt that it was a gentrified area as it looked very chic with all the lights hanging on trees. Most of the people patronizing the cafes were young people.

Later on, my sub group went on to the bars around the area frequented by university students (making it safer) to conduct some interviews. We managed to interview a few smokers. There were a lot more smokers near the pubs compared to the past two days. I figured that going to places where the target group is likely to frequent would allow us to save on time and manpower. Some of the guy smokers we interviewed said that they smoke together with their friends. They picked up smoking from their peers as well. Most of them also admitted to smoking more cigarettes when they are together with their friends. Evidently, smoking as a social activity is one of the motivations we ought to look at in understanding why people smoke. How does smoking improve the experience of “hanging out” with another peer who smokes? Is it that hard to not give into the temptation to yield to the pressure to integrate into the group of friends who are smokers? I feel that the humanistic dimension to smoking will be an area that is interesting to explore. One of the guys we interviewed also said that he feels that some people subtly show their disapproval for smoking by pretending to cough when they are near him. Why do people still smoke if they know that it is not socially approved? Do smokers feel that there is a line drawn between them and the non-smoking populations in Chiang Mai?

Nearing the end of the night, when we were about to give up finding a female smoker, we spotted one and were excited to interview her. Before this, we have yet to obtain a female perspective on the issue of smoking. Moreover, it would be thought-provoking to hear from a female regarding the stigma that some members of the public may have towards female smokers. Sadly, she was not comfortable with the idea of us filming or even recording her so it was not captured on film. Nonetheless, we were so happy that we managed to get hold of a female perspective even if it’s just one.

Today was a great day. Truly.