2. Daily Postings Chiangmai Study Trip 2015/16 Healthcare

University Scholars Programme

TOPS Day 2: Immersion & Assimilation

Another early morning start and we’re headed back to Chiang Mai. On the way back, we made a stopover at the Wat Rong Khun White Temple for some cultural immersion and learning about Chiang Rai’s heritage. As we checked back into Le Meridien Hotel, our tour guide Pat brought us to Warorot Market, where we…

TOPS Day 1: First Impressions.

Chiang Rai. We were up bright and early as we boarded the bus yet again for the 2-hour journey to Chiang Rai. After an hour or so of driving, we stopped by at a local Chiang Rai hot springs for a short toilet break and to stretch our legs. I managed to get my first…

Day 5 – Amazing Chiang Mai

Picture from CMU, picture credit: Ng Xinyu We started the day bright and early today with an Amazing Race! To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from it. I’ve been to a few orientation camps and amazing races are a pretty standardised part of such camps. But when we were first introduced to the professors…

Day 4 – New realisations

Picture of Healthcare sub-group in CMU, picture credit: Ong Yong Jia “What are your personal opinions on smokers?” This question is often followed by a slightly awkward pause. I’ve found that this has been one of the hardest questions that I’ve had to ask during this trip. Most would respond by telling me that smoking…

Day 3 – Doi Suthep

Picture from Doi Suthep Temple, picture credit: Crystal Hong Doi Suthep was beautiful. The temple was gorgeous but the view that 300 or so steps had brought us was even more breath-taking. I felt like I was literally on cloud nine. While the view that the temple overlooked was momentarily covered by a layer…

Day 2 – Clarity

Picture from the White Temple, picture credit: Victoria Chang Hello! Today was a better day! I feel like my group mates and I are finally gaining some clarity. We’ve finally decided to focus on certain aspects on tobacco usage and we’ve become clearer on the kind of footage we want. So, that’s great! It was…

Day 1 – A whirlwind

Picture from the Flower Festival in Chiang Rai, credit: Victoria Chang In a word the trip so far has been a blur. Prior to coming, my group mates and I predicted that there would bound to be many smokers here in Chiang Mai. Maybe its because most of our impressions of Thailand have been…

TOPS Day 0: Arrival & Adminstration

The Beginning The day has finally arrived and our TOPS trip to Chiang Mai has officially started. As we were in the air, the cloud cover began to disappear, and we caught our first glimpse of the vast and raw Chiang Mai. As we exited from the plane, we were greeted with a similar warmth…

Day 5 [8 Jan]

We went to Chiang Mai University to meet up with two professors, one from the Department of Tourism and the other from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Our groups thus far have been thinking of riding and non-riding camps as separate entities and categories, even attempting to determine which is better than the other. The…

Day 4 [7 Jan]

For Day 4, we went to Chiang Mai University for a lecture on globalization and the history of Chiang Mai. Going for the lecture again reinforced what I had already expressed before in my pre-trip projections, that the trip provides many opportunities that probe me to think more deeply about issues that I might not…