2. Daily Postings | Fieldwork and Documentation

University Scholars Programme

Day 5

On Day 5, we had a really long interview with the professors from CMU because we had accumulated so many questions along the way, and the professors filled in lots of gaps in the information that we found. We felt like we were imposing on the professors as we took about 1.5 to 2 hours…

Day 4 – We did a whole lot of things today too

Today, we set off for a lecture at Chiang Mai University in the morning. Truth be told, the professor was talking about something she’d done lots of research in and was an expert on – but I was too groggy to pay full attention. Even at the parts where the information was related to my…

Day 3

(We did so many things today!) Doi Suthep was today’s itinerary highlight. However, I was slightly disappointed – I felt like there wasn’t enough time spent at the temple, and that the tranquility I had hoped to experience was not as easily available as I had wished before we embarked on the trip to Chiang…

Day 2 – Still at the (awesome) park

Today’s experiences were quite similar to yesterday’s, but there are a lot of afterthoughts I’ve gathered in my head about this wonderful place. Our tour guide, Jen, was nothing short of fantastic in this whole experience at the ENP. When he was explaining stories of the individual elephants and the hallmarks of their personalities, we…

Day 1 – Elephant Nature Park (ENP)

It was a great day at the park today! We did lots of activities with elephants and learnt lots about them. Learning about elephants on documentaries compared to being face-to-face with them is really different. When I’m listening to commentary in documentaries, I do find some facts quite awesome but it’s still hard to appreciate…

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…

Daily Reflections – 7 January 2016

My fellow USP batch mates and I started Thursday with a visit to the Political Science faculty of Chiang Mai University (CMU) for a lecture on Globalisation in Chiang Mai. The lecture reinforced for me that globalisation arises from the greater interconnectivity of capital, people, as well as goods and services. In particular, I was…

Chiang Mai Reflection Day 5

Day 5 of Chiang Mai Trip Today, we visited the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The interview format this time was a little different from our usual street interviews. This time, it was done in a panel discussion format, and perhaps due to the formal occasion, I noticed that there was a certain tension in the…

Chiang Mai Reflection Day 4

Day 4 of Chiang Mai Trip The day kicked off with a visit to Chiang Mai University again. This time, it was an official school visit with a welcome lecture by a professor from CMU. The lecture had some interesting stories about the history of Chiang Mai, though I wouldn’t say it amounted to anything…

Chiang Mai Reflection Day 3

Day 3 of Chiang Mai Trip Today we went to yet another temple, Wat Phra That at Doi Suthep. Compared to the previous temple (White Temple) that we had visited, this one feels a lot more like a “real” temple. I also noticed that there are more locals in this temple as compared to the…