Fieldwork and Documentation

Day 2:

“You know the big difference between you and me, creed? The reason I’m always gonna beat you? I’ve actually got something worth fightin’ for.” James Howlett, Logan, Wolverine Wolverine #301 Tucked away in a quiet corner in Chiang Mai, the fulldome office was the image of serenity and peace. But who could have known…

Day 1

“We plan for days and days and when the time comes, we proceed to improvise.” Quicksilver ,Amazing X-men (AOA) Well, it’s only the first official day of our research trip and we have already proceed to throw away all of our plans. The series of lectures at Chiang Mai University (CMU) was definitely…

on everything I’ve gathered after the trip

On the elephants and the evolution of my feelings for the project This trip has taught me so much about elephant tourism that I would never have known had I not been on this trip. In fact, with all this information at hand, I feel quite invested in the project and would really like the…

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…

Post-Trip Reflection

Many university students yearn for an intercultural exchange – for the opportunity to immerse in a different culture, broaden one’s global outlook and travel. Just one semester into my university education, I am blessed to be given this opportunity to experience a week long intercultural exchange to Chiang Mai. “Enriching” duly described my experience in…

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…

Post Trip Reflections

In Singapore, the aptly named rat race starts the moment you are born. The best milk formula, the best hospital, the best pre-school. The list goes on and on. So where does this all end? And what are we striving towards? Sabai-sabai. Being happy. This forms the basis of the Thai lifestyle. It is so…