Fieldwork and Documentation

Daily Reflections – 5 January 2016

Today’s trip to Wat Rong Khun temple, Chiang Rai was, for me, an experience like no other. To begin, I was touched by the story of how Wat Rong Khun came to be –the story goes that after making it big as an artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat chose to return to rebuild the temple he…

Day 4: Sakuraaaaa ??

Day 4: We woke up early for a guest lecture at Chiang Mai University (CMU). It was really interesting to learn about the extensive history behind Chiang Mai’s culture, and the lecture definitely made me relook Chiang Mai from a different angle. I had always thought of Chiang Mai as the scenic and peaceful alternative…

7th Jan/ Day 4

This was a relatively intense day, to be honest – a whole day spent conducting as many interviews as we could, punctured by a trip to the beautiful Sakura Gardens. And beautiful it was – the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. We were very surprised that this was Pro’s first time here, actually! We…

Post-Trip Reflections

I left Chiang Mai feeling like I understood the local people. People draw the distinction between the ‘tourist’, who gleans knowledge of the place and the people on only a superficial level, and the ‘traveller’, who experiences the place walking alongside the people, walking even in their shoes. I feel that during this trip, I…

Day 1: Disappointment

Disappointment and dejection were the only words to describe to my feelings. Gone were the initial excitement and enthusiasm I first felt when we officially started on our research question. It was one chosen with much deliberation, and we finally agreed on one question that all of us were interested to find out more about…

Day 3: A Day of Play ?

Day 3: Our third day begun with a trip to Doi Suthep temple, one of Chiang Mai’s greatest landmarks! I was really excited for the day ahead, since the day would comprise largely of OTOT activities, and I was looking forward to exploring more of Chiang Mai’s renowned sights! At Doi Suthep, I was awed…

Daily Reflections – 4 January 2016

Today’s trip to the hill tribes of Northern Thailand was a really eye-opening experience for me. Prior to this trip, I had always thought that there were only 2 main ethnic groups in Thailand: The Thais, and the Chinese who had acclimatised to living in Thailand. Little did I know that there are actually 70…

Day 5

We spoke to the director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (Chiang Mai) today and he brought up a rather interesting point. His team had introduced a “Do’s and Don’ts” manual for Chinese tourists, instructing visitors on proper etiquette. He told us that after this has been introduced, it was reported that the Chinese tourists…

Post-trip Reflections

As much as I was reluctant for it to end, the Chiangmai TOPS trip drew to a close after 7 days. This trip has indeed been an enriching one for me. During a short span of time, I have experienced different aspects of multi-disciplinary education. From the preparing our research materials before the trip up…

Day 4

Today, we arranged a focus group discussion with a group of CMU students. However, due to a lack of time in our schedule, our group discussion was cancelled. The issue was that this was done without our knowledge, and this lack of communication allowed us little time to make changes to our plans. I am…