Fieldwork and Documentation

My Post-trip Reflection

Oh, how I miss Chiang Mai. It has merely been three weeks since we touched down into Singapore and concluded our trip in Chiang Mai. I’m sure everyone will resonate with me when I say I MISS THE WEATHER the most. The heat in Singapore has been excruciatingly painful to deal with, and I miss…

5th Jan/ Day 2

Nothing really beats just sitting beside the Narawat Bridge, at 12am, listening to the live band play “Let it be” by the Beatles. Well, maybe a cold beer would come in handy. Nevertheless, a great end to a great day. And a great day begins with a great start. Back at the Elephant Nature Park,…

4th Jan/ Day 1

Vegetarian food, unfortunately, isn’t really my thing – no matter how savoury it looks, the lack of meat was starting to get to me by the end of the day. Then again, I remind myself, I’ve had more than my fair share of interacting with, well, not quite chunks of meat, but one of the…

The Observations

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe” We started off the balmy morning with a trip to another temple; Doi Suthep. After the extremely exhausting climb up the stairs (to remember: if a gondola ride is given as an alternative, it is better not to act hero), I found myself in the midst of an opulent…

Love and Compassion

Usually, a token of appreciation is given to the participating subject in an interview. Today, the reverse happened. It warms my heart to start this blog by recounting an experience of genuine hospitality and graciousness of the Thai people. I would never have come to expect the willingness of Thai people to be not only…

Don’t Assume!

“Assumptions are dangerous things to make” Marking the first official day of our trip, we headed to Chiang Rai to begin our research. This was the day that it struck me that, well, don’t ever make assumptions. As what some might say, ‘assume’ makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. I have had experiences…

6/8.01: In Perfect Memory

Finally, I was able to check out the photography exhibition of 19th century Chiang Mai at the Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Centre. It was an exhibition by John Thomson, a Scottish photographer and travel writer who documented Chiang Mai during the periods of 1865-1866 during his travels. Professor Walter, who visited the exhibition…

5/7.01: A Warm Bowl of Vegetable Noodles

Quiet, rather peaceful. Those were the impressions I got off the small glimpses of Chiang Rai. No longer a hub for drug trafficking during the Opium Wars, it is now an attraction site for tourists to experience more of Thailand. Today, we were to visit 2 of the more popular heritage attraction sites, the white…

4/6.01: Coming and Going

300 steps, and we would reach Doi Suthep. A top tourist destination in Chiang Mai, this sacred temple is a familiar sight for school children in Chiang Mai, where they will come here for luck before their exams. Being a tourist hotspot, we were hopeful to document and conduct more interviews with tourists. I managed…

Looking back

Although this Chiang Mai trip was supposed to be a research trip, it turned out to be so much more than that. Unexpectedly, the research process of the trip turned out to be very interesting. It became an invaluable chance for me to interact with the locals. While I had been on a school trip…