The 'tourist' in the Land of Smiles

Negotiating tourist culture and local culture

As people, we play the role of social actors in tourism culture where we negotiate our own culture with that of the local culture. Here, I share my own experience about a time last summer where I participated in a geography module in Chiang Mai, Thailand for 6 weeks. Our first assignment there was that of a photo essay titled: "It's all so different. But what does different mean?" Call us a fortunate or an unfortunate group of students - we were all left on our own to explore the city and teams were expected to return with an essay and a presentation on this topic 5 days later.

Returning to the topic, for me, intercultural communication would refer to people with different thought patterns and hold different cultural beliefs, values or ways of behaving. My post today touches on two observations that I've observed in Chiang Mai, while maintaining our position as 'the tourists from Singapore':

Here in Singapore, we are used to having a rules-based exchange system where our transportation fees are standardized and metered. In Chiang Mai, their songthaew and tuk-tuks interestingly work on a relational-based social practice and practiced price discrimination in favor of the locals. Us being (quick-thinking?)students quickly learnt to bargain from 20 baht to 15 baht per person per ride. It was immediate cost savings for us as we depended heavily on the songthaew to travel around the city.

Picture: A songthaew ride

The main cultural shock for me however, was the way we had to cross roads in Chiang Mai. Though there were set traffic junctions, vehicles did not stop when there were no pedestrians crossing even though it was the red light for them. I did fear crossing the roads initially, but I later learnt to apply the phrase, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." We adapted to their culture and began to cross their roads like how they would do, still with some fear naturally!  
   
 Making sense of difference

"To confess to a particular identity, is also to belong to difference" (Conolly, 2002)

'Difference' is complex and contested, and can garner different interpretations of space. Often times, our pre-conceived notions and observations of a space shape the positionality we have as 'tourists' and 'outsiders'. Perhaps the most direct way about these cultural differences, in this case, lies in cultural sensitivity. What may work so well and efficiently in Chiang Mai may not work for Singapore, and similarly holds true for the converse.

'Difference' will always continue to exist between different cultures and this is exactly what makes cultures distinct and unique. Perhaps how we could overcome the 'cultural shock' is to recognize our differences and adjust the way we communicate to these 'differences' by changing our perception. We learn and we immerse ourselves in these new cultures and experiences. To end off, I think we could all try to appreciate and respect these systems that have been in place for their own unique purposes!

Video: NUS Field Studies 2011 Physicals 

Unrelated to the above, but watch this if you're interested to find out 

more about what I've done in the mountains for 3 weeks!