Published in Chiang Mai CityLife Magazine – February 2003

A Level Playing Field – Part 2

CHIANG MAI, Thailand – 5 January 2003

A day in politics is a lifetime they say, and here it could be your life. As traffic casualty figures for the 2002-2003 festive season emerged, it was obvious that the combined government and police attempts to reduce accidents had failed.  At the time of writing, I don’t have the final figures, but by January 3rd they were already above the previous holiday season. An alarmingly large portion of the drivers had no licence or insurance.

Last month I revealed the opinions of a random sample of tourists, interviewed at the start of December, concerning the traffic situation in Chiang Mai. Although the strength of opinion was possibly stronger than expected, the general results were not. We know that not just here, but also nationwide, the driving skills of locals leave a lot to be desired – the “my car is my (mobile) castle” attitude predominates, and it is a test of courage and determination to continue using the roads every day.

Soon after the New Year holidays, the government announced a framework for a new initiative attempting to rectify drivers’ skill shortages. It has been tabled to introduce road awareness, and rules knowledge, education at all levels of compulsory education. It appears that the target of the plan is to have teenagers take a test of some sort before leaving education, and if they graduate successfully from this program, then they receive a certificate, which then permits them to apply for a driver-training program and test, eventually leading to the issuance of a licence.

Laudable as the proposal is, it ignores the fact that many people simply drive without licence and insurance anyway. Therefore, introduction of such a scheme will require the strictest enforcement of penalties for these offences. Yet, who will do the enforcement?

We all know of the mid-month bonuses acquired by administering unregistered fines, and even MP Chalerm, father of alleged murderer Duangchalerm, is reputed to have accused that 70% of Thailand’s police officers are “on the take” (Bangkok Post 5th January 2003).  In my own few experiences of being assisted by the police, I have found them to be professional and very capable of applying their profession. They also display a level of understanding and compassion towards foreign “guests” that should be envied by forces in other countries.

Returning to the tourists interviewed at the end of last year, the other half of the survey considered their opinions of what is good about Chiang Mai, what they enjoyed, and any suggestions they have for further improvement of the city’s tourism facilities. The responses in this section of the survey were less clear-cut than in the section about roads and traffic, although some marginal trends were identified.

To refresh about the survey sample, the data came from 67 random tourists interviewed by my students. 32 of the interviewees were first time visitors, 19 were 2nd time visitors, the other 16 ranged from 3rd to 14th visit. A broad range of nationalities and ages were sampled, including five, south and east Asian countries. The breakdown was -

• Europe 29 respondents
• North America 24
• all of Asia 9
• Australasia 6

The first (open-answer) question asked for their favourite activity when visiting Chiangmai.

Although only one answer was requested, many could not make their mind up, and listed two or more activities. The answers were so diverse that with the exception of visiting temples (32 people / 47%) there was no clear leader. The popularity of temples was given as the combined features of “free to enter / no dual pricing”, and, “they are historical and old”.

I have therefore had to arbitrarily group the answers into three broad categories as follows –

• 42 people (61.7%) Visiting historical places (including temples, old buildings, the moat & walls, museums etc.)
• 41 people (60.3%) Culture and nature activities (including nature parks, trekking, elephants, orchids, waterfalls, and mountain viewing)
• 21 people (30.9%) Sports and walking (including golf, swimming, cycling, city exploring, markets etc.)

As I have previously focused on; the North has no beaches or islands, and the western visitors especially like history tourism, which was also indicated by last April’s ABAC poll in Bangkok. It is possible that when giving trekking as a choice, the interviewees were thinking of hill tribe visits as places of historic significance, in addition to those treks which directly target places of historic significance, such as Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Saen, however I’ve included hill tribe visits in the cultural activity figures.

Splitting history plus culture, from natural places, becomes more significant when asking visitors about their favourite places, as opposed to favourite activities.

• 42 people (61.7%) showed a preference in the History and Culture section, and named venues such as the major Chiangmai temples, museums, Doi Pui, and the old city area.
• 22 people (32.3%) in the natural places section voted for mountains, waterfalls, elephant camps, islands (inside Chiangmai?), and the zoo. However, Night Safari planners take note; only 2 people (2.9%) voted for the zoo.

Broadly categorising shopping as including, city markets, Walking Street, craft villages or handicrafts, and the Night Bazaar, 17 people (25%) quoted them as a preferred place.

Visitors’ thoughts about Chiangmai were requested in two multi-choice answer style questions -

How much traditional Northern Thai architecture do you see in Chiangmai?

• None (1)
• Little (20)
• Some (26)
• Lots (19)
• Don’t know (2)

What do you feel is the age of Chiangmai?

• Old (20)
• mixed old & modern (14)
• Modern (32)
• Don’t know (2)

How did they feel about Chiangmai after reading about it, in guidebooks or other sources, before coming here?

This was a “free-answer” question. Most expressed disappointment that it was not as clean, attractive, or old-fashioned as they expected.  Some returnees said they were upset by how fast the “old places” were disappearing or degrading, or by the lack of green spaces inside the city.

Which facilities (for tourists) do you think are missing from Chiangmai?
The answer range was again quite broad. Of those that did answer, there were again three broad categories, although 19 people felt they could not answer, either through not knowing the city well enough, or because they had found everything they needed.

• 31 people (45.6%) Mobility of pedestrians in the city including, improve traffic & public transport (13), more information needed in English (9), make walking easier (6), more English for police & taxis etc (3).
• 25 people (36.8%) City cleanliness or attractiveness including, more parks / green spaces / flowers needed (10), streets and paths need cleaned (10), reduce air pollution (5).
• 7 people (10.3%) On the historical and culture attractions, few people expressed opinions other than, stop destroying the history sites (4), city needs a museum (3).

That last item again ties in with my previous comments, concerning the public information and transport services to visit the museums and historical places inside the city limits. For the new visitor, it is very difficult to find them, and this may be a reason for low door-revenues at those places. An extrapolation may be that such apparent indifference from educated westerners contributes to indifference about the importance of history by Thai people.

One further comment was repeated several times, in several ways, a request that Chiangmai increases, or introduces, direct flights from European major airports.

Those who commented on this expressed secondary opinions that they did not enjoy transiting through Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, or Singapore, rather, they would prefer to enter Chiangmai direct from their home countries.

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Overall, this second part of the survey was favourable to Chiangmai.

Tourists have a wide range of activities and places that they enjoy, and any suggestions they gave fell into the, “try to make it better quality” category. Some of these things are being done, as the following “good news” items will demonstrate.

Wieng Kum Kam has introduced elephant rides around the ruins with effect from 1st January 2003, and the new Visitors Centre is under construction just west of Wat E-Kang (unashamed plug – site 30 on the map in my book “Wieng Kum Kam – Atlantis of Lan Na”, available online here at GazLaNaThai.com). If you want to visit the elephant stables, they are adjacent to the southern perimeter road in the centre of the south walls of that old city. The ride starts outside Wat Kan Thom (site 18 on my map) where you’ll find operators with reasonable English. They’re the closest, authorised, elephant rides to the city centre, and I was told they’re only 200 baht an hour, which makes them the cheapest I know about.

City street-washing – already being dubbed a rolling traffic jam – can be experienced around midnight, every Saturday night, on Thapae Road. Wait just outside Thapae Gate, and watch the high-pressure hoses clear the open fronted bars faster than Interior Minister Purachai ever could. The soapy solution being used is dangerous though, also watch for, and count, how many motorcycles go sliding on the detergent each night.

The Northern Tourism Fair (held at a prohibitively expensive hillside resort to maintain exclusivity) was a roaring success – apparently! I wasn’t invited, and couldn’t afford a bottle of water there, let alone a meal, so I’ll have to take the newspapers’ words for it. The overseas package-tour representatives assure us we’ll start to see more of the lords and ladies of “Nobbery” arriving for their feature packed 2 point 4 nights in exclusi-ville, from where they’ll be shepherded in the best possible way to avoid distribution of their spending power amongst the smaller businesses of Lan Na’s capital. Meanwhile the Bangkok big-wigs are slapping each other on the back for another enjoyable junket, and promotion of their multi-million dollar establishments, courtesy of TAT.

Dinosaurs have been found in Phayao! Just in time to revive the fever of the Jurassic Park movies (is number 4 released yet?). Rumours abound that, several months ago, a rail link from Denchai to Chiang Rai was approved, which naturally will pass by that provincial town. Hmm – did Richard Attenborough lose a few movie props anywhere?

However, if it drags people away from all the new archaeological sites in the central plains, and into my favourite end of the country, why should I complain?

Has anyone given serious thought to the nobleman’s grave found within the excavations at Thonburi, on the site of the new Navy conference centre, which is being built over a certain someone’s former palace?  Could it be that King Taksin and General Phichai (Daab Haak) have come back to haunt PM Thaksin and Minister Purachai?  Anyone seen a red velvet bag and a large wooden club anywhere in the excavations?

Holiday fun this month – Valentine’s Day on the 14th, don’t forget it, or your bones may be the next ones discovered. Look out for all the parties in “the little peoples” venues and spread some of your cash where it’s needed – official figures say that Chiangmai’s bedrooms have received another 10% year-on-year drop in bookings.

Maybe the government’s “Stay at Home” tourism promotion is being understood too well in other countries?

Stick together Lan Na, together we can improve our fortunes.

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Level Playing Field Series
Part 1 – Moving About in a Home Away From Home
Part 2 – What to do in a Home Away From Home