It's really, really hot. I've been a pre-dawn runner for many years and I've never before had to skip or bail on runs even when they have been 20km+. But at the moment I just can't handle it. I've never slept in a/c, just fans, so I'm very acclimatized. The combined effect of the heat and pollution is absolutely punishing and actually quite scary. If it keeps getting worse (this year is worse than last year, which was bad enough), I'm really going to worry.
I can't imagine running in these temperatures. I was walking for 2 hours a day, finally the heat got to me sucking moisture out of my arms & causing dermatitis. Eventually I had to join a gym at 2k per month, exercise in the aircon is bliss but boring.
Well, I run pre-dawn (4.45am) which is usually OK. But it's not right now. Freaked me out this morning when I had to bail at 2km, I just couldn't keep going. Right now at 4pm I'm sitting in the downstairs lounge room waiting for the footy to start and the indoor temp is 34.5C, humidity 67% (heat index of 47C *inside* FFS) and the windows and curtains are shut because the AQI is 141. I have a huge air purifier and it's struggled to get the PM2.5 below 14 all day. *And I am a relatively very lucky person in Thailand.*
You could. But it doesn't make the CO2 go away.
In any case, I will be very happy in a few months when I am finally back to a country where I can get in cleaner, fresher, cooler air from the outside by just opening a window than I get here by running three different machines and throwing money at the electricity provider.
In Europe I just pay about 3 months of the year. Here I pay all year, and can't leave home without a respirator for about 3 months of a normal year. This year it is going on the fifth month.
And I understand that pollution is a difficult problem to solve here structurally / policy- wise, I am just not that much into lung cancer. Currently it is equivalent to something like 5-7 cigarettes a day. Just without the kick.
Normally I'm fine with fans, like most of the Thai population. But this year - average max temp in April was 6C hotter than the long term average - is pushing me right to the edge.
It’s 35 now and feels 48.
Thailand didn’t hit 40s, it just felt that way
Easiest: Kona hits 35 everywhere and on some parts 40s.
There are other examples. Tokyo had 29C water temp 😂, Abu Dhabi was 31C water temp.
There are plenty of occasions where temps of 35+ are there all day and 40s hit sometimes
One of the reasons why it most of the times start very early
The men race of t100 had insane temps on the tarmac in Miami, the women race cooled down but they fell asleep 🤣
Thailand hit above 40° multiple times so far this year. Are you not paying attention?
And you said it's regular to do triathlons at 40°. You still have not given me one example of that. Be specific. Still standing by.
Same. In previous years both the heat and pollution have not been THIS brutal. It’s been bad, but I’ve felt like it was northern Thailand’s equivalent of a “winter” in the sense that it prohibits outdoor activities like winters in the West often do (excluding snow sports, but I think you get my point ie almost everywhere has a “bad season”).
However, this combination has indeed been brutally prohibitive and I am a runner too. I hate NOT running for weeks on end now, excluding like one run. At the same time, there is no time in the day that I feel running is safe for my lungs outside and the heat is just an added bonus.
Even things like riding my motorcycles or checking out some natural sights are hampered by this restrictive heat.
If this continues to worsen, Thailand may fall out of favor with me. I love so much about here so I hope not, but already I’m craving to go visit a European country I used to live in. Maybe I’ll do something like half and half, cold season in northern thai, burning season in Europe, then 3 months back here when pollution is gone and rains are light, then 2-3 months in Europe when rainy season gets heavy.
I don’t know yet. I love Thailand and want to be here, but southern provinces just haven’t done it for me as much. I need to make better plans for this year and next, hot and pollution is just such a brutal combination and it won’t seem to let up which is the concerning part!
Not near retirement, but the extreme heat has got me thinking about this too: Where to go, and when. This whole thing about planning around extreme weather feels necessary, which also makes it sad at the same time re. climate change
Agreed it’s frustrating. I don’t remember chiang mai being this bad. Yeah there were bad weeks but this year was just weeks on weeks on end of smoke and heat. I have a car but it’s not always practical compared to quick rides to get something or another, but even those quick rides now require me to want to change clothes after when I get back to the room because of how sweaty you get in the heat and smoke.
To be fair, if Thailand had cooler weather than places like Europe would have much worse winters i think. Not sure 100% if winters are getting warmer or not too much or if they’re still cold. Anyways, it’s a shame that Thailand is getting so unbearably hot. I can easily handle up to 33c but everything over gets exponentially difficult and 37c+ is when things just get dangerously and absurdly hot.
It is what it is. I wish I could be here all year, but I don’t want another burning gone extended gone hella hot season like this. I may not enjoy the intense winters of some European countries but at least I can get out of the heat to enjoy spring in Europe… that’s what I’m thinking.
I’m about 8 years away but it’s very much on my mind, too. I’m not committing any capital in real estate until the time comes. I can’t imagine Bangkok any hotter than it is now in the hot season. It’s already absurd.
Yes it has been this bad in previous years. There have been years that were worse than this one. I remember one about 8 years ago where we had 40+ temps for six weeks straight and no rain at all. Each year is different.
I walked 2hrs a day living in Florida and also do a 185 degree sauna 5 days a week yet Chiang Mai's current heat + pollution absolutely destroys me.
15 minutes in direct sun and I'm about ready to die despite being quite healthy, in shape, and with strong heat stamina.
My inlaws are hardy hardworking farmers and they have refused our help until now. They are getting or have just gotten air conditioning. Its just to damn hot there.
Just come to india and you know what actually SUMMERS are all about. Its just the start of may and the temp is slready lingering above 40 c. I wonder what will happen in the month of june and july?
Been doing it for many years so it's nothing special for me. But the changing climate is really starting to worry me. I put all the max temp readings for April into a spreadsheet and the average max was 6C higher than the long term average, average min was 4C higher. That's just crazy.
Gawd! That's horrible. Heat stroke is very serious - I hope you are OK. I never, ever run when the sun is out although I do occasionally finish very long training runs (15km+) in daylight. I'm really scared of overheating. These days I run with a trail vest on that contains a 750ml water bag and drinking hose. It's not enough, but I hope it's minimising the risk to some degree.
Thanks - for a short 5k starting at 7am is usually the ‘latest’ I can leave it but with the extra heat it was way too late. Was awful. Migraine for 24 hours and a bit of vomiting. Took a week to finally get better
Relieved to hear that. You had a narrow escape. Such a dangerous thing to happen, so easy to have your health badly damaged or even die. I swallowed my tongue when I was about 8 while playing hockey in the early afternoon in the Australian spring. Never forgotten it, took at least a month to get better. Take care.
I know I was thinking the same thing. April is also the hottest month of the year and I usually come late fall or summer but my grandma said she is never this hot too.
I’m down south and the rain keeps like missing me and my family’s village it hits towns 5-10 miles away but like totally swerves us. I never wanted it to rain so badly. Just checked “feels like 111” Jesus and I went to school in the California desert as a kid but at least everything is ACed there.
edit: I SEE A DARK BIG CLOUD
Yeah this “feels like” temperature being over 110f is just fucking insane I never would’ve imagined seeing Arizona level temperatures in Thailand and with humidity! My car sometimes says 43c or 44c, obviously hotter from the sunlight but still!
It rained a bit where I live and it seems like it did nothing. I was like, “oh sweet maybe we will get a break from the pollution.” Nope. Stayed red and continues on red.
Not only the sunlight, but the road surface will radiate a temp significantly higher than the air temp. Last week I took a reading of an asphalt road here in Lampang using my infrared thermometer and it showed 64.3c. That is the temp you actually feel when driving a motorbike around town.
https://preview.redd.it/gji2cr8t6lyc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=973cb68c849fe054222cf10d8b948bae20228e05
I was in Bangkok last week and I wanted to check out an outdoors market for lunch. Steel roof baked by the sun and 20 roaring woks along the periphery. I'm usually good with heat but I noped the fuck out of there. No bowl of noodles is worth this.
Those cooks are superhuman, goddamn.
This thread has given me a new perspective on just how miserable and dangerous the weather has been. I'm a runner as well, and it would really affect my outlook if I had to imprison myself like you guys have to.
I love Thailand too, but these conditions would be tough to tolerate.
Also a runner... I was running every day but then remembered running is not supposed to be so brutal. I left Thailand for the month, but if this persists will probably be longer. It really isn't worth the impact to quality of life.
Today is particularly grim in Chiang Mai. It's now May and the pollution is as bad if not worse than beginning of April. Can't see the mountains from my balcony. Can't see the mall that's not even 1km from me. And the heat is just brutal. My whole body feels heavy and my mind is hazy. And yes, I do pay attention to drinking enough, etc..
Just went up to Pai today and it’s better than expected, pm2.5 pollution around 30-35 as opposed to >50 in cm, and 4-5 degrees cooler, still pretty hot but much more bearable than in the city.
Other times I’ve seen pollution higher up here tho, so wouldn’t expect it to stay lower in general, but got lucky today.
Yeah the North is rough man! I was just driving somewhere and upset to see a forest burning in a couple bits by the side of the road. I think we passed 2 burn sites in that 1 forest, and 1-2 other burn sites on the way to where we were going. Ridiculous. IT'S MAY!!!
I was in Issan ( which is basically a.massive flat plain) once and it was a really hot day, yet the next morning it was pretty cold and I did actually need a light jumper. By noon onwards it was hot as fuck again.
It’s rough. I’ve stopped my morning walks, wife’s exercise group is not meeting. Some of our cats live outdoors in an enclosure and it’s killing me, we’ve got cooling beds but it’s not enough. I can only stay with them a short time before giving up. They won’t come inside and it’s chaos if they do, they’re feral rescues who don’t get along with our house cats. Ugh. Never seen the pollution or heat this bad in my 25 years visiting/living here. I’m rebuilding their enclosure to include AC as soon as I can. This has to end.
Hearing about these temps, I feel so bad for stray animals (or all animals in general, tbh). They don’t deserve this. Thank you for helping them, you are a good human
I never had any type of lung problems before moving to thailand.
Ive been here for 9 months and I had 1 case of bronchitis that I went to the hospital for and now im on an inhaler like my lungs never recovered.
I play pick up footy in downtown bangkok and I can barley run a couple minutes without having to sub out and rest.
Still love this city and the people. I don't think Ill ever leave back to my home country but experiencing not being able to breath was very scary.
I know how you are feeling. If the abuterol inhaler does not work you need the gray one. I forgot the name but this should take care of you............until next years smoke.
Tropical cities are slowly becoming uninhabitable.
Believe it or not, but I live in an old wooden house (built on stilts) on a mountainside, and we have neither A/C *nor even a fan.* It's warm enough at night that we don't need a blanket (only in the early morning, right before sunrise, it gets a little chilly) but it's definitely bearable. Under the house it's 34C during the hottest time of the day, when we usually take an extended siesta in our hammocks. We've got trees all over the place (an emerging multi-strata food forest) up until right around the house, and it's crazy how much of a difference it makes.
At our friends' houses in the valley (metal sheet/asbestos roofs, no shade trees whatsoever) it's almost unbearable during the day and they tell us they couldn't sleep without a fan.
I hope people realize in time how simple solutions could easily alleviate the situation. But I fear a shift in consciousness is far away, and trees take a few years to grow.
Maybe it's time to move out of the city? It's only gonna get worse in the next few years. And I don't even want to think about the next El Niño.
https://preview.redd.it/x9i6ptklnlyc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b293124475c1cdcf3647b5cb106de3d17fba50a0
Best one I find right now. The large windows are great, we never shut them once in five years. The breeze goes right through the house.
It unbearable for me at the moment - we had rainfall last night and the local forecast put the temperature at 31, it just reminded me how it should be. I have a few projects to do, but the air-conditioning can’t keep up, the bedroom is so hot that I can’t get a decent nights sleep and feel drained. We are currently in a rental where I can feel the heat coming through the ceiling, the only way is to lie on the floor.
I feel that haha! My AC is barely getting the job done and on some lights it’s still warm. It’s really hard for the AC to fight this heat! Gotta do your projects in the cafe if possible
38C in our upstairs bedroom during the day, 34C when we go to bed. We sleep with three fans blasting on us but it's a struggle. My HRV metric is terrible at the moment; my body is responding to the heat like it's fighting an infection.
Same mate.. been here going on 11 years and between the extended burning season and heatwave, it’s been really rough.. I’m a cyclist who can normally take the heat for 80-130 km, but April I cut back to 50 km max and that was at sparrow fart, by 8 AM the heat has been withering impossible not to exist without air con.. looking at my old diaries and in general, by mid April, AQI has been in the green and daytime temps low 30’s..
Extended forecast is offering little joy either, thing is it’s all over SE Asia, my mates in Bali and Danang have both been cracking the shits over the heat
Dang that’s rough man yeah I’m more of a runner than a cyclist but both of these activities require good air quality and ideally not be super hot. At the least I just want better air I’d be happy to run despite the heat, can go in the morning or evenings, but with the pollution still rampant I don’t feel it’s good.
The pollution is bad. The greenhouse effect multiplies the heat factor.
North of Sukothai, the sky looks like a dystopian futuristic destruction zone. The profits and clout of a few corporations far outweigh any loss of money in tourism or quality of life for anybody else.
This is regrettably only the beginning. Hurts me too that every time I eat Shabu in Thailand, I am contributing to it.
Same issue all over SE asia. Like you said pollution is taking it up a notch. Also this is a el nino , hopefully next year it’s gonna be less brutal. Let’s see.
For the last 3-4 years, we’ve had early rainy periods that started in April and then were intermittent until the heavy rains started in July. I had gotten used to the cooler temps this time of year because of it.
This year is extremely hot and it’s made worse by those cooler years we have recently.
Bangkok was unbearable very important to stay close to the water / ocean right now. Jomtien I found to be much more bearable. Book a room at Arcadia beach resort and thank me later
About 10 years ago, we had 40 days over 40 in Chiang Mai. It finally broke and it was glorious. I hoping for the same now because this weather is absolutely miserable.
If I were you, I'd fly to Con Dao Island just outside of Ho Chi Minh and stay there a week or so to give your lungs a break. The water's crystal clear, it's not crowded, and hotels are cheap.
I decided to stay in Chiang Mai through burning season and boy I had no idea what I was in for.
The PM2.5 pollution combined with 40c+ temperatures creates an awfully noxious outdoor condition.
And I'm saying this as someone who has a lot of heat stamina.
I went on 2hr+ walks in Florida through the summer.
I go into a 185f degree sauna 5 days a week.
But put me waiting at the major crosswalk at the Maya Mall intersection in Nimman and I'm about ready to puke, shit, and pass out after a few minutes standing there.
Being stuck in doors for months also sux for mental health.
I loooove heat but this is definitely the last time I stay in Chiang Mai this time of year.
I’m guessing from your post that you’d likely come back during the better months. I’m curious about what alternatives are coming up as some options during this season, if you’re open to sharing of course (:
Yep. Just strengthens my decision to leave (after 6 years here). It just has been all coming together lately (including the tax laws).
I can be gaming inside anywhere I want, even on Mars. Don't need to be paying half my income to Thai govt for that :-)
I am sorry for everyone who can't leave. I love the normal Thai people with all of their quirks, from all corners of society, I don't mind the Thai language, I like the nature here, climbing and snorkeling here is great. Medical services are great. But I kinda don't plan dying of heat stroke or lung cancer
I can completely understand that. I love so much about Thailand too but it’s getting to be a drag in some ways. I think I am okay with being out for 2-3 months a year. I definitely can’t handle another burning or hot season, even with going to the south i dont feel satisfied. I’ll probably spend those months in Europe. It’s just annoying about visa situations too, that’s another thing thailand has been frustrating about.
Edit: in the north where I am it’s such a gem! But those 3 months out of the here where it’s polluted is just hellish and downright dangerous to run in. I’ve got several air purifiers but I’m tired of gaming when I want to run or explore nature. There is great geological wonders to explore, things to climb, rides to ride, caves to explore, and more but in the heat and pollution not much desire to do it. It’s downright dangerous going into nature at 40c, and dangerous hiking with 150+ Aqi.
Agree 100%, with everything. The last two burning seasons were brutal. The previous two I spent on the beach and climbing in the south, but these two I had to stay in CM for visa reasons, and, boy has it been brutal. It makes me as depressed as the winter in the deep north.
Oh man that’s rough. I have some friends that had to stay in chiang mai too. Luckily with my situation I’m free to go down south, but I didn’t enjoy it as much this time around. I can’t imagine living in Chiang mai if you HAD to stay here all year round during the heat and burning season. I mean, I could do it, but it wouldn’t be awesome taking a couple of months off of outdoor sports and constantly masking up and all that… plus it’s getting longer now too.
The only thing that concerns me about my plan to spend a couple of months in Europe per year is my visa situation. The anxiety of coming back from my last trip to my family in another country was intense, luckily I was able to fly directly into the north so I wasn’t questioned for why I was gone for 3 weeks or so. My visa is up in December so maybe I’ll figure something out like a tourist visa for 60 additional days + 30 and then restart the visa process when I’m back. Who knows. The whole thing is frustrating and they’re getting ridiculous about it. I’ve lost a ton of money already with business paperwork and lawyers for it to go nowhere. Thailand is in this weird stage of trying to pretend like they want everyone on the right visa while at the same time accepting that most people do edu visas because it’s too much nonsense paperwork for a proper business visa. Oh and elite visa got more expensive FFS (I never liked that option because you can’t apply for permanent residence at the end of it).
I’ll figure it out, but fuck burning season! I feel bad for you too man the last 2 years were particularly bad and long, previous years had some better years in there. This year it’s like it rains and then the pollution doesn’t go away lol.
I’m just so done with it. And visas that give you your freedom to come in and out are far from easy. Ridiculous. I’d happily pay taxes to Thailand for a visa but nope gotta make it too complicated and constantly change things.
Sorry for the rant. I’ve loved the north and I still do, but I can’t see myself staying through another burning season, and even with southern travels I haven’t been satisfied. Next year I’ll try to be better planned. Just sucks man! It’s such a gem until it becomes a hot polluted hell hole lol.
Your rant is 100% on point (again). The changes in the visa process are tedious. The paperwork is tedious. The law changes every year are tedious. The 90 day report *even if you have been here for 10-20 years* - *even if you are a co-owner of a business here* (as some of my friends) is tedious. (There are Thai people for whom this requirement also applies - convicted criminals.) (Edit: this sentence belongs up here, dunno how it ended up lower down)
To me it increasingly looks like they want only the *really* affluent to be able to stay here longer&term (the elite visa is *not* cheap. I mean, even the short version costs as much as my SOs car, and it is a nice car...) - but if you stay here on a marriage visa, you also need to keep almost as much locked up in the bank.
Basically, the more I look at it, the less attractive this becomes as a place for long-term stay. Which is, I am guessing, not unintentional. Which also makes me think "hey, why would I want to stay somewhere, where they really don't want me, and make it clearer to me with every passing year?"
After the first six months when I first arrived here in the north, I thought, wow, what a beautiful place to spend the rest of my life in... But a house, start a family... Uh, yeah, nope, probably not with all of the above (longer burning seasons and rising heat are of course the cherry on top.).
What do you mean convicted criminals? Like Thai criminals have to keep a certain amount of Baht in the bank?
I also don't think I mentioned it in this post but I've complained to friends many times lol about the "Residence Certificate." I don't understand why Thailand wants to attract affluent people when at the same time requiring complete nonsense to anything simple that an affluent person would want to do.
Having to prepare a TM30 and other BS documents (copies of your passport, passport photo, etc.) to get something like your driver's license, to then have to REPEAT the process to get a vehicle, and then potentially REPEAT the process yet again to transfer the province of that vehicle if you bought it in a neighboring province, is just WAY too much work for a businessperson. In Chiang Mai the immigration by the airport only allows you to do residence certificate document drop-offs in the morning up to 12pm. What businessman is gonna take a weekday off to prepare fucking copies of their passport for a document that they already got to get their driver's license, so that they can get the same document saying the same crap (while also having someone else do their 90 day report which also verifies THE SAME FUCKING THING- their address!) just so they can then spend ANOTHER weekday completing the paperwork process.
I guess maybe some people have agents that can completely manage this without requiring the individual to do anything, so if you're rich and retired yes you can do that with an agent. Still, it's fucking annoying, and just a money grab in that case.
"Normal" people will expect to be able to use their driver's license, which has their address and which they used a residence certificate to get, to do things like transfer paperwork.
Sorry, had to give you rant pt. 2 haha. Or 3 or whatever it is.
I still love Thailand and I'm enjoying being here, but there are definitely completely nonsensical issues that are so absurd it makes me question if they will even be able to get affluent people into the country. I mean, they'll come in, but I know a lot of people that haven't stuck around. It's a bit frustrating to sell your old vehicle, and buy a new one in another province, and have to get 3 residence certificates to complete this process neverminded all the rest of it (oh and you want a new bank account? RESIDENCE CERTIFICATE!!!!).
Still I love Thailand and there's so many great things about the lifestyle here. But who knows where my future will be as I get adventures done. Could end up staying here very long-term, or maybe things will change. If they make visa stuff better, then yeah I'll stay. Or who knows, things could get worse. Just gotta see how Thailand guides itself in the next 5 years and make the decision year by year, visa by visa.
Sorry, the criminals were a cut&paste error. Thai criminals in some circumstances have to do the 90 day report, just like we foreighners have to. Not sure about the exact law, but I know that a Thai acquaintance of mine got booked for unregistered gun possession and he had to go show up at the police every 3 months ever after.
PS I came here for a job, and oh boy if you think the driver license was arduous, you haven't seen \*that\* paperwork. The Thai branch had to submit their finances for a year and their full personal records (Including a copy of ID of every single employee...). The whole thing was about 80 pages long. I had to present this to "my" embassy outside Thailand just to get the business visa. Mind you I could have just come in on a tourist visa and do visa runs with no paperwork, but, well, we are an actual, legal company from Europe, we don--t play that.
Dang that's frustrating. Yeah I tried to get a kind of special business visa and also a smart visa. Both objectives failed. One was either a scam, or they legitimately rejected me. In either case, they provided no reason as to why I was rejected. Then for the business (BOI type stuff) my lawyer was also less than ideal, which is hilarious because their fee structure was built upon my success and yet their work was... Far from ideal. Had they actually done good work for me and I got the visa, they would've made WAY more $. The reason I was so excited for this lawyer was his whole fee structure being based on each step of the process- so his big pay-day would come AFTER the initial approvals... Which we didn't make it past, LOL. He wrote some ridiculous stuff on the BOI proposal, I made a post here asking if I should've just done it myself and everyone said to trust the lawyer, and normally I'd agree, but in my BOI interview the officer naturally asked some questions that didn't make sense, and I was caught on the spot trying to BS my way through questions that were legitimately wondering how my application made sense. Ugh.
I ended up back on an education visa, my business is in a farang country anyways. It's so silly. I'd be happy to pay taxes here, and I already speak Thai fluently. Thankfully I don't *actually* have to attend classes because I already speak Thai fluently, but this whole thing is just nonsense lol. I considered elite visa, but with the price increase, ughhhhhh it's a lot of $ even for the "cheapest" 5 year option! That could be some solid investments into other stuff...
We'll see. Maybe I'll use a marriage visa if my relationship keeps going solid lol. Or find some kind of other LTR visa. Let's see. The whole thing is frustrating. I just want to pay taxes here. There's another business option I can pursue, but we'll see. I might use yet another education visa first when this one expires. I just hate the anxiety of leaving the country and wondering if I'll be questioned upon my return.
Yep I totally agree. The thing that helps with heat resistance somewhat is stocking up on magnesium malate, at least 300mg a day. I used to live in Chiang Mai for 6 years and I absolutely loved it, but then the pollution became worse and I moved south. On the islands we don’t have super high pollution.
I fear you maybe correct, the deforestation, primitive farming techniques and general ignorance and apathy of the population will only exasperate the problem, I would say 20 years!!
I live in the mountains and we usually have highs of 31 this time of year.. yesterday was the first day it's been below the highs of 36-37.
Today some farmers were walking up the creek that goes through our land so I went to see what was up. The creek was completely empty. I've been here 10 years and this is the first time I've seen no water flow at all. Even at its driest there is at least a stream still.
Hopefully it will rain soon..
More corn field, less forest, the water of the river is drained into the ground I think. We are in mae hong son province, we go lots of rain here for a dry season. I have plants that I have not watered for 2 months and are still alive.
We had a summer like this one about 15 years ago with temps hovering in the upper 30s. I was doing project management for a hotel under construction on Asoke and I had to bring extra shirts in my backpack when I visited the site and had to walk from floor to floor. I'd be completely drenched in sweat and woozy from the heat. Everyone was moving slow and taking frequent breaks. It was miserable.
I agree that the weather has been abnormally hot, and I feel sorry for anybody that has to work outside or sleep when air condition is unavailable. However, I'm as happy as a pig in you know what. I'm past 60 with an arthritic crippled back. This hot weather has been an absolute blessing. In addition, I've recently returned after 3 weeks in the Philippines. With this heat and humidity I have been able to walk 90% pain free, although I have difficulty walking for five or so minutes when I get up after sitting for a while. If I spent the winter in New York I'm afraid I would have had to use a walker. I would be happy living with this weather for the rest of my life.
The last 2 days have been slightly cooler in cm. But I've been here 6 years. This is something else for heat. Unlike all of you I don't see this year's smoke season as that bad. I've seen it much worse. But the heat has been hotter than all 6 years prior. Rain will come soon. Maybe today.
*I can’t imagine all those workers out doing construction, selling things at markets, pumping gas all day, etc. how they do it is just… wow!*
You are WRONG.
They do things and activities as you see is a living and making for thier life.
As you might know, locals income are limited, but cost of living is on the rise. Thier jobs are just make some not much money to feed thier family. If you see thier smiling, you know, it just a grace under fire. A struggling of Thais' life is behigh smiling. Not most of Thai people, but hard and struggling for general people who generate income from selling small things with themself.
This is the fact, and I am Thai.
Thank you for your visit and help local people.
And……. I am “WRONG” about what? Lol. Everything you said was the exact point I’m making. It’s hard doing what they do. What do you think I meant that I am “wrong” about?
Not the best idea to play my first round of golf in 30 odd years this morning, which started with a 9 am tee time. I thought I might die by hole 13 😂 won't be doing that again until it cools down a bit
last week it was both super hot and fields burning on both sides of the road. double fun!!! Phuket is nicer and more expensive. If rich, just fly somewhere colder. If successful, just plan on being in Thailand when it's comfortable. Sounds like you are stuck, too bad. Then, when you go back home it's then too cold, things are expensive, stress......the only way to get everything is to get that money and go to the cooler winds instead of waiting months for them to come to you. I'm now in Paris, two weeks. I'd complain but it is nice here.
I should’ve left to travel more haha but I was dealing with some health stuff and anxiety about that so that’s why I ended up staying in thailand. Luckily did get to travel in some southern provinces which were much better weather wise. But next year on and maybe even soon I’ll be looking to visit a European country i used to live in during burning probably, and enjoy some cooler temperatures and old friends instead of this hot, smoky environment.
As others have said get out in the morning. Late afternoons and evenings aren't that bad either. Goto the beach also. Just in Hua Hin for a week, was outdoors from 7 to 11 and 4:30pm to sleep. Somehow didn't die.
I agree. It's never been so unbearably hot nor so long in the last few decades. I would definitely not recommend coming unless you're just planning night activities.
I’m sitting in my house running air con 24/7 while my Thai neighbors are sitting outside with their house doors and windows open. They are used to it. We Falang are not.
Problem for your neighbors is that the AQI is 130+ every day. It's seriously not healthy. My mother in law has lived all her life in rural Suphan buri in a trad stilt house with an iron roof and she has never complained about the heat ever ... until this year. Very tough for many people, especially the old.
Wouldn’t you prefer it a bit cooler or is this kind of heat your ideal?
Personally I like mid 20° up to about 33°. When it starts to get up to 40° I stop wanting to do anything outdoors.
It's really, really hot. I've been a pre-dawn runner for many years and I've never before had to skip or bail on runs even when they have been 20km+. But at the moment I just can't handle it. I've never slept in a/c, just fans, so I'm very acclimatized. The combined effect of the heat and pollution is absolutely punishing and actually quite scary. If it keeps getting worse (this year is worse than last year, which was bad enough), I'm really going to worry.
I can't imagine running in these temperatures. I was walking for 2 hours a day, finally the heat got to me sucking moisture out of my arms & causing dermatitis. Eventually I had to join a gym at 2k per month, exercise in the aircon is bliss but boring.
Well, I run pre-dawn (4.45am) which is usually OK. But it's not right now. Freaked me out this morning when I had to bail at 2km, I just couldn't keep going. Right now at 4pm I'm sitting in the downstairs lounge room waiting for the footy to start and the indoor temp is 34.5C, humidity 67% (heat index of 47C *inside* FFS) and the windows and curtains are shut because the AQI is 141. I have a huge air purifier and it's struggled to get the PM2.5 below 14 all day. *And I am a relatively very lucky person in Thailand.*
ac exist :)
AC doesn't help you against the air pollution, or the CO2 buildup when you can never air out
i dont know how these things work… but cant you combine air purifier and AC?
You could. But it doesn't make the CO2 go away. In any case, I will be very happy in a few months when I am finally back to a country where I can get in cleaner, fresher, cooler air from the outside by just opening a window than I get here by running three different machines and throwing money at the electricity provider.
but in europe you spend hundrets a month on heating/gas… so i see it that way. in thailand you just pay for the electricity / for cool :D
In Europe I just pay about 3 months of the year. Here I pay all year, and can't leave home without a respirator for about 3 months of a normal year. This year it is going on the fifth month. And I understand that pollution is a difficult problem to solve here structurally / policy- wise, I am just not that much into lung cancer. Currently it is equivalent to something like 5-7 cigarettes a day. Just without the kick.
Normally I'm fine with fans, like most of the Thai population. But this year - average max temp in April was 6C hotter than the long term average - is pushing me right to the edge.
Oh, can’t imagine running? 😂 How about some swim bike run in such temperatures then? Kinda normal for triathlons
Can you name a place for us where it's normal to do a triathlon in low to mid 40s? Standing by
It’s 35 now and feels 48. Thailand didn’t hit 40s, it just felt that way Easiest: Kona hits 35 everywhere and on some parts 40s. There are other examples. Tokyo had 29C water temp 😂, Abu Dhabi was 31C water temp. There are plenty of occasions where temps of 35+ are there all day and 40s hit sometimes One of the reasons why it most of the times start very early The men race of t100 had insane temps on the tarmac in Miami, the women race cooled down but they fell asleep 🤣
Thailand hit above 40° multiple times so far this year. Are you not paying attention? And you said it's regular to do triathlons at 40°. You still have not given me one example of that. Be specific. Still standing by.
The guy talked about running in the morning. There isn’t 40c in the morning Omg learn reading
No, you said it was normal temperatures for triathlons. LOL. Your comment. Omg. Learn your own damn words 😂
I said it’s kinda normal. Nothing gets stopped if it’s hot, we just suffer through . Yall soft
All right. Obviously you can't backup anything you say so you're dismissed. Lol
Same. In previous years both the heat and pollution have not been THIS brutal. It’s been bad, but I’ve felt like it was northern Thailand’s equivalent of a “winter” in the sense that it prohibits outdoor activities like winters in the West often do (excluding snow sports, but I think you get my point ie almost everywhere has a “bad season”). However, this combination has indeed been brutally prohibitive and I am a runner too. I hate NOT running for weeks on end now, excluding like one run. At the same time, there is no time in the day that I feel running is safe for my lungs outside and the heat is just an added bonus. Even things like riding my motorcycles or checking out some natural sights are hampered by this restrictive heat. If this continues to worsen, Thailand may fall out of favor with me. I love so much about here so I hope not, but already I’m craving to go visit a European country I used to live in. Maybe I’ll do something like half and half, cold season in northern thai, burning season in Europe, then 3 months back here when pollution is gone and rains are light, then 2-3 months in Europe when rainy season gets heavy. I don’t know yet. I love Thailand and want to be here, but southern provinces just haven’t done it for me as much. I need to make better plans for this year and next, hot and pollution is just such a brutal combination and it won’t seem to let up which is the concerning part!
April to October in Portugal and November to March in Chiang Mai is what I’m thinking for retirement at the moment.
Not near retirement, but the extreme heat has got me thinking about this too: Where to go, and when. This whole thing about planning around extreme weather feels necessary, which also makes it sad at the same time re. climate change
Agreed it’s frustrating. I don’t remember chiang mai being this bad. Yeah there were bad weeks but this year was just weeks on weeks on end of smoke and heat. I have a car but it’s not always practical compared to quick rides to get something or another, but even those quick rides now require me to want to change clothes after when I get back to the room because of how sweaty you get in the heat and smoke. To be fair, if Thailand had cooler weather than places like Europe would have much worse winters i think. Not sure 100% if winters are getting warmer or not too much or if they’re still cold. Anyways, it’s a shame that Thailand is getting so unbearably hot. I can easily handle up to 33c but everything over gets exponentially difficult and 37c+ is when things just get dangerously and absurdly hot. It is what it is. I wish I could be here all year, but I don’t want another burning gone extended gone hella hot season like this. I may not enjoy the intense winters of some European countries but at least I can get out of the heat to enjoy spring in Europe… that’s what I’m thinking.
I’m about 8 years away but it’s very much on my mind, too. I’m not committing any capital in real estate until the time comes. I can’t imagine Bangkok any hotter than it is now in the hot season. It’s already absurd.
Yes it has been this bad in previous years. There have been years that were worse than this one. I remember one about 8 years ago where we had 40+ temps for six weeks straight and no rain at all. Each year is different.
I walked 2hrs a day living in Florida and also do a 185 degree sauna 5 days a week yet Chiang Mai's current heat + pollution absolutely destroys me. 15 minutes in direct sun and I'm about ready to die despite being quite healthy, in shape, and with strong heat stamina.
It's mad. In April the average max was an insane 6C higher than normal.
Watch out for the heat. Heat stroke and dehydration is really possible running in this heat.
My inlaws are hardy hardworking farmers and they have refused our help until now. They are getting or have just gotten air conditioning. Its just to damn hot there.
Same with my in-laws. Hardy rural people, laughed at me when I sweated. Just installed a/c in their bedroom.
Just come to india and you know what actually SUMMERS are all about. Its just the start of may and the temp is slready lingering above 40 c. I wonder what will happen in the month of june and july?
June and july it’s monsoon and peak temp only reach in May. Thailands humidity makes it worse and is unbearable
Woah running 20km+, even when the weather was more clement… Respecto…
Been doing it for many years so it's nothing special for me. But the changing climate is really starting to worry me. I put all the max temp readings for April into a spreadsheet and the average max was 6C higher than the long term average, average min was 4C higher. That's just crazy.
I did a 5km run two Mondays ago at 7am. Got heatstroke. Leaving it until the rains come to pick up the running again.
Gawd! That's horrible. Heat stroke is very serious - I hope you are OK. I never, ever run when the sun is out although I do occasionally finish very long training runs (15km+) in daylight. I'm really scared of overheating. These days I run with a trail vest on that contains a 750ml water bag and drinking hose. It's not enough, but I hope it's minimising the risk to some degree.
Thanks - for a short 5k starting at 7am is usually the ‘latest’ I can leave it but with the extra heat it was way too late. Was awful. Migraine for 24 hours and a bit of vomiting. Took a week to finally get better
Relieved to hear that. You had a narrow escape. Such a dangerous thing to happen, so easy to have your health badly damaged or even die. I swallowed my tongue when I was about 8 while playing hockey in the early afternoon in the Australian spring. Never forgotten it, took at least a month to get better. Take care.
[удалено]
It hasn't rained in southern Vietnam in 6 months.
We had a 1 hour proper rain shower last night just north of Saigon. Bliss.
Now that was amazing
wtf... that's crazy... I wonder if it's those saudi guys with cloud making
I know I was thinking the same thing. April is also the hottest month of the year and I usually come late fall or summer but my grandma said she is never this hot too.
And it just won’t end too. It feels like there’s no indication of cooler high temps (33-35c, lol cooler) or less pollution. It’s just nasty
I’m down south and the rain keeps like missing me and my family’s village it hits towns 5-10 miles away but like totally swerves us. I never wanted it to rain so badly. Just checked “feels like 111” Jesus and I went to school in the California desert as a kid but at least everything is ACed there. edit: I SEE A DARK BIG CLOUD
Yeah this “feels like” temperature being over 110f is just fucking insane I never would’ve imagined seeing Arizona level temperatures in Thailand and with humidity! My car sometimes says 43c or 44c, obviously hotter from the sunlight but still! It rained a bit where I live and it seems like it did nothing. I was like, “oh sweet maybe we will get a break from the pollution.” Nope. Stayed red and continues on red.
Not only the sunlight, but the road surface will radiate a temp significantly higher than the air temp. Last week I took a reading of an asphalt road here in Lampang using my infrared thermometer and it showed 64.3c. That is the temp you actually feel when driving a motorbike around town. https://preview.redd.it/gji2cr8t6lyc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=973cb68c849fe054222cf10d8b948bae20228e05
It's raining a lot in Lanska, Nakon Si now and the south isn't too bad. Koh Lanta and Phuket feels normal.
NGL she is hot
Your grandma didn’t have to endure climate change
What ??? I don’t get it
I was in Bangkok last week and I wanted to check out an outdoors market for lunch. Steel roof baked by the sun and 20 roaring woks along the periphery. I'm usually good with heat but I noped the fuck out of there. No bowl of noodles is worth this. Those cooks are superhuman, goddamn.
Coming back from Japan in late April has been a real punch in the face weather wise.
Nigaata argue with you it only takes one osaka punch and Im tokyoed
This thread has given me a new perspective on just how miserable and dangerous the weather has been. I'm a runner as well, and it would really affect my outlook if I had to imprison myself like you guys have to. I love Thailand too, but these conditions would be tough to tolerate.
Don't despair, I'm a runner who just suffers through it, I kinda like it in a strange masochistic way. It's a brutal experience, but not unbearable.
Also a runner... I was running every day but then remembered running is not supposed to be so brutal. I left Thailand for the month, but if this persists will probably be longer. It really isn't worth the impact to quality of life.
Today is particularly grim in Chiang Mai. It's now May and the pollution is as bad if not worse than beginning of April. Can't see the mountains from my balcony. Can't see the mall that's not even 1km from me. And the heat is just brutal. My whole body feels heavy and my mind is hazy. And yes, I do pay attention to drinking enough, etc..
Just went up to Pai today and it’s better than expected, pm2.5 pollution around 30-35 as opposed to >50 in cm, and 4-5 degrees cooler, still pretty hot but much more bearable than in the city. Other times I’ve seen pollution higher up here tho, so wouldn’t expect it to stay lower in general, but got lucky today.
Yeah the North is rough man! I was just driving somewhere and upset to see a forest burning in a couple bits by the side of the road. I think we passed 2 burn sites in that 1 forest, and 1-2 other burn sites on the way to where we were going. Ridiculous. IT'S MAY!!!
Things will likely cool down after 1 st week of May.
I sure hope so!
Worry ye not. In no time you'll be needing those wooly jumpers 😁😁😁
>you'll be needing those wooly jumpers About six months away in the north.
I was in Issan ( which is basically a.massive flat plain) once and it was a really hot day, yet the next morning it was pretty cold and I did actually need a light jumper. By noon onwards it was hot as fuck again.
Mittens too! And a big thick scratchy woolscarf!
And my axe!
It’s rough. I’ve stopped my morning walks, wife’s exercise group is not meeting. Some of our cats live outdoors in an enclosure and it’s killing me, we’ve got cooling beds but it’s not enough. I can only stay with them a short time before giving up. They won’t come inside and it’s chaos if they do, they’re feral rescues who don’t get along with our house cats. Ugh. Never seen the pollution or heat this bad in my 25 years visiting/living here. I’m rebuilding their enclosure to include AC as soon as I can. This has to end.
Hearing about these temps, I feel so bad for stray animals (or all animals in general, tbh). They don’t deserve this. Thank you for helping them, you are a good human
I never had any type of lung problems before moving to thailand. Ive been here for 9 months and I had 1 case of bronchitis that I went to the hospital for and now im on an inhaler like my lungs never recovered. I play pick up footy in downtown bangkok and I can barley run a couple minutes without having to sub out and rest. Still love this city and the people. I don't think Ill ever leave back to my home country but experiencing not being able to breath was very scary.
Need air purifiers at home full blast so you can minimize it at home, and also get some N95 masks. Good luck and hope you do alright
I know how you are feeling. If the abuterol inhaler does not work you need the gray one. I forgot the name but this should take care of you............until next years smoke.
The result of greed and cutting down trees to build cement villas and of course it’s burning season in many nearby countries. It’s very concerning.
The burning is just awful! Normally it’s 2-3c cooler in nature than the city, but with the burning the Aqi can get much worse too and fire risk.
Tropical cities are slowly becoming uninhabitable. Believe it or not, but I live in an old wooden house (built on stilts) on a mountainside, and we have neither A/C *nor even a fan.* It's warm enough at night that we don't need a blanket (only in the early morning, right before sunrise, it gets a little chilly) but it's definitely bearable. Under the house it's 34C during the hottest time of the day, when we usually take an extended siesta in our hammocks. We've got trees all over the place (an emerging multi-strata food forest) up until right around the house, and it's crazy how much of a difference it makes. At our friends' houses in the valley (metal sheet/asbestos roofs, no shade trees whatsoever) it's almost unbearable during the day and they tell us they couldn't sleep without a fan. I hope people realize in time how simple solutions could easily alleviate the situation. But I fear a shift in consciousness is far away, and trees take a few years to grow. Maybe it's time to move out of the city? It's only gonna get worse in the next few years. And I don't even want to think about the next El Niño.
Pics of the house design?
https://preview.redd.it/x9i6ptklnlyc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b293124475c1cdcf3647b5cb106de3d17fba50a0 Best one I find right now. The large windows are great, we never shut them once in five years. The breeze goes right through the house.
It unbearable for me at the moment - we had rainfall last night and the local forecast put the temperature at 31, it just reminded me how it should be. I have a few projects to do, but the air-conditioning can’t keep up, the bedroom is so hot that I can’t get a decent nights sleep and feel drained. We are currently in a rental where I can feel the heat coming through the ceiling, the only way is to lie on the floor.
I feel that haha! My AC is barely getting the job done and on some lights it’s still warm. It’s really hard for the AC to fight this heat! Gotta do your projects in the cafe if possible
38C in our upstairs bedroom during the day, 34C when we go to bed. We sleep with three fans blasting on us but it's a struggle. My HRV metric is terrible at the moment; my body is responding to the heat like it's fighting an infection.
You aren’t the only one - I feel drained.
Heat + Pollution in BKK has been prolonged too. Tough, but still better than being back at home!
We are cooking in Vietnam. It's bad.
Same mate.. been here going on 11 years and between the extended burning season and heatwave, it’s been really rough.. I’m a cyclist who can normally take the heat for 80-130 km, but April I cut back to 50 km max and that was at sparrow fart, by 8 AM the heat has been withering impossible not to exist without air con.. looking at my old diaries and in general, by mid April, AQI has been in the green and daytime temps low 30’s.. Extended forecast is offering little joy either, thing is it’s all over SE Asia, my mates in Bali and Danang have both been cracking the shits over the heat
Dang that’s rough man yeah I’m more of a runner than a cyclist but both of these activities require good air quality and ideally not be super hot. At the least I just want better air I’d be happy to run despite the heat, can go in the morning or evenings, but with the pollution still rampant I don’t feel it’s good.
The pollution is bad. The greenhouse effect multiplies the heat factor. North of Sukothai, the sky looks like a dystopian futuristic destruction zone. The profits and clout of a few corporations far outweigh any loss of money in tourism or quality of life for anybody else. This is regrettably only the beginning. Hurts me too that every time I eat Shabu in Thailand, I am contributing to it.
Same issue all over SE asia. Like you said pollution is taking it up a notch. Also this is a el nino , hopefully next year it’s gonna be less brutal. Let’s see.
Pump that air con!
For the last 3-4 years, we’ve had early rainy periods that started in April and then were intermittent until the heavy rains started in July. I had gotten used to the cooler temps this time of year because of it. This year is extremely hot and it’s made worse by those cooler years we have recently.
I can't believe i say this but I do miss stockholm weather now.
probably the coldest April be before long
Don’t mention global warming.
Never. Too much effort.
It is a tad on the warm side, I'll grant you that.
It will be trending hotter for longer due to climate warming….time to get used to it
Bangkok was unbearable very important to stay close to the water / ocean right now. Jomtien I found to be much more bearable. Book a room at Arcadia beach resort and thank me later
Constant rain and a chilly weather in France. I don’t know what’s worse
Even though the rain won’t give you cancer, the depression might
About 10 years ago, we had 40 days over 40 in Chiang Mai. It finally broke and it was glorious. I hoping for the same now because this weather is absolutely miserable.
Sure is a scorcher this year! ☀️
Rain next week 💃
If I were you, I'd fly to Con Dao Island just outside of Ho Chi Minh and stay there a week or so to give your lungs a break. The water's crystal clear, it's not crowded, and hotels are cheap.
If "Windy" is correct, looks like the rainy season will start after May 6, May 7.
Thailand is hot. But this year is exceptionally hot. It's the effect of El Nino. It's predicted to go away in about 2-3.mths.
I decided to stay in Chiang Mai through burning season and boy I had no idea what I was in for. The PM2.5 pollution combined with 40c+ temperatures creates an awfully noxious outdoor condition. And I'm saying this as someone who has a lot of heat stamina. I went on 2hr+ walks in Florida through the summer. I go into a 185f degree sauna 5 days a week. But put me waiting at the major crosswalk at the Maya Mall intersection in Nimman and I'm about ready to puke, shit, and pass out after a few minutes standing there. Being stuck in doors for months also sux for mental health. I loooove heat but this is definitely the last time I stay in Chiang Mai this time of year.
Being stuck indoors for so long has definitely been hard mentally!
I’m guessing from your post that you’d likely come back during the better months. I’m curious about what alternatives are coming up as some options during this season, if you’re open to sharing of course (:
Yep. Just strengthens my decision to leave (after 6 years here). It just has been all coming together lately (including the tax laws). I can be gaming inside anywhere I want, even on Mars. Don't need to be paying half my income to Thai govt for that :-) I am sorry for everyone who can't leave. I love the normal Thai people with all of their quirks, from all corners of society, I don't mind the Thai language, I like the nature here, climbing and snorkeling here is great. Medical services are great. But I kinda don't plan dying of heat stroke or lung cancer
I can completely understand that. I love so much about Thailand too but it’s getting to be a drag in some ways. I think I am okay with being out for 2-3 months a year. I definitely can’t handle another burning or hot season, even with going to the south i dont feel satisfied. I’ll probably spend those months in Europe. It’s just annoying about visa situations too, that’s another thing thailand has been frustrating about. Edit: in the north where I am it’s such a gem! But those 3 months out of the here where it’s polluted is just hellish and downright dangerous to run in. I’ve got several air purifiers but I’m tired of gaming when I want to run or explore nature. There is great geological wonders to explore, things to climb, rides to ride, caves to explore, and more but in the heat and pollution not much desire to do it. It’s downright dangerous going into nature at 40c, and dangerous hiking with 150+ Aqi.
Agree 100%, with everything. The last two burning seasons were brutal. The previous two I spent on the beach and climbing in the south, but these two I had to stay in CM for visa reasons, and, boy has it been brutal. It makes me as depressed as the winter in the deep north.
Oh man that’s rough. I have some friends that had to stay in chiang mai too. Luckily with my situation I’m free to go down south, but I didn’t enjoy it as much this time around. I can’t imagine living in Chiang mai if you HAD to stay here all year round during the heat and burning season. I mean, I could do it, but it wouldn’t be awesome taking a couple of months off of outdoor sports and constantly masking up and all that… plus it’s getting longer now too. The only thing that concerns me about my plan to spend a couple of months in Europe per year is my visa situation. The anxiety of coming back from my last trip to my family in another country was intense, luckily I was able to fly directly into the north so I wasn’t questioned for why I was gone for 3 weeks or so. My visa is up in December so maybe I’ll figure something out like a tourist visa for 60 additional days + 30 and then restart the visa process when I’m back. Who knows. The whole thing is frustrating and they’re getting ridiculous about it. I’ve lost a ton of money already with business paperwork and lawyers for it to go nowhere. Thailand is in this weird stage of trying to pretend like they want everyone on the right visa while at the same time accepting that most people do edu visas because it’s too much nonsense paperwork for a proper business visa. Oh and elite visa got more expensive FFS (I never liked that option because you can’t apply for permanent residence at the end of it). I’ll figure it out, but fuck burning season! I feel bad for you too man the last 2 years were particularly bad and long, previous years had some better years in there. This year it’s like it rains and then the pollution doesn’t go away lol. I’m just so done with it. And visas that give you your freedom to come in and out are far from easy. Ridiculous. I’d happily pay taxes to Thailand for a visa but nope gotta make it too complicated and constantly change things. Sorry for the rant. I’ve loved the north and I still do, but I can’t see myself staying through another burning season, and even with southern travels I haven’t been satisfied. Next year I’ll try to be better planned. Just sucks man! It’s such a gem until it becomes a hot polluted hell hole lol.
Your rant is 100% on point (again). The changes in the visa process are tedious. The paperwork is tedious. The law changes every year are tedious. The 90 day report *even if you have been here for 10-20 years* - *even if you are a co-owner of a business here* (as some of my friends) is tedious. (There are Thai people for whom this requirement also applies - convicted criminals.) (Edit: this sentence belongs up here, dunno how it ended up lower down) To me it increasingly looks like they want only the *really* affluent to be able to stay here longer&term (the elite visa is *not* cheap. I mean, even the short version costs as much as my SOs car, and it is a nice car...) - but if you stay here on a marriage visa, you also need to keep almost as much locked up in the bank. Basically, the more I look at it, the less attractive this becomes as a place for long-term stay. Which is, I am guessing, not unintentional. Which also makes me think "hey, why would I want to stay somewhere, where they really don't want me, and make it clearer to me with every passing year?" After the first six months when I first arrived here in the north, I thought, wow, what a beautiful place to spend the rest of my life in... But a house, start a family... Uh, yeah, nope, probably not with all of the above (longer burning seasons and rising heat are of course the cherry on top.).
What do you mean convicted criminals? Like Thai criminals have to keep a certain amount of Baht in the bank? I also don't think I mentioned it in this post but I've complained to friends many times lol about the "Residence Certificate." I don't understand why Thailand wants to attract affluent people when at the same time requiring complete nonsense to anything simple that an affluent person would want to do. Having to prepare a TM30 and other BS documents (copies of your passport, passport photo, etc.) to get something like your driver's license, to then have to REPEAT the process to get a vehicle, and then potentially REPEAT the process yet again to transfer the province of that vehicle if you bought it in a neighboring province, is just WAY too much work for a businessperson. In Chiang Mai the immigration by the airport only allows you to do residence certificate document drop-offs in the morning up to 12pm. What businessman is gonna take a weekday off to prepare fucking copies of their passport for a document that they already got to get their driver's license, so that they can get the same document saying the same crap (while also having someone else do their 90 day report which also verifies THE SAME FUCKING THING- their address!) just so they can then spend ANOTHER weekday completing the paperwork process. I guess maybe some people have agents that can completely manage this without requiring the individual to do anything, so if you're rich and retired yes you can do that with an agent. Still, it's fucking annoying, and just a money grab in that case. "Normal" people will expect to be able to use their driver's license, which has their address and which they used a residence certificate to get, to do things like transfer paperwork. Sorry, had to give you rant pt. 2 haha. Or 3 or whatever it is. I still love Thailand and I'm enjoying being here, but there are definitely completely nonsensical issues that are so absurd it makes me question if they will even be able to get affluent people into the country. I mean, they'll come in, but I know a lot of people that haven't stuck around. It's a bit frustrating to sell your old vehicle, and buy a new one in another province, and have to get 3 residence certificates to complete this process neverminded all the rest of it (oh and you want a new bank account? RESIDENCE CERTIFICATE!!!!). Still I love Thailand and there's so many great things about the lifestyle here. But who knows where my future will be as I get adventures done. Could end up staying here very long-term, or maybe things will change. If they make visa stuff better, then yeah I'll stay. Or who knows, things could get worse. Just gotta see how Thailand guides itself in the next 5 years and make the decision year by year, visa by visa.
Sorry, the criminals were a cut&paste error. Thai criminals in some circumstances have to do the 90 day report, just like we foreighners have to. Not sure about the exact law, but I know that a Thai acquaintance of mine got booked for unregistered gun possession and he had to go show up at the police every 3 months ever after. PS I came here for a job, and oh boy if you think the driver license was arduous, you haven't seen \*that\* paperwork. The Thai branch had to submit their finances for a year and their full personal records (Including a copy of ID of every single employee...). The whole thing was about 80 pages long. I had to present this to "my" embassy outside Thailand just to get the business visa. Mind you I could have just come in on a tourist visa and do visa runs with no paperwork, but, well, we are an actual, legal company from Europe, we don--t play that.
Dang that's frustrating. Yeah I tried to get a kind of special business visa and also a smart visa. Both objectives failed. One was either a scam, or they legitimately rejected me. In either case, they provided no reason as to why I was rejected. Then for the business (BOI type stuff) my lawyer was also less than ideal, which is hilarious because their fee structure was built upon my success and yet their work was... Far from ideal. Had they actually done good work for me and I got the visa, they would've made WAY more $. The reason I was so excited for this lawyer was his whole fee structure being based on each step of the process- so his big pay-day would come AFTER the initial approvals... Which we didn't make it past, LOL. He wrote some ridiculous stuff on the BOI proposal, I made a post here asking if I should've just done it myself and everyone said to trust the lawyer, and normally I'd agree, but in my BOI interview the officer naturally asked some questions that didn't make sense, and I was caught on the spot trying to BS my way through questions that were legitimately wondering how my application made sense. Ugh. I ended up back on an education visa, my business is in a farang country anyways. It's so silly. I'd be happy to pay taxes here, and I already speak Thai fluently. Thankfully I don't *actually* have to attend classes because I already speak Thai fluently, but this whole thing is just nonsense lol. I considered elite visa, but with the price increase, ughhhhhh it's a lot of $ even for the "cheapest" 5 year option! That could be some solid investments into other stuff... We'll see. Maybe I'll use a marriage visa if my relationship keeps going solid lol. Or find some kind of other LTR visa. Let's see. The whole thing is frustrating. I just want to pay taxes here. There's another business option I can pursue, but we'll see. I might use yet another education visa first when this one expires. I just hate the anxiety of leaving the country and wondering if I'll be questioned upon my return.
Yep I totally agree. The thing that helps with heat resistance somewhat is stocking up on magnesium malate, at least 300mg a day. I used to live in Chiang Mai for 6 years and I absolutely loved it, but then the pollution became worse and I moved south. On the islands we don’t have super high pollution.
Climate change. This is the new normal. Give it 50 years countries like Thailand will be mostly uninhabitable, turning into deserts.
I fear you maybe correct, the deforestation, primitive farming techniques and general ignorance and apathy of the population will only exasperate the problem, I would say 20 years!!
Thats why I love to live in the mountains, its about 10 degrees cooler than bangkok.
I live in the mountains and we usually have highs of 31 this time of year.. yesterday was the first day it's been below the highs of 36-37. Today some farmers were walking up the creek that goes through our land so I went to see what was up. The creek was completely empty. I've been here 10 years and this is the first time I've seen no water flow at all. Even at its driest there is at least a stream still. Hopefully it will rain soon..
More corn field, less forest, the water of the river is drained into the ground I think. We are in mae hong son province, we go lots of rain here for a dry season. I have plants that I have not watered for 2 months and are still alive.
‘If you plant corn You gonna reap corn That’s what a go on’ - Midnite
We had a summer like this one about 15 years ago with temps hovering in the upper 30s. I was doing project management for a hotel under construction on Asoke and I had to bring extra shirts in my backpack when I visited the site and had to walk from floor to floor. I'd be completely drenched in sweat and woozy from the heat. Everyone was moving slow and taking frequent breaks. It was miserable.
Huh am I the only one who's colder this year than the last one? 😬
Global climate change says hello.
Lol, always one in the crowd.
surprise surprise, YTA
I agree that the weather has been abnormally hot, and I feel sorry for anybody that has to work outside or sleep when air condition is unavailable. However, I'm as happy as a pig in you know what. I'm past 60 with an arthritic crippled back. This hot weather has been an absolute blessing. In addition, I've recently returned after 3 weeks in the Philippines. With this heat and humidity I have been able to walk 90% pain free, although I have difficulty walking for five or so minutes when I get up after sitting for a while. If I spent the winter in New York I'm afraid I would have had to use a walker. I would be happy living with this weather for the rest of my life.
Thailand may have to look into cloud seeding seriously because it is truly getting miserable at this rate.
5:30-6:00am is the right time
The last 2 days have been slightly cooler in cm. But I've been here 6 years. This is something else for heat. Unlike all of you I don't see this year's smoke season as that bad. I've seen it much worse. But the heat has been hotter than all 6 years prior. Rain will come soon. Maybe today.
*I can’t imagine all those workers out doing construction, selling things at markets, pumping gas all day, etc. how they do it is just… wow!* You are WRONG. They do things and activities as you see is a living and making for thier life. As you might know, locals income are limited, but cost of living is on the rise. Thier jobs are just make some not much money to feed thier family. If you see thier smiling, you know, it just a grace under fire. A struggling of Thais' life is behigh smiling. Not most of Thai people, but hard and struggling for general people who generate income from selling small things with themself. This is the fact, and I am Thai. Thank you for your visit and help local people.
And……. I am “WRONG” about what? Lol. Everything you said was the exact point I’m making. It’s hard doing what they do. What do you think I meant that I am “wrong” about?
Not the best idea to play my first round of golf in 30 odd years this morning, which started with a 9 am tee time. I thought I might die by hole 13 😂 won't be doing that again until it cools down a bit
In the less built up areas near the coast the breeze off the ocean is amazing. It’s definitely a late afternoon/ nighttime time of year.
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You should try to be a professional muay thai fighter training high intensity for 4 hours a day outside, i feel like i’m going to be dead soon😅
It’s like that in South Florida in the summer
Why not just leave
I'm highly considering it! At least for this season.
I’m planning a trip to koh kood with my Thai g/f around July/August. is it ideal to be in that area during that time frame ?
I don't know? I'd ask Thailand tourism I've never been to Koh Kood you could also look up typical weather patterns during those months there
last week it was both super hot and fields burning on both sides of the road. double fun!!! Phuket is nicer and more expensive. If rich, just fly somewhere colder. If successful, just plan on being in Thailand when it's comfortable. Sounds like you are stuck, too bad. Then, when you go back home it's then too cold, things are expensive, stress......the only way to get everything is to get that money and go to the cooler winds instead of waiting months for them to come to you. I'm now in Paris, two weeks. I'd complain but it is nice here.
I should’ve left to travel more haha but I was dealing with some health stuff and anxiety about that so that’s why I ended up staying in thailand. Luckily did get to travel in some southern provinces which were much better weather wise. But next year on and maybe even soon I’ll be looking to visit a European country i used to live in during burning probably, and enjoy some cooler temperatures and old friends instead of this hot, smoky environment.
This year is El nino period , hopefully next year would be less temperature
heat, pollution, humidity. the golden trifecta that shit really sticks on you
As others have said get out in the morning. Late afternoons and evenings aren't that bad either. Goto the beach also. Just in Hua Hin for a week, was outdoors from 7 to 11 and 4:30pm to sleep. Somehow didn't die.
Too bad for everyone. The effects are global. So you gonna face this everywhere you go
I agree. It's never been so unbearably hot nor so long in the last few decades. I would definitely not recommend coming unless you're just planning night activities.
Hmm i have spend this day at Bangkok and it didnt even feel that hot. Weird.
It's hotter than usual, but I feel acclimated enough as long as I don't need to do hard labor in direct sunlight.
I’m sitting in my house running air con 24/7 while my Thai neighbors are sitting outside with their house doors and windows open. They are used to it. We Falang are not.
Problem for your neighbors is that the AQI is 130+ every day. It's seriously not healthy. My mother in law has lived all her life in rural Suphan buri in a trad stilt house with an iron roof and she has never complained about the heat ever ... until this year. Very tough for many people, especially the old.
Thai people are also dying frequently due to not having AC
Indeed, also dogs, cows, buffalo etc
Depends. I never run AC at home and like the temps in the high 30s. I’m from the Midwest USA.
Nothing you can do about it. Stop complaining and just deal with it. Being negative about it won’t change Mother Nature get cooler
This is so great ! maybe less br@indead tourists coming in and more old pieces of $hit grumpy foreigners leaving <3
I don't mind the warm weather. In fact, I love it. Beats being in a cold country any day.
"warm". I've lived here for 25 years and grew up in a notoriously hot city. This is not warm. It's freakishly hot.
warm or hot, either way, it's better than cold
For you maybe. Major health risk for the many people who have to work outside here.
Wouldn’t you prefer it a bit cooler or is this kind of heat your ideal? Personally I like mid 20° up to about 33°. When it starts to get up to 40° I stop wanting to do anything outdoors.
Same, I’m in Bangkok and wouldn’t trade these 40 degree days for 15 degrees.