Spring Is Here

Although Thailand does not officially recognise spring there is a period which is the forerunner to the rainy summer season when loads of trees have stunning flowers on them - check out the photographs. Also, during the last few months many trees and shrubs have shed their leaves and are waiting for the rainy season to start the cycle again. It is now late March and there has been some showers in the past couple of weeks, so the rainy season is just around the corner. The last rainfall was in December. Its a beautiful time of the year.

The only downside and it is a big downside is that farmers in the surrounding countryside have been burning rice fields and anything else that they can find to burn. The result is that there has been a nasty, toxic cloud shrouding Chiang Mai. Due to there being no rain or wind this cloud simply does not go away. You cannot even see the surrounding mountains. Couple that with the normal pollution from Chiang Mai traffic and factory fumes and you have a very unhealthy cocktail of flying particles. The city is in a bowl and there is nowhere for the pollution clouds to go. So the cloud just hangs there causing sore throats, runny eyes and respiratory problems. Apparently this burning is illegal and there are numerous posters asking farmers not to burn. Even the king his chipped in with an initiative to stop the farmers, but for some reason, that has not been explained to me, they continue the burning. There is a culture of not losing face here in Asia and maybe it is this part of Thai culture that persuades the farmers not to obey the law. I am becoming an expert in PM10 charts (particle matter) and the safe levels I believe are around 20. In the UK if the levels hit 50, schools are closed and the kids are told to stay indoors. Here in Thailand they consider the safe level to be 120. Apparently this came from a mining town in England which had a high figure due to wanting to keep the miners working. The readings here in the past few weeks have been 100-220, a very dangerous level. The level this week 23-27 March, has been around 50-90 - still dangerous but better.