Had I been in England – or probably any other part of the UK or Europe right now – I guess the topic to crop up in most, if not all, conversations would be the ever present BREXIT. Here in Thailand, especially in the northern provinces, the obsession is much more environmental: it’s air quality.
Traditionally at this time of year Thai farmers burn off their crops before the start of the rainy season in April and even during my last years at work here there were days when we considered closing the school because the air was heavy with smoke. Certainly there were days when there was no opportunity for children to play outside.
There is an app. called AirVisual which can also be accessed at https://www.airvisual.com and which will provide air quality data for anywhere in the world.
Flying into Doha on the way here, I was aware of the limited visibility and the evidence of sand particles in the air. Arriving in Chiang Mai, the mountain views I had always loved were barely visible. Why? The AQI ( Air Quality Index) that day was over 500.
Today’s reading for Chiang Mai is 260 and is already declared ‘Very Unhealthy’!
One of my favourite drives when I lived here was up the hill to Samoeng and then on to Mae Rim on the other side of Chiangmai and my hosts were kind enough to repeat that drive yesterday.
First we visited the new Chedi at Banpong. The old one was one of the landmarks on the journey up the hill, but this is much more commanding of attention. It was clearer than on any of my previous drives up the hill this week with lovely blue sky behind it.
As we drove up the hill, though, it was clear that the smoke we had spotted the previous day was still in the air. We could see huge patches of burnt soil and trees – but these were forest fires, not crop burning.
At the Samoeng viewpoint from where I had taken the photo that is the header to this blog in February some nine years ago we stopped for me to take the same view again – this time a little later in the year. The difference is marked: the blues of the Doi Inthanon mountain range is still clear, but it is interspersed with smoke and this time it is from the burning of crops.
It was here, too, that we came across a couple of teams of firefighters, taking a break for a well-earned lunch before going off again to pile soil on any fires they could find.
Compare this, though, with Nakhon So Thammarat where we spent time last week for the wedding:
Baan Kiriwong is about 20 miles from the centre of the town of Nakhon Si Thammart and still in the province. It is renowned as the place with the best air in Thailand ( and also has some pretty amazing kanom jin!)
Clear skies at Ban Kiriwong 
Doing what comes naturally……
The day that we were there the AQI was 32 – somewhat lower than the temperature!!
Living the Journey 