Winter in Thailand

Winter is just around the corner

Terri Roamer

What can you say about winter other than it is far away from Thailand’s shores. But is it?

One of the country’s tourism themes is an invitation to world roamers to sidle up to Thailand’s front door and ask if winter is playing this week.

It doesn’t take long to suss out the country’s weather patterns a media colleague once told me shortly after I landed in a sweltering, humid Bangkok for the first time. 

Initially I thought someone was steam ironing my shirt, on the go, as I walked to the airport’s taxi ranks.

“Is it like this all the time,” I asked.

“There are three seasons here; hot, very hot and scorching,” my gracious host explained over a cold beer a few hours later in an equally chilled hotel lobby. He was pretty close, too, but after decades of acclimatising to life in the Thai capital I concede there could be a case for arguing a winter of sorts exists after all.

It’s all very relative mind you. An office worker in Alaska would call winter in Thailand a heat wave. But as the years of residence pile up that seasonal slide of the mercury slither encased in my wall thermometer prompts a search party for a light winter jacket.

Speed is the essence to grasp a Thailand winter and wring out a great holiday experience. Bets are off on predicting how long the cold snap will last, so having your plans in place in October is vital.

An eye on the weather vane helps to judge the moment. There are usually a few tell-tale signs that winter is just around the corner. One is the change in direction of the prevailing wind that by late October swings from the southwest to settle into a steady refreshingly cool breeze from the Northeast.

It’s this seasonal wind that carries the cool air off China’s vast chilly plains. It brings with it cloudless blue skies, misty mornings and even a slight relief from the usual soaring midday temperatures.

As long as that the Northeast wind prevails, the morning temperatures even in sultry Bangkok will drop to 15 to 18 degree centigrade with a substantial decline in humidity to boot. The record for Bangkok residents is around 10 degrees on a very chilly morning that had us all shivering on our doorsteps wondering if this was global warming in reverse.

Based on past form, the cold snap should bear down on North Thailand slipping south to Bangkok by November. Then it is up to nature whether we are still donning our fashionable winter togs come December.

There is only one direction to take to appreciate Thailand’s soft and gentle version of winter.  North Thailand is the spot, a region that attracts less than 20% of all the visitors to the country. That should be enough to gain the attention of spirited roamers who seek new travel experiences.

Close to the northern borders with neighbouring Laos or Myanmar there are national parks spanning mountain ranges that rise to around 1,800 2,200 metres, their peaks covered in morning mist and cloud cover.  At camps sites at around 600 to 800 metres high you will find a light frost lingering on the leaves of trees and the grass around your tent.

In these hilly regions of North Thailand temperatures drop to single digits, just a notch or two from freezing and rising to 12 to 15 degrees as the day wears on towards noon. Evenings cool off quickly, making it an enjoyable experience to dine at al fresco on the terrace of a road side restaurant, or at a national park camp site.

Ask any office worker in Bangkok what winter means and they talk about a trip to the far north village of Pai in Mae Hong Son province where they can wander through quaint streets, lined with timber shop houses, in their North Face jackets edged by a designer scarves and topped off by equally bizarre fur-lined hats. Calf-high boots complete the pose. It’s a fashion statement, a chance to wear stuff that sits in the closet for 51 weeks of the year.

During the chilly months of December and January, Pai’s boutique hotels and quirky guest houses are packed with visitors. Evening entertainment focuses on the walking street that at dusk transforms into a wonderland of trinkets and a thousand ways to rhyme Pai on T-shirts and souvenirs. It’s the ultimate tinsel town, but it’s fun, Thai style. The trick is to blend in and go with the flow to enjoy a Pai in the sky experience.

Pai has its critics who say it is overdone, crowded and divorced from the real world of far north Thailand living. They are right, but it can also be charming and the fun young Thai travellers are having rubs off on the rest of us. It has a quality to fascinate and that makes lolling around a coffee shop with an Espresso and a chocolate brownie watching life go by very entertaining.

Pai town is set next to the fast flowing Pai river, the longest river in Mae Hong Son province that has its source in the Huay Nam Dang national park to the north of the village.  The river flows through Pai’s emerald green valley a patchwork of market gardening and paddy, surrounded by mountains some of them over 2,000 metres high.

Apart from the nightly winter fashion parade, Pai is good spot to go trekking or test your skills at white water rafting. You can explore waterfalls and hot springs and there riverside camp sites where you pitch your own or rent a tent for a couple of nights.

The 134 km trip from Chiang Mai takes about six hours by mini buses that ply the mountain road, 1095, through switch-back bends over forested ridges affording spectacular views of fast flowing rivers far below. Pai stands just 2 km off the highway, 111 km short of the province’s main town of Mae Hong Son.

The tiny village is also the proud of owner of an airport with a brand new terminal to welcome visitors who take the short 20-minute hop from Chiang Mai on a tiny commuter aircraft that operates under Nok Mini colours. There are three flights daily in the high season, but as long as the runway remains 700 metres long only a 12-seat aircraft can land safely.

Pai is a perfect fit for motor cycle enthusiasts who will love the challenging mountain route to test riding skills. During the winter season motor cycle clubs organise tours around Mae Hong Son province with a stop in Pai.

One option is to bike from Chiang Mai on a grand circular route that covers both Pai and Mae Hong Son returning via Khun Yuam on highway 108. At the village’s single junction there is a small resort overlooking a teak forest, where the tour turns off to follow the back road 1263 that eventually winds its way to Thailand’s highest mountain Doi Inthanon at 2565 metres.  There are alpine trees and wild flowers associated with a temperate climate growing on these steep mountain slopes.  Doi Inthanon has camp sites and chalet-style accommodation at a remarkable royal project that pioneers the cultivation of fruits and flowers that prosper in cool climates.

From here the circular tour of winter villages comes to a close in Chiang Mai entering the town via highway 108

Another of my favourites is Nan a provincial town that nestles in a valley surrounded by mountains close to the far northeast border with Laos and just the spot to enjoy a winter chill. It’s as remote as it gets for a Thailand destination. Sure it has a daily bus service and even daily flights from Bangkok’s on a partner airline of Nok Air.

But surrounded entirely by mountains, the Nan valley is a cul-de-sac unless you fancy a rough and ready four-wheel drive through the back door checkpoint to Laos and Luang Prabang.

If you are determined to chill out and pace yourself, Nan is just the ticket. The town stands on the picturesque Nan River, the scene of spectacular traditional boat races at the close of the Buddhist lent in October.

Nan surprised me with is exquisite temples all in walking distance in the town’s centre. You can spend hours photographing the various architectural details including older chapels and a temple library built from teak.

It’s easy to relax and sip a coffee and soak up the town’s atmosphere while you plan a motor cycle trip to Nan’s fascinating weaving villages or Si Nan National Park where you can camp on the edge of a ridge at 1,400 metres and experience a morning sea mist. It is quite eerie to wake up and peep out of your tent to see a vast valley covered in mist with just the blue peaks peeping through.

There is even a frost on the camp site grass and you will need your winter woollies for the first few hours of the day and evening.

It was the one time that I really loved camping in Thailand. The tent site commanded the best views I have seen in the land. It was a prime site, envy of those who booked the bungalows, close to the park’s single restaurant and very secure in earshot of the park’s headquarters.

Tents can be rented for a Bt300 a night. But this is one time when you can unroll your own lightweight tent, park your motor bike and enjoy a perfect camp site on the edge of the mist. That’s what winter is all about in Thailand. Capturing the moment to shiver, perhaps skipping a cold shower and sleeping under the stars to wake up to a sea of mist covering peaks all the way to Laos.