Change is in the air
Many of you know a little something about the weather in Thailand. Think rain forests, tropical orchids, beaches, banana trees and you will have some idea of what a beautiful and yet WARM country we live in. Many people joke that Thailand has three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest. I’d say it’s more like this, a very hot/dry season (March-May), rainy/humid season (June-October) and cool/comfortable/almost perfect season (November-February). In the northernmost part of Thailand, where we live, and on any high mountain in Northern Thailand, these seasons tend to be very distinct and the cool season really does get cool. Cool season in Bangkok probably means only having to change your sweaty shirt once in a day rather than the normal 9 times (maybe that’s a slight exaggeration).
Anyways, it probably goes without saying that we really look forward to cool season. It means we can turn off the fans for several months in a row, pull out sweaters and socks and enjoy being outside at any time of the day, except at night when it really starts to cool off. Just coming off the end of rainy season we were looking eagerly to the start of cooler weather. This year it happened suddenly even though it was something we’d been expecting for weeks. Usually the start of cool season is ushered in by an extended rainstorm or an unseasonably hot day. We watched everyday, watched the clouds and watched the thermometer, looking for any sign of a change of seasons. This past Sunday night, as we were traveling home from a weekend visiting friends in Chiang Mai, we stopped in Chiang Rai and noticed something unusual. At the supermarket where we usually shop there were some clear signs of the arrival of winter. The people we saw were actually wearing sweaters and jackets, and not just to ward off the sun, but to ward off the cool! Whoooppeeee! Cool season is here!
Every city deals with this cool weather differently and in our neighborhood it means; campfires in the early morning and late night, time to wash the sweaters and hats and socks that have been stored away for months, patiently waiting to be remembered. There’s something about going through your closet in the hot and close month of July and seeing a pile of sweatshirts that just makes me laugh and think, “does it ever really get cool enough to need to wear all that stuff? It sure does. The last few mornings it has been about 65 degrees inside our house and down into the upper 50’s outside. Now, to you Midwesterners that doesn’t sound cold at all does it? Well, the fact is that with the way the houses are built here, with no heaters or central air of any kind, the temperature outside the house is very similar to the temperature inside the house. During the warmer parts of the year it can be over 90 degrees inside the house in the afternoons, hopefully cooling down to the upper 80’s during the night. We usually have the fans on during most of the day, and night, during other parts of the year. However, during cool season the fans are unplugged and stored in the corner, totally unnecessary during a time of year when you need multiple layers to stay warm
There’s something sort of unusual about watching a normally humid and over-heated country all of a sudden transform into a mild-winter. Everyone seems happier during cool season. It’s no secret that hot and sticky weather makes people ornery. That’s why banks, and other businesses that are expected to have long lines to wait in will inevitably install an air-conditioner. We’re used to watching people breeze by on their motorbikes, enjoying the coolness of the breeze. Now they are covered from head to toe with mismatched face masks, scarves, jackets, long pants and of course socks hastily stuffed into sandaled feet.
Yesterday we went to the weekly Saturday morning market in Wiang Kaen, as did quite a few other people, all looking for warmer clothes. There were piles of sweat pants, bins of felt fleece hats, lightweight gloves and jackets. There seemed to be a shortage of what we thought would complete the supply, warm clothes for little kids. A vendor told us they had just ordered the cool season stock, last week they hadn’t known yet that it would be so cold. We left with plans to return to the market next week, or perhaps visit one of the other weekly markets, in order to outfit our boys in an extra layer of warm jammies.
Several of our friends here who are more aware of other parts of the world outside Thailand have asked us about how the cool season here compares with cold season in America. “Is it as cold as this?” they say, shivering in their multiple layers as they ward off the 56 degree cold. “A little cooler than this” we say with a smile. We decide that stories of a Midwestern winter would only make them shiver more.
