WinnieTheKhwai

Don't worry, humans will destroy the earth long before any asteroid will.

This is complete ThaiVisa hyperbole.  The linked article makes no mention of 'out with the backpackers'.  It merely reports on the need for Chinese language skills, as more and more independently travelling Chinese tourists visit the area. 

There's quite a bit here that's factually incorrect.  5 years ago was 2014.  That wasn't a good year for air quality either in the dry season, to put it mildly.  People seem to forget that as recent as 2 years ago there weren't any independent sites, apps or consumer monitoring stations.  So awareness has improved leaps and bounds, both among Thais and expats. 

This year was bad, and extremely dry, but one year doesn't make a trend.  Several years were worse, going quite far back. Most of you will remember 2007.

Another persistent myth is 'that it starts earlier every year' where actually the opposite is true.  But without apps, sites and dozens of monitoring stations, people just noticed things were a bit hazy in January or February and that was it, no mass alarm.  (There SHOULD have been mass alarm; don't get me wrong on this.)

The longest term perspective that exists is based on PM10 data. At the time there was an air quality standard in effect of 120 ug/m3 PM10, and the Pollution Control Department kept records of the number of days that this value was exceeded. (All as daily averages; any AQI is intended to be used with a 24 hour average).  They also noted the 'worst day' for every month, since 1996. 

The numbers are a bit dry but they turn into a graph that shows the situation pretty well. 

"But what about PM2.5!", I hear you scream.  PM2.5 data is only available since 2012 for one station, and since 2017 for one more station, and then lots and lots and lots of stations in 2018 and 2019: again, the availability of this information is *extremely* recent.   You can make an educated guess though as to what the PM2.5 level would be based on the PM10 value.  On average it turns out that the PM2.5 component of a PM10 value is higher when the overall pollution is higher, up to 80%. (This is exceptionally high actually and may be specific for this kind of extreme pollution caused by burning forests and crops in the region)

Taking this PM2.5 ratio of 80% for peak values, that means the worst day in 2007 which had a PM10 of 396, the corresponding PM2.5 value would very likely be around 317, or a US AQI value of 367: dark purple Hazardous.  (Again: daily average!  Peak readings on that day would have been very, very high. I mention this only because the AirVisual app tends to focus on individual readings, and people seem to remember the peaks the best.) Anyway that's well over 10 years ago.

I took a photo at the time of what that looked like: 

That was 13 March, 2007.  It looked like Mars.   (Doi Suthep is somewhere behind all that.)

My prediction for the future.. I think other areas will catch up with Chiang Mai's level of data gathering.  It will then become apparent to more people that the situation in many places in the North and North East are the same as or worse than Chiang Mai; you seriously don't want to be in Pai in March.  Or even Khon Kaen, etc.  After that, harder data will become available on Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, etc.   Then the extent of the emergency will finally be understood.  Even today there is yearly data on Hanoi in Vietnam: their yearly average air quality is worse than Chiang Mai, so if you're making a move, choose wisely.  Also Chonburi/Pattaya may not be better when taken over the entire year.

But the above prediction is largely about 'understanding and awareness'.  What about the actual pollution levels.. that's much harder to predict. The trend is towards very slight improvement, but not by enough to see real change.  A draconian government crackdown might help, similar to the War on Drugs a decade ago.  For reference, that means rounding up people who start fires and shooting them in the head.  It's definitely urgent enough: bad air kills a lot more people than drugs do, and not just willing participants either.

Yes, Duke's is great.  The main thing that remains puzzling is the lighting.  It used to be so dark you could barely make out the food.  Now it seems the light bulbs have an extra couple of watts but it's direct light and a bit harsh.  It would look so much better with a little attention paid to lighting design. 

And the portions are still huge.  We finally know how to deal with that, for a family of four you order one soup, one salad and one main dish. ????

8 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

RIP, No report on driver were they also drunk,did they stop,

or do a runner,poor reporting.

regards worgeordie

No there was extensive reporting on all those things.   But Thaivisa didn't bother with it; seems they're taking over where the Nation left off, in writing things that raise more questions than they answer.

 * The driver was a local man, driving a sedan car.
 * He stopped after the accident, waiting for authorities and emergency services to arrive.
 * They checked for alcohol, but he was found to be free of alcohol.
 * The family forgave him, it was an unfortunate accident but not unexpected. Sub-Lt Suraphon died doing the thing he loved. 

Link: https://www.khaosod.co.th/special-stories/news_2757162 

Oh come on, that's completely intentional.   Exact same thing happened to Jonah. 

I've looked more into the reasons why this kind of reporting is extremely misleading. They are quoting the Northern Chapter of the Thai Hotel Association. 
This is a club of 64 (!) hotels, most of them very long established. Places like the Orchid Hotel, Chiang Mai Gate, CM Plaza Hotel, Dusit Princess, Suriwongse, Holiday Inn, M Hotel (formerly Montri), Imperial Mae Ping, Lotus PSK, Phucome, Flora Creek (formerly Kritsada Doi Resort), Prince Hotel, etc. etc. So in short these are all hotels that were also around 20-30 years ago, (with some 5-Star newcomers like the Meridien and Anantara) For reference, the full list is here: http://www.thaihotels.org/16779806/northern-upper

It would be an understatement to say that Chiang Mai tourism is not the same as it was 20-30 years ago. No longer a couple dozen entrenched hotels dominate the market. A quick look on Agoda shows 5,274 hotels , hostels and other accommodation providers. Booking dot com: 2,084. 

So there are now THOUSANDS of options for tourists to stay in Chiang Mai. Most of these did not even exist '10 years ago' as stated by the old guard hotel operators. 
There is probably an interesting and relevant article / headline to be found in there, about the changing landscape of tourist accommodation in the North, but a whine about 'the worst for 10 years' on tourist numbers certainly isn't it. 

I wish fewer journalists let themselves be fooled so easily. One thing the Hotel Association does well is issue press releases and do seminars and interviews. So the laziest of journalists will have something to print.

No need to hide is picture if the actual GoFundme has his photo in full..?

https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-sam-birch

Creative text,  by the way: 

"encarcerated in a Thai jail through no fault of his own and has two children who apparently needs to see him. "   (sic^4) 

Whoever started the funding page should go to jail himself for grave offenses against spelling and grammar, as well as logic and general lack of thruthiness.

Good.  However TAT needs to promote specific regions, it's not good enough if Indians only ever visit Pattaya and Phuket.  

It's because Pai is too crowded;  nobody goes there anymore. 

(To be honest it sounds like heaven to have Pai be a quiet town again.. or maybe that's just me.)

On 6/26/2019 at 9:39 AM, darksidedog said:

There's never a dull moment here is there? Still, the cops shouldn't have been so dumb as to parade through Walking street and say there was no evidence of prostitution, when everyone knows it is going on everywhere. 

They didn't say that.  Thaivisa and an associated blog wrote that, but it was fake news, as so often.

The statement after the Walking Street check was that bars were found to follow regulations.  That's very different from claiming that there's no prostitution, but some blog writers don't care.. 

It's very true that it's stable.  Problem is that it's stable at completely unacceptable levels, given current insights. 

Is there any reason to call this 'airport mafia' instead of 'the utterly corrupt immigration police' ?

Excellent article!  ❤️ 

(Now wait for the tinfoil madhatters claiming all the numbers are fake. ???? )