Living in Thailand with relatively good air

[watgate]

Now that I am experiencing some lung issues due to the poor air quality in Chiang Mai I have to find another place to live for the 8- 10 months that I typically am staying in Thailand. This year I arrived the middle of May and am due to depart Thailand the end of March. Also, this year will be the first where I am going to be leaving the Chiang Mai area once the burning season starts up. In your opinion or based on your experiences are their any places in Thailand to live where you can be reasonably assured that the air quality is satisfactory and not injurious to one's health? Thanks for any input or advice. 

[GreasyFingers]

We do get some smoke haze up here but do not notice it when breathing. Cannot compare it to Chiang Mai as never been there when smokey.

[Tweedle dee]

I have lived up CM twice and each time i found it lousy during the crop burning season , i am now here Surin and even here its a job to see any stars at night, even back in the UK the air seems much better than here.

[Tweedle dee]

1 hour ago, GreasyFingers said:

We do get some smoke haze up here but do not notice it when breathing. Cannot compare it to Chiang Mai as never been there when smokey.

If you take a trip up to Dio suthep temple you will visibly see the haze and at times you cant see the city below.

[OneMoreFarang]

Maybe this is a start. It was one of the first links in Google...

http://aqicn.org/map/thailand/

 

[Sheryl]

There are many places in Thailand with clean air but they tend to be quiet rural areas with very few if any farang and hence very little of the things many farangs seek. And they also need a car to live in. So would help to know:

 

- do you drive/have a car here?

 

- can you speak Thai?

 

- do you need a place where you can socialize with other westerners? Or would you be OK  with only Thais as neighbors?

 

-do you need western food (restaurants, supermarkets)? Etc

 

As these answers will narrow down the choices considerably

 

 

 

-

 

 

[Nyezhov]

11 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Maybe this is a start. It was one of the first links in Google...

http://aqicn.org/map/thailand/

 

Damn did you take a look at China? Wow.

 

Looks like Nan and Phrae are the winners in Thailand

[tutsiwarrior]

10 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

There are many places in Thailand with clean air but they tend to be quiet rural areas with very few if any farang and hence very little of the things many farangs seek. And they also need a car to live in. So would help to know:

 

- do you drive/have a car here?

 

- can you speak Thai?

 

- do you need a place where you can socialize with other westerners? Or would you be OK  with only Thais as neighbors?

 

-do you need western food (restaurants, supermarkets)? Etc

 

As these answers will narrow down the choices considerably

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

what sheryl describes pretty much fits my circumstances in a small agricultural town in south Suphanburi, about 12k population...flat with rice paddies as far as you can see with nothin' much goin' on, but nice and quiet with good air...

 

but there's always the dust as you'll find when you clean surfaces in the house periodically so the air ain't completely clean...don't much like goin' anywhere anymore, but there's always the 90 day report to do at immigration up at the changwat and then I usually shop to get stuff that we don't have at home...get a bigmac and some fries...pick up some pizza for the kids when we get back home, etc...

 

gotta have yer own transport in those rural places and we gotta crew cab pickup that I bought new a few years ago but I never drive it, let the step daughter get on with things...prefer to kick back riding shotgun with an insulated jug fulla vodka and ice listenin' to Beethoven's 6th, the Pastoral...

 

 

[tutsiwarrior]

39 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

 

 

dbbl post

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[KhunBENQ]

54 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Maybe this is a start. It was one of the first links in Google...

http://aqicn.org/map/thailand/

 

I repeatedly watched this site resp. the Android app.

I can't remember ever having seen bad values in the deep south (incl. Phuket).

But now think whether you like the climate, hot and humid most of the year.

No trace of winter like in the north/northeast.

[madmen]

Lazada has plenty of affordable purifiers that have no problem dealing with smoke.

But that won't stop you you outdoors unless wearing a proper mask and not the ones the Thais wear

[Moonlover]

Well, I've just returned from my early morning walk in the countryside in rural Issan. Something I do every morning.

 

It reminded me of the O/Ps request and minded me to comment on the air quality here. I've no means of quantifying it, but my nose and lungs tell me that the air here is very clean indeed.

 

We live 20kls from Sakon Nakhon and some 2kls from the main road and with no industry anywhere near us, this is just about as clean as it gets and it is consistently so. I do know clean air when I breath it, I practice yogic breathing (pranayama) every day, so I would soon know if it wasn't.

 

Sheryl has already covered other aspects of rural living, so I leave it at that. But this is probably the cleanest air you'll get in Thailand.

[cardinalblue]

Beach areas best bet....

 

dec has been good in CM so far....usually some time in Jan and definitely Feb the air Q starts to turn bad.....they are burining the fields at night for the 2nd crop being planted now and during next month...

 

CM is good for 8 months a year....unacceptable the other 4 months.....

[melvinmelvin]

Nan should be ok if you are up some hillside.

Same same in Loei.

 

Here is a place in BKK with fresh air, Bang Kon Tian sea side

constant breeze in from the Gulf, you can smell the salty water.

 

Close to Maha Chai, it is actually in BKK. but on the SW edge.

 

[gamini]

Samroiyod beach just 40 kms South of Hua Hin has reputedly the best climate in Thailand. It is surrounded by small  mountains and the humidity is low. I had to leave Changmai because of .my my chest problems caused by pollution. I used to get pneumonia and bronchitis quite a few times in Chiangmai. But I have had none since I left several years ago. There are a lot of expats living around the area and Hua Hin is only a 40 minute drive away. 

[at15]

 

5 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Well, I've just returned from my early morning walk in the countryside in rural Issan. Something I do every morning.

 

It reminded me of the O/Ps request and minded me to comment on the air quality here. I've no means of quantifying it, but my nose and lungs tell me that the air here is very clean indeed.

 

We live 20kls from Sakon Nakhon and some 2kls from the main road and with no industry anywhere near us, this is just about as clean as it gets and it is consistently so. I do know clean air when I breath it, I practice yogic breathing (pranayama) every day, so I would soon know if it wasn't.

 

Sheryl has already covered other aspects of rural living, so I leave it at that. But this is probably the cleanest air you'll get in Thailand.

air is actually pretty horrific in sakon nakhon and surrounding areas today, worst in thailand. consider pm2.5 the stuff that will actually kill you. there is no "clean air" in thailand.

[Moonlover]

2 minutes ago, at15 said:

 

air is actually pretty horrific in sakon nakhon and surrounding areas today, worst in thailand. consider pm2.5 the stuff that will actually kill you. there is no "clean air" in thailand.

Can you provide the evidence for that please?

[at15]

3 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

Can you provide the evidence for that please?

go to airvisual.com/earth

 

you can monitor pm2.5 24/7/365. 

 

pm2.5 right now in that corner of the country is around  50 µg/m³

 

if you look at the research and data that is out there, no location in thailand does the yearly average pm2.5 stay below the safe limit. if clean air is what you are after thailand is not the country, thats just the sad reality.

 

 

 

 

[Pdavies99]

On 12/16/2018 at 11:40 AM, Tweedle dee said:

I have lived up CM twice and each time i found it lousy during the crop burning season , i am now here Surin and even here its a job to see any stars at night, even back in the UK the air seems much better than here.

If you look at air quality indexes most places in the UK are far better than Thailand.  See

https://aqicn.org/map/thailand/

Edited December 17, 2018 by Pdavies99
edit

[at15]

7 minutes ago, Pdavies99 said:

 If you look at air quality indexes most places in the UK are far better than Thailand.  See

https://aqicn.org/map/thailand/

they have never had any monitors show up in the northeast. better not to know the reality in isaan LOL, worst air in thailand if you consider yearly average pm2.5. Yes, some even worse than chiang mai with their burning season.  

[Laza 45]

I've been living in Kalasin for 12 years now.. the air quality here isn't too bad as long as the neighbours aren't burning garbage with plastic in it!  Occasionally a bit of smoke when they burn off the rice paddies but that doesn't happen very often and doesn't last long.  Not a great deal of night life here but one good restaurant serving ferang food and one bar.. lots of good Thai restaurants of course.  BigC, Tesco & Makro for supermarket shopping & a couple of good produce markets..   Pretty easy to get around if you avoid morning and evening rush.. apart from standard idiots you get on Thai roads.  About 80 Ks to Khon Kaen or Roi Et if you want more shopping.. Airport at KK & Roi Et.. van link to Air Asia in KK is convenient.. Good ex-pat community in and around town.. 

[Lacessit]

The worst of the smoke season in CM is from mid-February to the end of March. IMHO the OP is leaving his run a bit late.

I've found using an air filter in my room in CM during the smoke season is effective in reducing inhalation, in tandem with aircon.

Some expats here retreat to Pattaya or Phuket for a month. I'll be giving that a try next year.

[Nyezhov]

2 hours ago, melvinmelvin said:

Nan should be ok if you are up some hillside.

Same same in Loei.

 

Here is a place in BKK with fresh air, Bang Kon Tian sea side

constant breeze in from the Gulf, you can smell the salty water.

 

Close to Maha Chai, it is actually in BKK. but on the SW edge.

 

Ill tell ya if I was going to go rural (and I might next year) I would look around that Maha Chai area.

[masuk]

On 12/16/2018 at 2:40 PM, Tweedle dee said:

I have lived up CM twice and each time i found it lousy during the crop burning season , i am now here Surin and even here its a job to see any stars at night, even back in the UK the air seems much better than here.

It's not only crop smoke added to the ever-present diesel in the air in Chiang Mai.  

An expert on this matter gave a lecture to CM Expats about 2 years back, and pointed out that a lot of the smoke came from burning corn cobs, which had the corn husked from them.

The cobs are presumed to have a lot of pesticides in them, which then goes up with the smoke and hello Chiang Mai!

[Unify]

IMO, you have to go further south than Hua Hin to get decent air, unless it's rained recently. Phuket, and Krabi are significantly better.

 

I was in Hua Hin in early December, and brought an air quality meter with me. It was worse than Chiang Mai every day I was there. The AQI was 140 at the beach, and 160 up on the vantage point up on the hill, outside of town. Those are numbers I wouldn't want to expose myself to, long term.

[morrobay]

6 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

 

Some expats here retreat to Pattaya or Phuket for a month. I'll be giving that a try next year.

Forget Pattaya because at least half the population: the lowlife locals, the hoards of other oblivious Asian males, the white trash- are these sorry/obnoxious cigarette smokers polluting the ground level air spaces. For example these POS taxi drivers camping on sidewalks and hijacking the entrances to business establishments, the Asian males walking around all smoking. And then all these white males sitting on curbs and steps everywhere smoking. 

[melvinmelvin]

53 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Ill tell ya if I was going to go rural (and I might next year) I would look around that Maha Chai area.

 

and a very good area for sea food

most of the quality seafood sold in BKK come from  Samuth Sakhon

 

 

 

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, at15 said:

they have never had any monitors show up in the northeast. better not to know the reality in isaan LOL, worst air in thailand if you consider yearly average pm2.5. Yes, some even worse than chiang mai with their burning season.  

As there are no monitors in the northeast how can you possibly make such a statement?

 

Actually you wrong. There is a monitor in Khon Kaen. This afternoon is was showing an AQI of 63. Right now it's gone up to 106, no doubt because of 'rush hour' traffic. And that's in the city of course, not in the countryside.

 

I've been outside for most of the day and the air is beautifully clean and clear and I expect to see plenty of stars and a few planets this evening.

 

Your assertion that this region has 'horrible air' has no basis in reality.

[at15]

29 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

As there are no monitors in the northeast how can you possibly make such a statement?

 

Actually you wrong. There is a monitor in Khon Kaen. This afternoon is was showing an AQI of 63. Right now it's gone up to 106, no doubt because of 'rush hour' traffic. And that's in the city of course, not in the countryside.

 

I've been outside for most of the day and the air is beautifully clean and clear and I expect to see plenty of stars and a few planets this evening.

 

Your assertion that this region has 'horrible air' has no basis in reality.

sorry one monitor in khon kaen, but nothing else. not a great site for the n.e. thats all i mean. 

 

no basis in reality? Khon Kaen is the #1 most dirty city in thailand based on yearly average pm2.5. You have got to do some research on these things. 

 

countryside can be much worse than the city a lot of the time. its not the traffic that is the major problem, its the burning. pm2.5 is 1/30 the size of human hair.  these particles can remain airborne for a long time and travel hundreds of miles. there are certainly worse places in the world to be but we must maintain education on this topic.

Edited December 17, 2018 by at15

[GreasyFingers]

2 hours ago, Unify said:

IMO, you have to go further south than Hua Hin to get decent air, unless it's rained recently. Phuket, and Krabi are significantly better.

Except when the wind blows the burn off from Indonesia. I have been in Samui and it was very bad.