Koh Chang has almost everything you need.

On 2/8/2019 at 5:36 PM, 4MyEgo said:

That goes without saying, although its a starter, Krabi is nice, as are some of the islands around there, but I have to stay on the mainland to take the kids to a school.

 

The plan is to head to Hua Hin and then venture further from there, a lot of research is going to go into this, that said, the closer to the sea, the better the chances of reduced burning I would hope.

You should have a look at Bang Saen, has a lot going for it.

7 hours ago, sandyf said:

You should have a look at Bang Saen, has a lot going for it.

Ok, thanks, Google maps showing it on the opposite side of the ocean, it's doable. Cheers

3 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Ok, thanks, Google maps showing it on the opposite side of the ocean, it's doable. Cheers

I take it you mean opposite to Hua Hin. I have been to Hua Hin a few times and Bang Saen is a much easier place to be. There is easy low cost public transport and all that you would want in easy reach, schools, hospitals, shops etc. You have Chonburi about 10 mins away in one direction and Sri Ratcha 20 minutes in the other. Sri Ratcha immigration is relatively small and quite efficient. I use the Bang Saen hospital, it is a university hospital and very good. Airport is just over an hour away and Bangkok about 2 hours on the bus.

 

6 hours ago, sandyf said:

I take it you mean opposite to Hua Hin. I have been to Hua Hin a few times and Bang Saen is a much easier place to be. There is easy low cost public transport and all that you would want in easy reach, schools, hospitals, shops etc. You have Chonburi about 10 mins away in one direction and Sri Ratcha 20 minutes in the other. Sri Ratcha immigration is relatively small and quite efficient. I use the Bang Saen hospital, it is a university hospital and very good. Airport is just over an hour away and Bangkok about 2 hours on the bus.

 

Yes opposite to Hua Hin, will definitely check this place out as we have the time. Thanks again appreciate it.

On 2/11/2019 at 4:59 PM, 4MyEgo said:

Yes opposite to Hua Hin, will definitely check this place out as we have the time. Thanks again appreciate it.

When you visit hotels would be the easy option but if you are interested in family accommodation I have seen some very nice town houses for rent, 2/3 bedroom at around 2/2.5K a night. only a few yards from the sea and no minimum number of nights.

It would be advisable to avoid holidays and events, check the website for whats on, good luck.

1 minute ago, sandyf said:

When you visit hotels would be the easy option but if you are interested in family accommodation I have seen some very nice town houses for rent, 2/3 bedroom at around 2/2.5K a night. only a few yards from the sea and no minimum number of nights.

It would be advisable to avoid holidays and events, check the website for whats on, good luck.

Thx and I do avoid hotels like a plaque as they are not family friendly IMO, i.e. I have a family of 6, 2 adults and 4 kids, everytime I would put in the stats on hotel websites, it would be like 3 rooms, yeh right, or an extra 800 baht per fold out bed, lol....as if. If hotels don't want to keep losing money as they say they are, they need to get more beds into rooms to accommodate for families.

 

I always look for an Air B&B kind of booking, although I know there had been some dramas in Thailand about that some time ago.

 

So when I travel to Oz I book my accommodation through Bookings.com and have also done once in Pattaya for a 2 bedroom condo.

 

The only place I book a hotel at is Patong Phuket, i.e. iBis offers a family room, King and double bunk for our girls, while the boys get a twin room, all up for a week including breakfast is around 1600 baht per night, x 2 rooms averaged out which is just within budget.

 

Cheers

7 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

Thx and I do avoid hotels like a plaque as they are not family friendly IMO, i.e. I have a family of 6, 2 adults and 4 kids, everytime I would put in the stats on hotel websites, it would be like 3 rooms, yeh right, or an extra 800 baht per fold out bed, lol....as if. If hotels don't want to keep losing money as they say they are, they need to get more beds into rooms to accommodate for families.

 

I always look for an Air B&B kind of booking, although I know there had been some dramas in Thailand about that some time ago.

 

So when I travel to Oz I book my accommodation through Bookings.com and have also done once in Pattaya for a 2 bedroom condo.

 

The only place I book a hotel at is Patong Phuket, i.e. iBis offers a family room, King and double bunk for our girls, while the boys get a twin room, all up for a week including breakfast is around 1600 baht per night, x 2 rooms averaged out which is just within budget.

 

Cheers

I know what you mean, I use Airbnb for just myself and the wife in the UK. Use them is Thailand as well, twice last year in Hua Hin for us and my wife's 2 nieces.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine came down from the north and wanted to stay one night in Bang Saen before going to Jomtien and asked if we could try and find somewhere, 14 of them in total. We had a good look round and all the better places were were too small, more your size. We did in the end find a 5 bedroom house, a bit basic but they were more than happy to be all under one roof. Only 2000 baht and the company were more than happy to provide additional chairs,cutlery and crockery.

We stayed in a small guesthouse a few yards away and had a great night with them.

On 2/8/2019 at 11:06 AM, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Hua Hin! Ticks all your boxes. Good location to bring up a family. The air is clean and contrary to a comment in another thread, is nothing like Patong!

I have tried to find any proof of the air quality here in Hua Hin, but so far no good luck. 

2 minutes ago, Hummin said:

I have tried to find any proof of the air quality here in Hua Hin, but so far no good luck. 

Ehm

 

https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/forecast/airquality/hua-hin_thailand_1153269

eh what smog......Pranburi??

2 minutes ago, kannot said:

eh what smog......Pranburi??

I just found one website that shows airpollution in Hua Hin ???? 

 

I was looking before, and found the Bejing site, 

 

https://aqicn.org/city/chon-buri/

4 minutes ago, Hummin said:

I just found one website that shows airpollution in Hua Hin ???? 

 

I was looking before, and found the Bejing site, 

 

https://aqicn.org/city/chon-buri/

Goolge Hua Hin's Latitude and Longitude which should be 

 

12.5685° N, 99.9577° E

The put your cursor into the world map and zoom in, pull down or move left or right, or up or down till you find Thailand, then click on it where you think roughly Huan Hin is and keep clicking till you get close enough to the above reading and there you will have a real time reading on the left of the screen.

The closest I got was 12.57 N, 99.98 E which is close enough with a reading of 32.2ug/m3

 

Takes a little getting used to but becomes easier the more you use it, and as I said it's real time readings.

 

 https://www.airvisual.com/earth

 

 

Where to move in Thailand to get away from the smoke?

 

Bangkok has poisonous air since december. It covers the whole surrounding areas, all the way to Pattaya. After that you arrive at Mapthaput, basically an open air gas chamber. 

 

Isan has only 2 stations measuring AQI, one of them is broken. Khonkaen has consistently measured bad air quality, especially last week. There are plenty of reports of toxic air due to agricultural fires.  I haven't seen many though, maybe southern Isan is ok.

 

In the north,  burning season has started.  AQICN is read all over the north. 

 

So go to the tourist traps of the south,  enjoy the Chinese visitors and the fresh air as long as you can (i.e. until burning season on Sumatra starts).

How about somewhere with high altitude?

Any good high mountain places?

On 2/8/2019 at 9:04 PM, 4MyEgo said:

Yes of course, I have driven down further to through Krabi were we have stayed, and at Koh Lanta, Trang, and Songkhla, beautiful areas, but a little too close to the border for my liking with all the problems they have further down that way. 

Most of the problems down south are three provinces right on the border, cannot remember the names. Spent some time with educated Thai friends down Phattalung way, overnighted there & Nakhon Si Thammarat. Heavy rain & possible flooding down that way at times. My friend has a house in Hua Hin inland a KM or so. Seemed like a pleasant enough place/area.

53 minutes ago, JayBird said:

How about somewhere with high altitude?

Any good high mountain places?

To be closer to Buddha no doubt ????

 

On 2/15/2019 at 4:32 AM, vinniekintana said:

..there's very little rice cultivation or other annual crops in the south...the biggest culprits for haze

 

The biggest culprit is not rice, it is sugar cane

21 hours ago, JayBird said:

How about somewhere with high altitude? Any good high mountain places?

Mountains are typically in the north of Thailand where the worst of the smoke problem is. I am about 1000 meters up. The air appears somewhat better visually, but some smog is certainly still evident. If you are an active outdoor person concerned with health I can't recommend high altitudes amid smoggy places.

 

6 hours ago, uhuh said:

The biggest culprit is not rice, it is sugar cane

Thai's will burn everything, not just rice or sugar. Every crop, every pasture, every forest, every bit of plastic, everything is burnt. Even if growing fruit trees they are known to gather all the dead branches and leaves to make big fires out of them. They just love to burn and they don't care.

 

There was a lot of smog in Krabi this morning and yesterday too.

When you stick your head out of the window and smell, it is a toxic smell. It is not just grass being burned.

I think it is dust + smog that is forming a cloud, not dissipating, permeating more and more, covering a larger and larger area from Myanmar to Cambodia and Vietnam, down south Thailand way.

I doubt Hua Hin has clean air.

You need to go to Songkla! Lots of wind and clean air there.  Good location except the travel warning, your not covered there.

59 minutes ago, Don Chance said:

There was a lot of smog in Krabi this morning and yesterday too.

When you stick your head out of the window and smell, it is a toxic smell. It is not just grass being burned.

I think it is dust + smog that is forming a cloud, not dissipating, permeating more and more, covering a larger and larger area from Myanmar to Cambodia and Vietnam, down south Thailand way.

I doubt Hua Hin has clean air.

You need to go to Songkla! Lots of wind and clean air there.  Good location except the travel warning, your not covered there.

Check this link on a regular basis for a few months - one year (if time allows and capture screen shots bi-weekly or so for comparison, the issue is a fluid one and many areas are affected at one point or another - some for more days per year than others, etc..

https://www.airvisual.com/earth

Right now, all of Thailand is much better off than a few weeks back, worst area now is Udon?Nong Khai, and sounds like you are in that area....

 

Phetchabun Province would be my first choice, and here is why... https://www.google.com/search?q=phetchabun,+thailand&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CWneI8kUwkScIjjesI94U-mWKhCUQ1ijeOzWVTIzU_1960sJlnlMBEEovU60CAAYV21cGyRtOArYM57Brw5ZEcz_1E4CoSCd6wj3hT6ZYqEf4afpzL9cQHKhIJEJRDWKN47NYR-aTl63aDIeoqEglVMjNT_13rSwhEJ3KWuVQ-tByoSCWWeUwEQSi9TEaInH5AMPV5aKhIJrQIABhXbVwYRGwrLmNS4WIUqEgnJG04CtgznsBGB3sYAIlwmhioSCWvDlkRzP8TgET_1gun5ddrp6&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFj6fW9sngAhXUfH0KHZeFCdYQ9C96BAgBEBs&biw=1920&bih=944&dpr=1