I need to get out of chiang mai and was wondering where is the best area or place to move to in thailand for the best overall air quality on a yearly basis? I think Phuket would be too expensive. I am considering Rayong but now the air quality index is more then 150 so I am perplexed as to how best to proceed. 

If air quality is your prime objective, you will need to go down to the south of Thailand:

 

I can understand why you want to get out of Chiang Mai after reading all the negative posts on TVF. If you go strictly by the map provided by @Sophon it would be tempting to head south as he suggests. Very south in fact!

 

However, the map doesn't tell the whole story because some areas of Thailand do not have monitors. And I live in one of them. I live in the north east of Issan, around 20 kms to the east of Sakon Nakhon.

 

Here is virtually no industry, very light traffic, low population density and crucially, no sugarcane.  Most rice farmers around here prefer to harvest the rice stalks and plow in rather than burn, so field burning is quite rare. The result is very clean air. I've been here over 2 years now and apart from the occasional smoke from a cooking fire, which soon dissipates, I've had no reason to complain at all.

 

If you visit the web page below you'll get a modelized AQI for the area that I live. That reading is nearly always in the yellow range, only occasionally going into the orange range and never does it go red! (unhealthy)

 

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/sakon-nakhon/khok-si-suphan

 

 

What a question... - get out of Thailand if you can.
If you do not have a business you are free!

Get to neighbour Malaysia. Its cheaper overall but they do get air pollution anually from Indonesia's burning.

 

7 hours ago, watgate said:

I think Phuket would be too expensive

Not at all.  Very affordable we are talking thailand, not New york or london....Based on what is it expensive?  

7 hours ago, watgate said:

I am perplexed as to how best to proceed. 

I have been living in the north-east for the past 4 years and have been monitoring the air quality over the past year, suffice to say I downloaded the IQAir AirVisual app and put in a dozen provinces.

 

What I have found is Phuket and Krabi come up trumps, the latter is almost always in the green.

 

Yes Phuket would be expensive, that said, it all depends on your budget.

 

This burning season: January to April I will be heavily monitoring the smoke here in the country as we are about 20km's from the nearest towns, that said, it's not car/truck/industry pollution, it's the smoke from the burning of crops at night. So we are looking at going away for two months during the school holidays if the smoke keeps getting worse because of the lack of government enforcement and stupid farmers, which tells me nothing will be sorted, it's like saying Prayut will stop the Chinese from coming, hell no, money, money, money, before lives.

 

Don't want to leave the big comfortable, cool house we have here, but if it gets worse, 1st plan is to holiday away for 2 months, probably a month in Phuket and a month in Krabi, after that, look at moving back to my homeland and only visit Thailand during school holidays, if we can afford it, because our homeland is expensive and I will not be going back to work, fark that, and we have to consider the kids schooling ????

 

Check out the Khanom / Sichon erea in the Nakhon Si Tammarat province good prices and beautiful beaches whit not so much foreigner yet and never had problem whit bad air as i can remember.

Koh Samui is a good compromise.

2 hours ago, Moonlover said:

I can understand why you want to get out of Chiang Mai after reading all the negative posts on TVF. If you go strictly by the map provided by @Sophon it would be tempting to head south as he suggests. Very south in fact!

 

However, the map doesn't tell the whole story because some areas of Thailand do not have monitors. And I live in one of them. I live in the north east of Issan, around 20 kms to the east of Sakon Nakhon.

 

Here is virtually no industry, very light traffic, low population density and crucially, no sugarcane.  Most rice farmers around here prefer to harvest the rice stalks and plow in rather than burn, so field burning is quite rare. The result is very clean air. I've been here over 2 years now and apart from the occasional smoke from a cooking fire, which soon dissipates, I've had no reason to complain at all.

 

If you visit the web page below you'll get a modelized AQI for the area that I live. That reading is nearly always in the yellow range, only occasionally going into the orange range and never does it go red! (unhealthy)

 

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/sakon-nakhon/khok-si-suphan

 

 

103^*

Ranong and more south. I will be moving however Ranong seem too wet for me. I'm looking between Krabi and Satun. 

 

Find historical data of up to 3 years:

http://aqicn.org/city/rayong/

35 minutes ago, thequietman said:

3 hours ago, Moonlover said:

I can understand why you want to get out of Chiang Mai after reading all the negative posts on TVF. If you go strictly by the map provided by @Sophon it would be tempting to head south as he suggests. Very south in fact!

 

However, the map doesn't tell the whole story because some areas of Thailand do not have monitors. And I live in one of them. I live in the north east of Issan, around 20 kms to the east of Sakon Nakhon.

 

Here is virtually no industry, very light traffic, low population density and crucially, no sugarcane.  Most rice farmers around here prefer to harvest the rice stalks and plow in rather than burn, so field burning is quite rare. The result is very clean air. I've been here over 2 years now and apart from the occasional smoke from a cooking fire, which soon dissipates, I've had no reason to complain at all.

 

If you visit the web page below you'll get a modelized AQI for the area that I live. That reading is nearly always in the yellow range, only occasionally going into the orange range and never does it go red! (unhealthy)

 

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/sakon-nakhon/khok-si-suphan

 

 

35 minutes ago, thequietman said:

103^*

Yes I can see the same right now. And hey guess what. It's rush hour, lots of traffic. It'll settle down again in a while. One reading proves nothing.

2 hours ago, geistfunke said:

What a question... - get out of Thailand if you can.
If you do not have a business you are free!

Are you even here in Thailand? 

35 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

 

Yes I can see the same right now. And hey guess what. It's rush hour, lots of traffic. It'll settle down again in a while. One reading proves nothing.

As it cools, it gets worse. Expect this reading to go up until it begins to warm up tomorrow. Currently, where I am it's 74. So, my place is better than your place.  ????

 

1 hour ago, thequietman said:

As it cools, it gets worse. Expect this reading to go up until it begins to warm up tomorrow. Currently, where I am it's 74. So, my place is better than your place.  ????

 

As I mentioned in my initial message, there are no monitoring stations in this area. The reading that you see is a computer generated modelization based on known factors in and around the area, much like weather forecasting I'd guess.

 

I don't judge the air from the numbers I judge it from what I see,  smell and breath. I live some 15kms from a range of hills. If I can see the peaks of those hills from my village I reckon the air is pretty clear. And there's rarely a day (other than rain or mist) when I can't. I'm very happy with our air quality thank you. Hope it's good for you too.

My concern going forward is where I read recently where Prayut and his administration want to build an additional almost 30 more sugar cane factories throughout Thailand. This is maddening to me because, if built, I can just envison all the sugar cane burning that will be going on. Of course, the supposed mandate by the government that if any sugar cane was harvested by burning, the factories would not accept the shipment. I can see where that fell on deaf ears and the sugar cane burning has resumed in full force. 

 

     As another poster stated, if the government used the money they are planning to use to purchase a chinese sub was used instead to buy some harvesters for the sugar cane, that would significantly reduce the toxic smoke from all the sugar cane burning that is currently going on.

 

     It is pathetic, countless folks are getting gassed and the governments solution is to build more sugar cane factories. 

Thailand needs thousands of more particle counters.   You can  buy one low price and  add to the network.  

Many parts of the country do not have monitoring stations so hard to say.

 

As far as I can tell the air near me is good...southern suide fo Khao Yai

 

But be aware that the better air quality places in central Thailand at least are mostly ones where there are few to no foreigners, you need to speak Thai, drive a car, and be comfortable without farang companionship.

On 2/3/2020 at 3:20 PM, mike787 said:

Not at all.  Very affordable we are talking thailand, not New york or london....Based on what is it expensive?  

Agree, outside of Patong actually quite inexpensive and even in Patong the only thing I have found more expensive than Bangkok where I currently live is restaurant food either inside or on the street.