Why Do Thais Wake Up At 5:00Am...

[Gsxrnz]

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days, "avoiding the heat" is not a valid reason for getting up early. I would never get up at 5am unless I've got an early flight to catch - I'd rather get enough sleep and then there's no need to sleep during the day (indeed, except at my last workplace there wouldn't be any possibility of doing so these days). If I need to be at work at 9am, getting up around 7am is sufficient and I'll be on my feet all day sometimes entertaining my girlfriend and friends at a restaurant in the evening and not going back home until like 10pm or later.

In my opinion most Thais don't actually rise at 5am, it's more like 6am or 6.30am (unlike their Vietnamese counterparts that do indeed rise at 5am). A lot of it has to do with when the sun rises, in Thailand it generally rises not much earlier than 5.45am, but in Vietnam it rises as early as 5am. On the other hand in Vietnam it rarely gets dark later than 6pm, whereas in Thailand this time of year it's almost 7pm.

Those individuals in Thailand that do rise as early as 5am tend to be either 1) village dwellers often working menial jobs; 2) poorer inhabitants of Bangkok that work blue collar jobs; 3) people that work shifts and have to work the early shift starting at say 7am (including factory workers); 4) Bangkok residents that live 45km from their workplace and have kids to send to school (although these people will only rise this early when the kids have school, certainly never on weekends).

From my experience in the region, the Vietnamese rise the earliest, about 5am. The Thais rise around 6am or 6.30am while the Chinese rise the latest, usually not before 7am and often as late as 8am.

Um....I think you'll find that the sunrise is determined by the latitude. As Thailand and Vietnam share much of the same latitude range I think your conclusion is a little strange. Granted, the Vietnamese latitude does extend slightly more north than Thailand's, but not much.

So therefore the sunrise, length of day, and sunset are determined by latitude and season. At any point in Thailand that shares the same latitude as a point in Vietnam, sunrise and sunset will be at identical times.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Gsxrnz

[StreetCowboy]

...

Um....I think you'll find that the sunrise is determined by the latitude. As Thailand and Vietnam share much of the same latitude range I think your conclusion is a little strange. Granted, the Vietnamese latitude does extend slightly more north than Thailand's, but not much.

So therefore the sunrise, length of day, and sunset are determined by latitude and season. At any point in Thailand that shares the same latitude as a point in Vietnam, sunrise and sunset will be at identical times.

Longitude. Latitude affects the annual variation in sunrise and sunset. Longitude affect the time of sunrise and sunset. That's why we have different timezones - to compensate. But within the same timezone - for example, Vietnam and Thailand share a timezone - those in the East will experience sunrise earlier than those in the West. So Bangkok sunrise today about 5.49 am; Da Nang to the East but about the same latitude 5.14 am.

Those further from the equator experience greater variation in the length of their days over the course of the year than those further South. So Taiwan, experiences very long bright Summer mornings - and short dark winter afternoons compared to Malaysia in the same time zone but far to the West and much closer to the equator.

SC

[BuddhistVirus]

Testosterone levels are highest in the morning, making the natural time for coupling.

Aha! So, the OP...

[isawasnake]

Time of day that people wake up is a totally flawed comparison anyway - because of the mentioned arbitrary time zones. I don't think this is a particularly useful branch of the discussion, but if it was, it would probably be best to base it on relative timing, not time of day: "they wake up 30 minutes after sunrise, while the others wake up 2 hours after sunrise..."

Edited June 2, 2013 by isawasnake

[GottaGo]

...

Um....I think you'll find that the sunrise is determined by the latitude. As Thailand and Vietnam share much of the same latitude range I think your conclusion is a little strange. Granted, the Vietnamese latitude does extend slightly more north than Thailand's, but not much.

So therefore the sunrise, length of day, and sunset are determined by latitude and season. At any point in Thailand that shares the same latitude as a point in Vietnam, sunrise and sunset will be at identical times.

Longitude. Latitude affects the annual variation in sunrise and sunset. Longitude affect the time of sunrise and sunset. That's why we have different timezones - to compensate. But within the same timezone - for example, Vietnam and Thailand share a timezone - those in the East will experience sunrise earlier than those in the West. So Bangkok sunrise today about 5.49 am; Da Nang to the East but about the same latitude 5.14 am.

Those further from the equator experience greater variation in the length of their days over the course of the year than those further South. So Taiwan, experiences very long bright Summer mornings - and short dark winter afternoons compared to Malaysia in the same time zone but far to the West and much closer to the equator.

SC

What an excellent post!

But the OP's (IMO idiotic) complaint is "why the heck do people get up so early"?

Based on his preference for sleeping in, rather than realizing it's natural and healthy to be up with or before the sunrise.

[chiangmaikelly]

A member of the cuckoo family the Greater Coucal wakes me up with 10 koos at a time every morning. There are a lot of cuckoos in Thailand around 20 different species I think. I never liked cuckoo clocks but the family of birds have a nice sound. They don't fly very well and landings are loud as the crash into the trees. Sometimes called a crow pheasant.

Edited June 2, 2013 by chiangmaikelly

[Tomtomtom69]

Gsxrnz, on 02 Jun 2013 - 07:50, said:

Tomtomtom69, on 01 Jun 2013 - 11:58, said:

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days, "avoiding the heat" is not a valid reason for getting up early. I would never get up at 5am unless I've got an early flight to catch - I'd rather get enough sleep and then there's no need to sleep during the day (indeed, except at my last workplace there wouldn't be any possibility of doing so these days). If I need to be at work at 9am, getting up around 7am is sufficient and I'll be on my feet all day sometimes entertaining my girlfriend and friends at a restaurant in the evening and not going back home until like 10pm or later.

In my opinion most Thais don't actually rise at 5am, it's more like 6am or 6.30am (unlike their Vietnamese counterparts that do indeed rise at 5am). A lot of it has to do with when the sun rises, in Thailand it generally rises not much earlier than 5.45am, but in Vietnam it rises as early as 5am. On the other hand in Vietnam it rarely gets dark later than 6pm, whereas in Thailand this time of year it's almost 7pm.

Those individuals in Thailand that do rise as early as 5am tend to be either 1) village dwellers often working menial jobs; 2) poorer inhabitants of Bangkok that work blue collar jobs; 3) people that work shifts and have to work the early shift starting at say 7am (including factory workers); 4) Bangkok residents that live 45km from their workplace and have kids to send to school (although these people will only rise this early when the kids have school, certainly never on weekends).

From my experience in the region, the Vietnamese rise the earliest, about 5am. The Thais rise around 6am or 6.30am while the Chinese rise the latest, usually not before 7am and often as late as 8am.

Um....I think you'll find that the sunrise is determined by the latitude. As Thailand and Vietnam share much of the same latitude range I think your conclusion is a little strange. Granted, the Vietnamese latitude does extend slightly more north than Thailand's, but not much.

So therefore the sunrise, length of day, and sunset are determined by latitude and season. At any point in Thailand that shares the same latitude as a point in Vietnam, sunrise and sunset will be at identical times.

Umm I think you need to get a map...firstly, Vietnam is further east than Thailand and in the same time zone, so the sun comes up earlier and goes down earlier too. Secondly, Vietnam extends further north than Thailand so that means in summer, days are slightly longer in northern Vietnam than in Thailand while in winter they are slightly shorter. In any case, the sun always goes down earlier in Vietnam than in Thailand due to it's more easterly longitude.

[kingstonkid]

I hae to agree with everyone here. In Canada I was up at 530 and at work at 7. Here I am up at 530 also the GF is usually up before me as she not only works at a job but also has a food business that she has to get ready.

Most Thais in my neighborhood are up early as they have to commute into BKK for work. That is life here in the land of Smiles.

I did it in Canda and i am doing it here for a couple more years.

[robin33]

In the isaan i also wake up at 5' mainly because there is à big loudspeaker where the broadcAst THE news very loud at that time

[Tchooptip]

I've lived in Andalusia,Spain in summer where it's 45 degrees and they water the sidewalk to keep the dust down,they also have a siesta in the middle of the day and stay open later at night but they're not stupid enough to wake up at 5:00am and spend the rest of the day falling asleep on their feet!

In my area the Monks begin the daily Alms rounds early. In my area we begin our house hold work early to avoid the heat of the day. In our area we work up until 10pm most nights (again to avoid the heat) which means bedtime around 11 or midnight. In my area we do not sit in a bar drinking until 3am, sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon. But these are just some of the reason why normal people get up early, get work done, sleep during the hottest time of the day and then start again.

Sometimes I truly miss my bar hopping days as a tourist.....

I'm sorry but I really don't know which country you are from but in the West,normal people don't get up at 5:00am!

Normal people in Western countries work from 9:00am-5:00pm,they don't get up when it's still dark and fall asleep on their feet for the rest of the day!

I'm in the west and I get up at 5 to start work at 6. Only office workers do 9 to 5.

I think the op spent his worklife starting at 9am perhaps? It certainly isn't only Thailand getting up at 5. I'd say the whole construction industry most are up by 6am at latest and thats worldwide. That's just 1 industry. Anyhow, best time of the day when the sun starts coming up!

Sent from my LG-E612 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Yes but OP is a "normal" people you'r not

[rene123]

A member of the cuckoo family the Greater Coucal wakes me up with 10 koos at a time every morning. There are a lot of cuckoos in Thailand around 20 different species I think. I never liked cuckoo clocks but the family of birds have a nice sound. They don't fly very well and landings are loud as the crash into the trees. Sometimes called a crow pheasant.

Thanks for that CMKelly. I saw a few of those beautiful birds but I didn't know what they were and I wasn't fast enough with my camera.

[Tchooptip]

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days, "avoiding the heat" is not a valid reason for getting up early. I would never get up at 5am unless I've got an early flight to catch - I'd rather get enough sleep and then there's no need to sleep during the day (indeed, except at my last workplace there wouldn't be any possibility of doing so these days). If I need to be at work at 9am, getting up around 7am is sufficient and I'll be on my feet all day sometimes entertaining my girlfriend and friends at a restaurant in the evening and not going back home until like 10pm or later.

In my opinion most Thais don't actually rise at 5am, it's more like 6am or 6.30am (unlike their Vietnamese counterparts that do indeed rise at 5am). A lot of it has to do with when the sun rises, in Thailand it generally rises not much earlier than 5.45am, but in Vietnam it rises as early as 5am. On the other hand in Vietnam it rarely gets dark later than 6pm, whereas in Thailand this time of year it's almost 7pm.

Those individuals in Thailand that do rise as early as 5am tend to be either 1) village dwellers often working menial jobs; 2) poorer inhabitants of Bangkok that work blue collar jobs; 3) people that work shifts and have to work the early shift starting at say 7am (including factory workers); 4) Bangkok residents that live 45km from their workplace and have kids to send to school (although these people will only rise this early when the kids have school, certainly never on weekends).

From my experience in the region, the Vietnamese rise the earliest, about 5am. The Thais rise around 6am or 6.30am while the Chinese rise the latest, usually not before 7am and often as late as 8am.

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days,

[AlphMichaels]

In my area the Monks begin the daily Alms rounds early. In my area we begin our house hold work early to avoid the heat of the day. In our area we work up until 10pm most nights (again to avoid the heat) which means bedtime around 11 or midnight. In my area we do not sit in a bar drinking until 3am, sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon. But these are just some of the reason why normal people get up early, get work done, sleep during the hottest time of the day and then start again.

Sometimes I truly miss my bar hopping days as a tourist.....

I'm sorry but I really don't know which country you are from but in the West,normal people don't get up at 5:00am!

Normal people in Western countries work from 9:00am-5:00pm,they don't get up when it's still dark and fall asleep on their feet for the rest of the day!

This was SO funny I had to reply. What country are you from?? Not sure why you'd think people in the west don't rise early.

When I was running my business, I woke at 4;45AM. Wintertime meant I was up 3-3.5 hours before the sun rose. I ran +/- 30 minutes, M-F. On return, WSJ in my box, I grabbed a quick coffee, took a 10 minute peruse, then to a shower. Suited up and in my car by 6:15..., at my office by 6:30. My employees knew it took a special act to beat me to the office and most who occasionally did, left long before my average departure of about 6:30-7:00PM.

Those days are past but I actually enjoyed them. That personal/professional work ethic rewarded me nicely so I no longer need to do it. That said, I still rise by 5:30-5:45 every day because "the clock is set" in my head. I think there are more than a handful who would state they keep/kept similar regimens.

[dunque]

I've lived in Andalusia,Spain in summer where it's 45 degrees and they water the sidewalk to keep the dust down,they also have a siesta in the middle of the day and stay open later at night but they're not stupid enough to wake up at 5:00am and spend the rest of the day falling asleep on their feet!

Which might explain why Spain is such a basket case these days - they probably do a lot more sleeping now.

[Donnie Brasco]

A lot of my Thai friends do their best work before the sun comes up.

[colin25]

In my area the Monks begin the daily Alms rounds early. In my area we begin our house hold work early to avoid the heat of the day. In our area we work up until 10pm most nights (again to avoid the heat) which means bedtime around 11 or midnight. In my area we do not sit in a bar drinking until 3am, sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon. But these are just some of the reason why normal people get up early, get work done, sleep during the hottest time of the day and then start again.

Sometimes I truly miss my bar hopping days as a tourist.....

I'm sorry but I really don't know which country you are from but in the West,normal people don't get up at 5:00am!

Normal people in Western countries work from 9:00am-5:00pm,they don't get up when it's still dark and fall asleep on their feet for the rest of the day!

I disagree. I get up at 5am in Scotland, everyday. Norm to you does not make it "norm" for others.

vive la difference

[robertson468]

In my area the Monks begin the daily Alms rounds early. In my area we begin our house hold work early to avoid the heat of the day. In our area we work up until 10pm most nights (again to avoid the heat) which means bedtime around 11 or midnight. In my area we do not sit in a bar drinking until 3am, sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon. But these are just some of the reason why normal people get up early, get work done, sleep during the hottest time of the day and then start again.

Sometimes I truly miss my bar hopping days as a tourist.....

I'm sorry but I really don't know which country you are from but in the West,normal people don't get up at 5:00am!

Normal people in Western countries work from 9:00am-5:00pm,they don't get up when it's still dark and fall asleep on their feet for the rest of the day!

Are you certified normal, or is this just a wild guess?

[RedBullHorn]

I'm up by 4:30am, on the TV (News channel), listening actually...not watching. Toilet and shower, feed my guard dog and out of the gate of my farmhouse by 5:15/5:20am. As i need an hour to prepare mixed feed, I'm on a tight schedule to got the feed to my catfish farm by 6:30/6:45am max... By 7:30am all 250'000 fishes are fed, farm observation work untill 8am... Shower (again) and Breakfast.

My work require me to wake up early to feed my fishes on a formulated 12 hour/cycle schedule (for optimate results),

I get to wake up at 7am after my fishes are sold.

[billd766]

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days, "avoiding the heat" is not a valid reason for getting up early. I would never get up at 5am unless I've got an early flight to catch - I'd rather get enough sleep and then there's no need to sleep during the day (indeed, except at my last workplace there wouldn't be any possibility of doing so these days). If I need to be at work at 9am, getting up around 7am is sufficient and I'll be on my feet all day sometimes entertaining my girlfriend and friends at a restaurant in the evening and not going back home until like 10pm or later.

In my opinion most Thais don't actually rise at 5am, it's more like 6am or 6.30am (unlike their Vietnamese counterparts that do indeed rise at 5am). A lot of it has to do with when the sun rises, in Thailand it generally rises not much earlier than 5.45am, but in Vietnam it rises as early as 5am. On the other hand in Vietnam it rarely gets dark later than 6pm, whereas in Thailand this time of year it's almost 7pm.

Those individuals in Thailand that do rise as early as 5am tend to be either 1) village dwellers often working menial jobs; 2) poorer inhabitants of Bangkok that work blue collar jobs; 3) people that work shifts and have to work the early shift starting at say 7am (including factory workers); 4) Bangkok residents that live 45km from their workplace and have kids to send to school (although these people will only rise this early when the kids have school, certainly never on weekends).

From my experience in the region, the Vietnamese rise the earliest, about 5am. The Thais rise around 6am or 6.30am while the Chinese rise the latest, usually not before 7am and often as late as 8am.

Obviously you don't live in the countryside.

Given that most households in Thailand have air-conditioning these days, "avoiding the heat" is not a valid reason for getting up early.

Most households in Thailand actually DON'T have airconditioning nowadays.

[MickGC]

I'm up by 4:30am, on the TV (News channel), listening actually...not watching. Toilet and shower, feed my guard dog and out of the gate of my farmhouse by 5:15/5:20am. As i need an hour to prepare mixed feed, I'm on a tight schedule to got the feed to my catfish farm by 6:30/6:45am max... By 7:30am all 250'000 fishes are fed, farm observation work untill 8am... Shower (again) and Breakfast.

My work require me to wake up early to feed my fishes on a formulated 12 hour/cycle schedule (for optimate results),

I get to wake up at 7am after my fishes are sold.

Might be best not to advertise the fact you are working on your farm everyday.

[HerbalEd]

Given how most of the world's population lives, not to get up at 5:00 am is to be odd ... esp. in very hot countries.

[rotary]

Getting up early is a good habit I am trying to teach my kid

[HerbalEd]

Umm I think you need to get a map...firstly, Vietnam is further east than Thailand and in the same time zone, so the sun comes up earlier and goes down earlier too. Secondly, Vietnam extends further north than Thailand so that means in summer, days are slightly longer in northern Vietnam than in Thailand while in winter they are slightly shorter. In any case, the sun always goes down earlier in Vietnam than in Thailand due to it's more easterly longitude.

Why not speak with actual facts? You are right ... but barely and not at all to the point of this discussion.

This morning the sun rose in Bangkok @ 5:47 and in Saigon @ 5:30. Don't you just love Google?

[Naam]

Umm I think you need to get a map...firstly, Vietnam is further east than Thailand and in the same time zone, so the sun comes up earlier and goes down earlier too. Secondly, Vietnam extends further north than Thailand so that means in summer, days are slightly longer in northern Vietnam than in Thailand while in winter they are slightly shorter. In any case, the sun always goes down earlier in Vietnam than in Thailand due to it's more easterly longitude.

Why not speak with actual facts? You are right ... but barely and not at all to the point of this discussion.

This morning the sun rose in Bangkok @ 5:47 and in Saigon @ 5:30. Don't you just love Google?

he spoke of northern Viet Nam, e.g. Hanoi sunrise 0515 hrs, sunset 1834 hrs compared to Bangkok 0548 / 1844hrs.

[BradinAsia]

In my area the Monks begin the daily Alms rounds early. In my area we begin our house hold work early to avoid the heat of the day. In our area we work up until 10pm most nights (again to avoid the heat) which means bedtime around 11 or midnight. In my area we do not sit in a bar drinking until 3am, sleeping in until 2 in the afternoon. But these are just some of the reason why normal people get up early, get work done, sleep during the hottest time of the day and then start again.

Sometimes I truly miss my bar hopping days as a tourist.....

I'm sorry but I really don't know which country you are from but in the West,normal people don't get up at 5:00am!

Normal people in Western countries work from 9:00am-5:00pm,they don't get up when it's still dark and fall asleep on their feet for the rest of the day!

Speak for yourself...

All the 25 years I worked in the U.S., I always woke up by 5:00, in the office ready to start work before 6:00 a.m. That's the way I was raised -- Ben Franklin's "Early to bed..." etc.

For 16 years in Japan, I had the same schedule. But most of my Japanese peers came straggling in between 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. I wondered how they ever got a reputation of industriousness with such a slothful schedule. Then I found that, in Japanese work culture, it is traditionally very bad etiquette to stop work before dark. Thus they didn't like to start work so early.

Every culture is different. Working cultures often differ for good reasons. If I disparage the culture of other folks without thorough familiarity, I'm the one who looks a bit stupid.

[tolsti]

I used to rise at 7.00 am... then last December had a very life threatening incident (no, not drunk driving, getting a Thai wife or anything like that) and was hospitalised for 7 weeks.

Buggers, they totally disrupted my sleep pattern!

I now wake up at 05:45 every day and look around for the pretty girl waiting to take my temperature and blood pressure.

I miss that girl.

[RedBullHorn]

I'm up by 4:30am, on the TV (News channel), listening actually...not watching. Toilet and shower, feed my guard dog and out of the gate of my farmhouse by 5:15/5:20am. As i need an hour to prepare mixed feed, I'm on a tight schedule to got the feed to my catfish farm by 6:30/6:45am max... By 7:30am all 250'000 fishes are fed, farm observation work untill 8am... Shower (again) and Breakfast.

My work require me to wake up early to feed my fishes on a formulated 12 hour/cycle schedule (for optimate results),

I get to wake up at 7am after my fishes are sold.

Might be best not to advertise the fact you are working on your farm everyday.

It's okay... because mine is eye balls work, the manual labour is done by a farmhand AKA UIL.

I just need to make sure he is following my instructions.

[Eesat]

I've lived in Andalusia,Spain in summer where it's 45 degrees and they water the sidewalk to keep the dust down,they also have a siesta in the middle of the day and stay open later at night but they're not stupid enough to wake up at 5:00am and spend the rest of the day falling asleep on their feet!

Which might explain why Spain is such a basket case these days - they probably do a lot more sleeping now.

No,that will be because the Americans sold all their crappy sub-prime mortgages into the European markets actually,don't you read the newspapers?

[pomchop]

I get up early because I enjoy the early morning calm. I go to bed early because I am sleepy. If that makes me abnormal so be it.

Early to Bed

Early to Rise

Makes a Man

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise.

[bifftastic]

No-one cares what time I get up, and I don't care what time other people get up.

Questions like "why do <insert nationality> do things like they do?" can never really have a valid, or useful, answer.

Mainly because there will be many examples of <insert nationality> people not doing that.

If it can be established that 'they' in fact do, generally speaking, do do the thing that they have been 'accused' of (quite how that would be done, I'm not sure) it is still next to impossible to answer the 'why' part of the question.

Just like when you hear a small child continually ask 'why?' to all the answers they have been given, at first you may try to answer. Eventually, after about 15 answers all of which get the response "yes, but why?" you will perhaps resort to a different kind of tactic;

"because that just the way it is" (this one usually results in another "why?") or "that's enough now" "ask your mother"

"go and do your homework" "I don't know" "shut up you annoying little git" "tidy your room" "LOOK! THERE'S A BEAR!"

are a few that I have used in the past, though I'm not sure which one would be appropriate for this thread.