October in Thailand

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Mike

Buddha Images Reflected in Glass at a Thai Temple

Buddha Statues at Phra Pathom Chedi

October in Thailand for me might well be summed up with a few words, something like monsoons, monks and moments. Since they have all featured to make this month quite enjoyable.

A developing trend with my monthly review of life in Thailand seems to be the weather and water. Well this month is no different as we continue to be rationed on tap water despite the monsoon being particularly heavy during the majority of October. Parts of Thailand have been flooded and sadly over 100 people have lost their lives. Here although it has rained heavily on several days we have not seen floods.

Staying with the weather for a moment I have really enjoyed the last three days since we are having a cold snap with daytime temperatures around 25-27C.  There is a strong NE wind blowing and it feels just like an English summer day ;-) By the way at night its actually got down to 21-23C-no air-conditioning needed, great,  since I sleep much better.

This month has also seen the end of Phansa, the Buddhist rainy season retreat, and last Monday was a public holiday. Theoretically this holiday marks the end of the rainy season in Thailand, although I am not so sure this year since the rains started quite late. Anyway its good to see the Buddhist monks on the lane leading to the farm again, doing their morning alms round.

Since we took a road trip North this month I have also enjoyed some special moments.  For me the most enjoyable was travelling on the footplate of a train,  thanks to some very friendly Thailand Railways staff, as it entered Mae Klong market at Samut Songkhram. My journey on the Mahachai-Mae Klong railway made for a very pleasant excursion.

The trip also provided some other first time experiences with the visit to Phra Pathom Chedi being very enjoyable and memorable.

My other spare time this month has seen me migrating my English Conversation Online blog to WordPress.  I am becoming a dab hand at this now and the process went OK although I did spend a lot of time editing the posts I migrated.

Once again Martyn from Beyond the Mango Juice is my top commenter(in the widget), there are of course lots of other people who comment here regularly too(they’re just not registered with Disqus), in fact this month has provided some excellent discussion through these comments.  So thanks to everyone who has taken part.

Finally I would like to introduce you to a(new) Thailand blog and a web site that I am sure you will enjoy. The blog is the new home(virtual I guess) of Snap and Stray from Australia while the web site,  which has a diary section(bit like a blog) is written by an Englishman. They both offer unique content and different writing styles so if you have a moment check out:

Dan and Ploys Website: Great site with lots of resources, I am a big fan of Dan’s diary where he certainly doesn’t take any prisoners on occasions.

Cooee: Must be the Aussie sense of humour? Follow Stray and Snap as that start a year in Chiang Mai. Good read as they discover Thailand.

There are lots of other excellent Thailand Blogs that you can access on the tab at the top of this page.

Related posts:

  1. Thailand Blogs Review April 2011
  2. September in Thailand
  3. Thailand Blogs Review January 2011
  4. Thailand Blogs Review March 2011
  5. Thailand Blogs Review June 2011
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  • Malcolm

    Mike , the weather has cooled down here in Wang Pho too , In fact Ciejay and neighbors said it was “really cold” , just felt real good to me and it seems the rainy season here is gone and along with it gone is the humidity , yee ha , now it’s like what we call a Indian Summer in the USA. Malcolm

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Malcolm, I forgot to mention the humidity, its great here at the moment. Indian summers in the UK are usually in September and given the awful weather there are very welcome ;-)

      Definitely my favourite times here are November December and maybe January.

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  • http://missus-emm.blogspot.com/ Emm

    Cold snap? That’s not funny. Although, it has actually been unseasonably warm here. I was just standing by the open door earlier thinking how warm it was. << famous last words.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Trust me Emm it feels cold here in the wind. Guess I am well acclimatised now. Duen is wearing a jacket ;-)

  • http://www.danploy.com/diary.htm DanPloy

    I agree, it is decidedly chilly here, especially in the early morning with the wind.
    I am envying your hot shower now.

    Thanks for the plug by the way.

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Sadly Dan your envy is misplaced since I do not have enough water pressure to run it! My back up hottish water supply, large blue plastic drum placed in bright sun, has also failed with the plummeting temperatures…….same boat as you ;-)

  • http://www.thailandmusings.com ThailandMusings

    Nice that the weather there has been so comfortable for you although I feel for you with the lack of hot water. On the other hand I think I would trade my hot water if I could avoid the cold weather here, just 10 degrees this morning…brrrrrr

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Steve, the hot/warm water shower is a pain. I can do the Thai thing but it always feels so cold. It also uses a lot more water than an electric shower.

      I just had a cup of tea outside at 6.30am it feels very cool, guess its about 21/22c but it feels colder.

      • http://www.thailandmusings.com ThailandMusings

        The Thai cold shower is actually pretty refreshing in the evening when the water’s been heated by the sun all day, but I always dread the morning shower and get finished and dried as quickly as possible. 21/22 is pretty comfortable IF you’re not soaking wet :)

        • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

          Steve when you get to my age its heart attack material ;-)

  • http://www.strayandsnap.blogspot.com Snap

    Hi Mike, I’m loving the weather here at the moment. Apparently we’re still having cool weather back home, odd for this time of year. Thanks for introducing Stray and myself, I’ve been over blogging since we arrived, no doubt it will slow down once the novelty wears off!

    PS. I think I’ve finally found my drink of choice ;)

    • http://www.thailand-blogs.com Mike

      Snap, yea the weather is pretty cool at the moment, even cooler were you are I guess. Hope you get a few hits from the link, I’ve also put you on my Thailand blog roll(finally).

      So it Chang then?

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