There are, however, better seasons to come to Thailand than others. Previously I was totally unaware and ended up moving to Koh Tao in the only month that the island is uninhabitable. I was in Phuket in October when the weather was beautiful, dry and sunny – it was like a perfect summer. I went home to sell all of my stuff and came back three weeks later, this time to Koh Tao. I had no idea that November is monsoon season there, which meant all the restaurants were shut and I had nowhere to eat.
Map Of Koh Tao – Thailand Koh Tao Map Photo Gallery
Within days the island’s roads started flooding up to knee level and it was impossible to even walk some places. The funny thing is I didn’t regret it for a second. Just the fact that I had left my stressful life back in America and was living freely in Thailand – I loved it! I ended up meeting two girls from New Zealand, Boramy and Irene, who were both stuck on the island at the same time and together we took an overnight train up to Chiang Mai – it was fun. We each had our own sleeping berth and stayed up late playing games and telling riddles. Even though it was four years ago I still remember it vividly as it was my first trip – as a free man – within Thailand.
The weather in the north was perfect; it didn’t rain at all and life as we know it was fantastic. It was also the start of the political crisis in Thailand, the whole red shirt-verses-yellow shirt debate. They closed down all the international airports. Boramy and hundreds of others were stuck in Thailand and couldn’t return home. I thought, great! You now have an excuse why you can stay in Thailand another week or two. Just tell your boss that you’re safe but can’t get a plane home, he’ll hear about it all over the news anyways . It wasn’t just her. Everyone I met was glued to the news and constantly read updated articles online about the situation. We were in zero danger, had perfect weather and were in a beautiful part of Thailand.
I’m willing to bet that, within a week of getting home and back to work, they all regretted not staying longer and wished they were back in Thailand. Even during the Thailand floods everyone heard about, life went on pretty much as normal for most of the country. It’s like, if there is a riot or an earthquake in Los Angeles, it really doesn’t affect people in Texas or New York. The great thing about Thailand is because it’s such a big country – with two very different weather seasons – anytime of the year there is summer somewhere. In Chiang Mai and Bangkok the weather doesn’t change enough to base your travel plans around it. The weather is always going to be hot, averaging 33 Celsius / 91 Fahrenheit. So basically the highs range from 90 to 96 degrees – it’ll always be hot. And at night it’ll never drop below 60 degrees. As for rainfall, some months it’ll rain a lot more than others but you have to realize that rain in Thailand is much different from rain back home.
