|
January
|
4
|
Thailand
|
Dry and sunny (24-32). This is a peak "high season" month. This means that the hotels, vendors, street merchants and everyone else are asking their highest prices. Negotiating is difficult. If you don't like crowds, this might not be the best time to come to Phuket. However, since we get away from the crowds, this is still a great time to go paddling. The weather is perfect. The average temperature during this period is approximately 75ºF to 89ºF (24ºC to 32ºC.) That's why it's so appealing tourists. Most countries are experiencing cold weather this month. There is very little chance of rain, though it can happen during El Nino years. Even then, it won't amount to much. The prevailing wind is from the Northeast. The other side of the Malay peninsula is experiencing their rainy season. The migratory birds are all here!
|
|
|
April
|
15
|
Laos
|
Dry and sunny (30) Laos 13-16 April, New year festival holidays, Chakri day commemorates the Chakri dynasty. On the full moon day evening people in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos visit the temples to make merit for the lunar new year. This is more appealing in a quiet village temple in the hills. One of the hottest months. Sometimes light rain is received. Lunar new year is celebrated in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Water throwing is the strongest in Myanmar. People who do not want to get wet should stay indoors till 6 PM. Travel during the holidays will be very difficult. Booking of flights, train and hotels must be done well ahead. All the tourist destinations in Thailand are crowded.
|
New year! Maybe in: Pii Mai in Luang Prabang, An intensely religious experience for the people who live here, the Pii Mai Festival lasts three days. The first day is the end of the old year, when people spring clean their homes to brush out the bad spirits (the phi), pay their debts, and visit the temples. There are processions of elephants, ninja dancers and monks along the main street. They pass from Wat Mai to Wat Xieng Thong, which has walls inlaid with mosaics and intricately carved wooden portals decorated with gold leaf. The second day is a day of limbo: the new year has not yet begun but the old year is finished. An amazing market selling tiny frogs and birds in cages and zodiacal flags springs up overnight at the far end of the main street. This market used to bring caravans from all over Asia - China, Burma, and even India - in the days when Luang Prabang was the centre of an enormous empire covering all of Laos, much of north-eastern Thailand and also Cambodia. Families dress in their finest clothes - beautiful silk sarongs of myriad colours - and visit the market (which is very early in the morning) to buy these caged creatures and eat delicious breakfasts at the food stalls. Then they go down to the banks of the Mekong to build sand stupas (temples). Each grain of sand forming the stupa is thought to wash away one sin. The caged animals are set free, which is thought to confer good karma, and everyone crosses the great river (which is at its lowest just before the rainy season begins) to pray at the beautiful wat built on the opposite bank.On the third day, the sacred Phra Bang (a pure gold statue of the Buddha 18 inches high) is paraded through the streets from the royal palace to Wat Xieng Thong. The processions on this day are absolutely astounding. The Phra Bang statue heads the procession followed by scores of orange-robed monks who hold black umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. A Beauty Queen (the Songkhan) comes next, on a truck resembling the animal of the New Year, and she carries an effigy of the head of King Kabilaphom, a mythical ruler of Luang Prabang, which must be doused with water during the procession or else (so they say) the world will go up in flames. Legend also says that the people were saved by two ancestors (pictured) who gave up their lives to placate the king Kabilaphom. For this reason, the entire town throws buckets of water at each other and tourists join in with abandon using large plastic water guns. Kids from behind frangipani trees suddenly lob water over you, and even the grannies have been known to have a go. Following the Sangkhan come elephants, dancers, and long lines of Beauty Queen runners-up, who look stunning in their silk-embroidered cloths.
|
|
August
|
33
|
Thailand/Cambodia
|
showers off and on. This is a month that can have nice weather. The wind is still from the Southwest, but the rain is a bit less than the previous months and a lot less than the next two months. This can be a dangerous time to go swimming. The rips get pretty bad and the waves can be big. Having said that, waves aren't dependable in Southern Thailand. It all depends on the storm activities out to sea. Even during stormy years, the waves aren't happening every day. The temperatures range between 70ºF and 90ºF (20ºC to 33ºC.)
|
|