Snow In Thailand

There is a cold season in Thailand. Winter arrives right before Loi Krathong. Thais bundle up in the North and even in Pattaya locals complain about the change in the weather. They grab their arms with a shiver. "Nao."

"Cold? I'll tell you about cold. When I was a kid, you had to put anti-freeze in your oatmeal," Johnny Carson joked on the Tonight Show to the gaw-faws of his faithful sidekick, Ed McMahon.

Thailand is not really cold.

Canada is cold. They play hockey year-round on ice until they export it to the USA for cocktail drinks, which is the only real cold most Thais experience, because the chance of snow in Thailand are as remote as a snowball in hell, however 2bangkok.com posted a story about a freak storm over 50 years ago.

Surprisingly some Thais have seen snow in their lifetime.

Not in Switzerland or the USA, but up north, for on Jan. 8 1955 Chiang Rai was hit by a winter storm of rain, small hail and ice flakes. The white stuff stuck to the ground for 38 hours before melting in the tropical sun.

The blizzard of 1955.

In Maine my grandfather said there were two seasons, "The season of good sledding and the season of bad sledding."

Thailand has only one season.

That of bad sledding unless you go to DreamWorld in Bangkok where they have a snow room complete with inner tubes for sliding down a frozen sheet of man-made snow.

"Nao."

ps Last night the overnight temperature in Mae Hong Song was 65F