As a child I used to look forward to winter days when there was so much snow that the powers-that-be had to cancel school. We understood it was difficult to travel the snow-laden streets and operate school in such conditions but did we care? Nope. It was a chance to get our snowsuit on, build snow tunnels, organize the neighborhood kids for snowball fights, toboggan down the nearest hill and create snow angels in the yard.
Well, this week I experienced my first Thai equivalent to a Canadian
Snow Day. Our school was closed for four days and we called them
Smoke Days. Yes sir, apparently the city of Bangkok decides to burn trash in landfill sites around this time every year. Turns out this year, however, one of the fires got a bit out of control and we are still reaping the effects. Even though the fire in our neighboring district was technically 'put out', the smoke hung around for days.
Here are some pictures from the
Bangkok Post showing the extent of burn area (similar to the size of a small city) and what it can look like at street level.
A couple years ago I experienced the hazy days at this time of year in Chiang Mai (north Thailand) when farmers burn and prepare their rice fields. That is crop burning but this is trash burning -- quite a different story! Needless to say, we look to stay inside as much as possible when the wind moves in our direction.
This brought me back to my days in Korea when we would experience
Yellow Wind days (
see March 2008 post). Wind would pick up sand from the Gobi Desert, add pollution from Beijing as it traveled across China and then drop on us in South Korea, Japan and (from what I heard) sometimes across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of Canada and America.
Obviously snow days are healthier and more fun. Trouble is, though, a person has to put up with months of winter weather for those sporadic snow days. Some might say it's worth it but I think I'll put up with a few smoke days and then be back in the clear.
