Thailand forum

Normally wet season is no reason not to travel, with enough sunshine, no crowds, big discounts on accommodation etc. I'm a weather nerd and this is my prepared answer for OCT:

October is usually one of the wettest months in all areas. But we still get plenty of posts saying people had a good holiday with the usual daily mixture of one or a few showers/storms and sunshine/scattered cloud, some days with no rain. This has been the pattern in all my wet season visits (one of these went into early Oct.)

Prolonged wet periods are not too common in Thailand but I have to say in all the years I've been following the wet season (I'm a weather nerd) the most complaints of this have come from the Samui area islands in Oct, Nov and early Dec. But things are variable - I've only visited this area once during THAT period, in Nov 97, and I got good weather.
September in this area tends to be the end of its drier mid-year period, so if your visit is EARLY Oct, you may have a better chance of less rain than later.

Statistically the driest island in an average Oct has been Ko Samet (216mm and 15 days with SOME sort of rain - on some days this could be a short shower at night). Most of Samet's beaches face east and are sheltered from the prevailing wet season winds which on the days when they get stronger can cause rough seas and blow a lot of flotsam and jetsam onto exposed beaches.
The wettest are the Ranong Islands of little Ko Chang and Ko Phayam (414mm-24). Samui has averaged 304-20.

Anecdotally and statistically wet season tends to end earlier in the eastern Gulf than other island areas. So if you are going late Oct you may find Big Ko Chang and its neighbours drier than most except Samet.

If you look at the stats for the north in the second link below you will find rainfall totals seem to drop earlier there too. The central area around Bangkok seems less wet also.

Thanks so much for your prompt response, Tezza.


I have a few other queries and was hoping you will be able to assist:
I am from South Africa. We were planning to viist Bankgkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai (in the north)

Vaccines:
I was been told by many travellers, one just came back on Monday from Thailand) that we do not need vaccines provided you visit the south, yet the Travel Clinic wants to charge me an exorbitant fee for Diptheria, polio, tetanus (TdP), Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Malaria (I already had a yellow fever vac about 5 years ago. Can someone please shed some light on the vaccine situation in Thailand as I do not want to go unprepared.

Accommodation:
We were planning to book accommodation online. People have suggested we book only the first 3 days in order to get settled, then book only when you get there, apparently its much more cost effective? Can I safely take this advise

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Marina


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Thanks so very much for your reply Hutty

Really helps to get good honest advice.

Have a fab weekend
Marina

I am also traveling in October to Thailand and just spoke with a doctor at a travel clinic as well. I was too surprised about the cost of vaccines but like mentioned above, most of the reccommended vaccines were most likely already given to you at birth (granted they are still up to date, ie Tetnus is only a 10 year affective vaccine). Also check out the WHO (World Health Organization) website.
I was told to make sure you have vaccinations for Tetanus, Meningitis(should have gotten both as a young adult), Hep. A & B (there is a combo of the two if you have not received both already, most people get Hep B in elementary or jr. High school), Typhiod (because I don't know about you but I plan on eating street food and local food which could be contaminated, although delicious) and have malaria pills on hand just in case you decide to go off the beaten path to exposed areas instead of just tourist destinations. With a health care plan, most of these are covered but without it can be expensive (yet, better than getting something nasty for life.)
I was told it is up to you to get vaccinated for Rabies because of stay animals and overfriendly monkeys, but not neccesarily reccommended.
BRUCE- your thoughts on Rabies vaccine?
Enjoy your trip, maybe our paths will cross.
Cheers!

I'm no good on medical info.

In relation to booking ahead:
I think it depends a bit on what standard of accommodation you are after. My experience of midrange or better is that booking sites like Agoda, Asia Rooms, the one TRAVELFISH uses etc can screw such good discounts out of hotels that it is hard for the average person to bargain the same rate walk in. It's worth comparing the sites though - they can vary a fair bit.

Not necessarily true that you can't bargain a better deal for lower range places - but a lot of these will not be able to be booked online - and you will have no problems finding a place walk-in in Oct.

Hi, myself and hubby are traveling to KL in 1st October. Never have been before, so excited to be going! Little worried about the weather though! Could someone help with maybe where to go that may be dry.. are we still able to do the elephant rides etc.. or should be maybe head to Bali instead.. loved to have gone to Thailand but also want to go to Bali?

Does anyone know the weather in Bail around those dates? Sorry .. just worried and would like to plan something.

Thanks heaps!!