Thailand forum

Hi Pia!

Here's an answer straight from the fish's mouth:

Fan good air-con bad

You're in the tropics so you know it is going to be hot, but the evenings are often surprisingly cool. If you're on the beach, look for rooms with good window space to let in that fine sea breeze. In cities you want a room on a higher floor and preferably with a window. Oddly, often rooms on the upper floors are cheaper.

I typically go for the fan-cooled room over the air-con simply because it is cheaper and in most cases more charming. I do get air-con rooms when I'm in Bangkok however, since that city doesn't cool off much at night. The white noise of the air-con unit also covers other sounds and helps me sleep. The other time I'll splurge for air-con is when it is just too hot to sleep otherwise. But as you'll be down south during the relatively cool time of the year, fan-cooled should do the trick.

What do you say Bruce?

The time of year you're traveling here it gets downright cold where I live (Mukdahan). Last year nighttime temps routinely went below 10 degrees celsius. One evening was six degrees. Days warm up to something OK - but too cold to swim.

But Bangkok is much hotter and where you're going I would imagine it's warm enough to swim. But nights fan should be fine.

As stated above, you will acclimatise much more quickly if you have a fan-room where possible. You will possibly find out that you are also generally healthier!

I stayed in quite a few air con rooms on my trip last year, and whilst the individual air con units were OK, I ended up loathing the centralised air con systems used in some hotels. The air was stale, the rooms were more likely to feel 'damp and musty'. I also got two colds over a 6 week period - both times after staying a few days in hotels with the centralised systems. I would now avoid them -I just don't think you are breathing 'healthy' air.

A few advantages of having a room with air are that with all of the windows shut the room is quieter. With fan only rooms you always have the windows open, some screens are not much good and mosquitoes can sneak in. Also, if your room is on the first floor or has a window that people can walk by - a thief can also climb in your window because a screen is not much security!

Just another opinion.

If you can afford it, it is nice to cool off if you want. You don't have to set it to cold. You could just drop from 100 to 80F or 38 to 27C.

I like to turn it off to sleep.

Personally when in Bangkok I needed the aircon. With all the concrete and stuff it was too hot sometimes. But in Laos and the islands the fan was perfect and although some of the rooms we stayed had aircondition we didn't use it over 1 hour per day.
The only thing to take into consideration are the mosquito nets as mosquitos tend to be an annoying problem if they decide to fly next to your ear all night long...

Jon

But, you're a Pom, any wonder!!!

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Cheers

Would't mind if it had a snow blower.