February

February still reads like January on a rainfall chart. It is not January, because the fields and the forest inland begin to burn, and the burning is not a rainfall problem. It arrives in the weeks the weather would otherwise be at its best and it is felt in a hard session rather than on a beach day.

If the north is the plan, February is the edge of it. The first half is usually the cool dry weather people come for and the second half is where the readings start to climb, which is why a February trip to Chiang Mai is a decision about dates rather than about the month.