Hi Grecos,
We have spoken to our agents out in Borneo and Malaysia, and they have replied with the following:
"Open fire activities areas are in Kalimantan Indonesia and normally in September of every year. I must admit the wind does blow the haze to Borneo and Peninsula Malaysia. The latest news we hear from Indonesia government are in the midst of curbing this open hire activities and they had assured that this will be the last year Singapore and Malaysia will experience haze.
We hope for a throughout clear sky from next year onwards."
From what I can gather this will not have a major effect, if any, on our tour. I hope this helps.
Kindest regards,
Monty
It certainly seemed to have been a problem in Singapore this year. Everyone there blamed Indonesea, but no-one mentioned Kalimantan, so it is presumably a widespread practice.
I was there for a week in the middle of October and, on one particular day, my smog-covered photos of the Singapore skyline bore an uncanny resemblance to similar pictures taken in Beijing on a very bad day.
It wasn't ever bad enough to stop me getting around, and some areas appeared to be affected more badly than others (generally where the sun wasn't shining - or perhaps couldn't penetrate), but I did notice many warning signs about the haze which were attached to tourist and other facilities and which stated that these would be closed on safety grounds if the haze exceeded a certain level.
Let us hope that it really is the last year.
Jim