The need to get up before 5am whilst on holiday is usually due to the need to relocate to a new destination. In our case we were leaving Taiping by 9 seater van and driving across the Thai border to the shopping town of Hatyai.
Our driver / guide was a local and by nature turned on the air-conditioning to full as soon as he got into the car. This would have been ok if the van had spent all day baking in tropical heat. However in the early morning, we required additional blankets to the amusement of Mei's relatives who commented "how are you both going to survive London?".