I feel as though the notion of acclimating to an area's climate is a bunch of nonsense and the only people that you ever hear talking about such nonsense are people that have never lived somewhere long enough to know whether it is nonsense or not.
I'm telling you now that living in a place for a certain amount of time and "getting used to the temperature" is nonsense.
I moved to a hot and tropical part of the world nearly 20 years ago and I am still one of the first people to overheat, one of the first people to break a sweat, one of the first people to start sweating uncontrollably and of course, one of the first people to complain about all of these things.
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Vietnam is dreadfully hot, especially in the months that most of the world considers to be the summer. June through August is nearly unbearable to be outdoors in unless you are soaking in some pool or the ocean and even then, I have been standing in a swimming pool and sweating, which is something I didn't really think was possible.
The best time of year to be in Vietnam is the part of the year that people here would refer to as winter, even though it is nothing like the winters that we would experience in the Western world. I live in Da Nang which is neither central nor northern, but is kind of something in-between. For a few months of the year we have what I consider to be some of the best weather in the world if it can manage to not rain.
From mid December to mid-to-late February, we have reasonably warm days and cool, sometimes even cold, nights. The rest of the year it is painstakingly hot and humid. Some people claim to like weather of this sort but if you have any sort of European or North American blood, there is a very good chance that you are going to end up like me, chasing air conditioning everywhere you go and basically avoiding being in the sun almost all the time.
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I'm not saying they are wrong because obviously they are not, but Vietnamese people are able to counteract this blistering heat with basically the same strategy they use when it is cold, but covering every patch of their bodies. This somehow works for them but in the hot months if I were to do the same thing I better be racing to the emergency room because I am quickly going to die of heat stroke.
January and February are my favorite months here because you can actually do stuff outdoors in the daytime and at night you can even get away with wearing a heavier shirt or in extreme situations, long sleeves. You don't realize how much you take things like this for granted until you can no longer do it anymore. Wearing jeans is something that I can only get away with for 6 weeks a year and I really end up looking forward to it.
However, I know that the end is coming soon for this notion because today at around noon I took my dog for a walk and was going to get some take away on the way back. It wasn't even a long walk, maybe around 1km or so - which is more than enough for a dog with 4 inch legs.
By the time I stopped at the place that I was getting my take away from I was already sweating a lot and I couldn't make it stop. Nobody has moved the fans to their outdoor seating yet because it isn't that time of year yet, but today, was the first day in about 40 that I felt uncomfortably hot. I was self-conscious about how much I was sweating and the marks on my shirt were becoming evident. I'm also a stress sweater, so the heat combined with the fact that I am now nervous about the fact that I am sweating just made me sweat even more. It's a terrible Catch-22 when this happens.
So if you are in the area and appreciate being able to do stuff outdoors without being in danger of heat-stress hospitalization, you better get out there and do it now. I am about to go on a run which will almost certainly be one of the last ones that I can pull off in 2023 without seriously overheating.
From what I understand, Vietnam is way above north from Malaysia, I don't think there's a match for hotness 😂 unless we're talking about girls. I agree during the "winter" we do experience less heat, but the humidity is a guaranteed all year round here. Like you said, standing at the pool and sweating.
It's unavoidable isn't it? I complain about it constantly but there are so many benefits to living in this part of the world that I tend to overlook it as much as I can.... I also carry a sweat towel with me for 40% of the year .
6 weeks a year jeans weather, nice little comedic gem. I imagine if I lived over there I'd opt for the north and the cloudies town possible. I'm lucky to have found a place in Cambodia that my Irish blood tolerates quite well. It is jeans weather here year round, shame there isn't a good restaurant around, or a business of any kind for that matter 😉.
not having any businesses around is definitely a downside for me but I've accidentally gone to the other extreme: there are entirely too many people and businesses here and I don't like it. I don't want to go to the extreme that you have because I would get cabin fever but I think after leaving here I am never going to live in a city with a million people in it ever again.
It's worth noting that not all people in Vietnam necessarily fear summer, as the climate can vary from region to region, and some people may enjoy the warmer temperatures or have adapted to the conditions over time.
But frankly speaking, I don't like hot and being sweating haha
you are absolutely correct. There are a lot of people here that really enjoy what I consider to be painfully hot weather. It must be my Northern European heritage that lead me to be incapable of handling the heat. Good thing I didn't elect to move to one of the most hot and humid locations on earth, right?
Yes the whole "You get used to it" rationale is utter nonsense.
I was born and raised in Denmark, but lived in Texas for 20+ years and I never got used to the heat... in fact, I rarely ventured outside between May and mid-September. Now I live in western Washington state which is cool/temperate much like Denmark, and I feel "home" here.
South-East Asia just doesn't have my type of climate. I expect the only climate in Vietnam I might be able to tolerate would be Dalat, which I hear can be pretty nice since it's a mile high.
Dalat's weather is magnificent and I would love to live there. Unfortunately it is just too far away from stuff we need like immigration and therefore, the expat community that isn't married or have long-term visas tend to not be there. There is also Sapa in the extreme north of the country that is also elevated and actually gets snow a few months of the year. I've never been but I hear great things!
I'm glad to hear that there are people out there that have real-life experience with how you never really get used to it.
The weather here in Pakistan is similar to the way you are telling about your country. It is very hot here from June to August, but it is so hot that it would be very difficult for a person to live in it. Walking around is a big deal. There are people here who have to go out and work. Only those people are seen on the road. All the rest of the people are relaxing in their homes. And those who have come many times in their cars are driving at full speed in their cars, they don't even feel the heat outside. These people who are outside in the heat and are earning money by working hard, rich people should not mistreat them.
Well i certainly hope they don't mistreat them. I think that a lot of people should live a week in another person's job every now and then before they judge them. Being nice is free, right?
We also think the way you are thinking but those who are rich do a lot of bad things to the poor people here we see with our own eyes we also can't say anything to them because they are too Rich. And as we know nowadays, as a man has money, he is listened to.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ
I don't envy you as humidity is terrible as sweating all day is not fun. I remember picking a guy up from the airport in a car that had no air conditioning. By the time we reached our meeting we looked as though we had been swimming in the pool due to sweating so much.
oh that made me think of times in the past where I had volunteered to teach some professionals some English in some sort of corporate something or other. They had us booked in the evening inside of a room that not only didn't turn on the AC, it didn't have any at all. They didn't even have any fans. By 20 minutes into the lesson I was embarrassingly covered in sweat and after "halftime" I refused to teach any more until they got us an appropriate room so that I didn't need to drip all over the floor and have my shirt be completely saturated. It was humiliating.
I know I wouldn't be able to do it. I am sure you handle it even better than I would. As much as I complain about winters here I wouldn't trade them.
when I visit a cold climate at first i am like "this is awesome!" but that kind of wears off after a couple of weeks of not being able to feel my feet.
The last time I visited someone somewhere cold I was standing at a bus station looking like I was smoking because of being able to see my breath. He was late to pick me up and I was not pleased about this because I didn't have any clothes with me to prepare for this. I don't even own a coat anymore.
I can appreciate that. I think a lot of us love the first month or so of winter, then we are ready for it to be over and wish that Spring was here. Michigan is so odd because like today we are supposed to hit the 40's then by Thursday we are looking at nine inches of snow or something like that.
You drink a lot of water to avoid dehydration when you expose to heat under the sun. ☺️
I haven't experienced so much heat in our place. It becomes rainy season since December. ☺️
yes indeed. I normally drink 3 liters of water a day and even more if I exercise. When I do exercise in the really hot months, I think I probably sweat at least a liter! :)
That's good to know. Drinking a lot of water a day can prevent some diseases and even be healthy because you exercise.
Yay! 🤗
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