Heat Index
April is the hottest time of the year here (I do realize that it’s May when I’m posting this and May is pretty hot as well). And it isn’t just me who thinks this. All of the foreigners I talk to agree, as do the Thais except they aren’t as vocal about it. Often they’ll see me dripping in sweat and just say ‘hot’ with a slight chuckle in a way that’s meant to acknowledge the fact that they understand why my skin is glistening under the tropical sun. Meanwhile I’m too lightheaded to put words together so I just mumble something that comes out like baby talk.
All of this has lead to my helmet tickets (see previous posts), frequent trips to 7-11 to bask in their cold AC, losing a lot of weight, and avoiding being outside in the middle of the day. The Thais avoid the sun as well but do a lot better job than I do. While I have the world’s weirdest tan lines the locals cover from head to toe so it looks like they are going snowboarding when it’s 100 degrees out. Having darker skin here is kind of equated to being a laborer and poor so it’s a sign of your social status to have a fairer complexion. There are creams that are meant to lighten the skin tone, surgeries you can have done, and the cost of sun block is astronomical. I, on the other hand, am too busy talking baby talk to care. And there’s the fact I only brought with me t-shirts and shorts.
Update: The past week it has started to rain more often and it has cooled things off quite a bit. I was cold for the first time the other night when I was soaked driving in the rain at 2am. It’s a welcome relief from the heat and it has knocked down the pollution particle levels from the burning of crops so it’s easier to breath. It can be annoying during some of the downpours and now it takes a lot longer than half an hour to dry my clothes. And I can no longer drive my moto with my eyes closed :/
Side note, I think that’s the first time I’ve made a facial expression using the colon punctuation. I’m not even sure if I did it right but maybe this whole internet revolution is catching on and I’m turning over a new leaf.
