SWEATING

Doesn't the title just make you so excited to read this....!?
Uncharacteristically for the new, very ladylike me, I thought I'd put this little observation out there on the world wide web. Don't worry, I won't put pictures with this one.

Have any of you lived in a tropical climate? Or used a sauna on a regular basis? If you have, or do, then you'll have some idea what I'm talking about.

It's mid-summer, and the temperature is between 35-42 degrees every day. It's not much cooler at night. Relative humidity is very high (40-50% in the countryside, 70-80% in the cities) . In this rural area there are few places with air con, and fans are dependant on power, which is pretty inconsistent right now (Viet Nam hasn't yet embraced solar power, although this will be a perfect place for them.)

So.... sweating is like breathing, or digestion, or toenails growing - it happens without you even being aware of it. It's not a pleasure, but it's not really an annoyance. It just happens.

It's not a sweaty-stinky-pits type of sweat. It's not wet-patches-in-politician's-shirts or nervous-job-interview type sweat. It's not BO sweat. It's more of an all over leaking type sweat, seeping out of every pore - knees, chin, arms, stomach, eyebrows, toes, just everywhere. Like an childhood Babybel-left-in-a hot-lunchbox, only without the smell of cheese. Like a running-on-the-beach type sweat. It's a clean fresh sweat, that smells like clean hot people. And everyone takes a lot of cool showers.

At night it's a case of sprawling on top of a sheet, in as little clothing as you can get away with and still be decent when the landlord walks into your room to plug in an extension lead at 5.30am, and finding positions to sleep where there is a minimum of skin-on-skin contact. I'm almost grateful to be here alone - i can make a skydiver star-shape, and rotate both pillows to get 3 more cool sides. I now understand why (at least in the rural areas) most people don't even use a mattress. Lying on a hard surface allows air to move underneath you.

Well, there you go. Sweating à la Vietnam. Not the most exciting of posts, but life isn't all incredible and amusing and fascinating. You're gonna have to read about some of the mundane too!

See you soon :o)