In a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, I’m now ( sometimes ) pining for the winter chill of Whangarei.
Here’s why;
As you see above, early afternoons feel like 41 °C. Before 7 a.m. feels like 30 °C, and by early evening, it’s cooled way down to … 33 °C . And those evening and afternoon ‘walks’ are done in the apartment corridor, in the teeth of a breeze.
Who needs a cooker? If not for the dust, you could slow-cook something on the pavement here. In the afternoons.
So I’m struggling a little – going ‘outside’ ( anywhere without air-conditioning ) feels like plunging into a hot bath, at least after late morning.
Here’s how I’m attempting to cope;
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Decamping to the bedroom
, the only place in the apartment with air-conditioning. It’s small, so the air-conditioning works pretty efficiently. And, surprisingly cheap, by setting the aircon temp at ~= 26 °C, and running a fan. I finagled a deal for power @ 3000 VND ( NZD 0.20c ) / unit from the usual deal of 4000 VND / unit.
-
Cucumbers
Brewing up ‘pickled’ cucumbers by adding hot water, salt, and apple cider vinegar to chopped cucumbers, and stashing them in the fridge. ‘Cool as a cucumber’.
-
Skulling
plenty of water.
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Opening windows
and doors to get a mini-hurricane whirling through the main room by late afternoon. Downside : the madness and horns from the road below are in my face.
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Dousing
myself around the neck, shoulders, and under-arms with ‘cold’ water. Most times, the pipes themselves are warm, so this works best with fridge-cooled water.
I’m a little nervous about the return to teaching ( early May? ), not least because official Government guidelines advise against using aircon in classrooms!
This isn’t what it said on the packet. Below is the official climate in Nha Trang. April – average relative humidity – 80.5%. Take it with a grain of salt.
Nha Trang Climate
| Climate data for Nha Trang | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 31.9 (89.4) |
33.3 (91.9) |
34.2 (93.6) |
35.9 (96.6) |
38.5 (101.3) |
39.5 (103.1) |
39.0 (102.2) |
39.5 (103.1) |
38.3 (100.9) |
34.8 (94.6) |
34.3 (93.7) |
32.8 (91.0) |
39.5 (103.1) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 26.9 (80.4) |
27.7 (81.9) |
29.3 (84.7) |
31.0 (87.8) |
32.3 (90.1) |
32.5 (90.5) |
32.4 (90.3) |
32.5 (90.5) |
31.5 (88.7) |
29.7 (85.5) |
28.2 (82.8) |
26.9 (80.4) |
30.1 (86.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 23.9 (75.0) |
24.5 (76.1) |
25.7 (78.3) |
27.3 (81.1) |
28.4 (83.1) |
28.6 (83.5) |
28.4 (83.1) |
28.4 (83.1) |
27.6 (81.7) |
26.6 (79.9) |
25.6 (78.1) |
24.4 (75.9) |
26.6 (79.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 21.3 (70.3) |
21.8 (71.2) |
22.9 (73.2) |
24.6 (76.3) |
25.5 (77.9) |
25.6 (78.1) |
25.4 (77.7) |
25.4 (77.7) |
24.7 (76.5) |
24.0 (75.2) |
23.3 (73.9) |
22.0 (71.6) |
23.9 (75.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 14.6 (58.3) |
14.6 (58.3) |
16.4 (61.5) |
19.4 (66.9) |
19.7 (67.5) |
19.8 (67.6) |
20.6 (69.1) |
21.5 (70.7) |
21.3 (70.3) |
18.8 (65.8) |
16.9 (62.4) |
15.1 (59.2) |
14.6 (58.3) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 38 (1.5) |
16 (0.6) |
31 (1.2) |
35 (1.4) |
70 (2.8) |
59 (2.3) |
36 (1.4) |
50 (2.0) |
159 (6.3) |
302 (11.9) |
332 (13.1) |
153 (6.0) |
1,280 (50.4) |
| Average rainy days | 7.8 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 4.3 | 8.5 | 9.2 | 8.4 | 9.6 | 15.2 | 17.7 | 17.6 | 14.0 | 119.5 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 78.0 | 78.8 | 79.7 | 80.5 | 79.3 | 77.8 | 77.2 | 77.4 | 80.4 | 83.2 | 81.8 | 79.5 | 79.5 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 185 | 208 | 261 | 258 | 255 | 230 | 242 | 233 | 202 | 183 | 142 | 142 | 2,540 |
| Source: Vietnam Institute for Building Science and Technology[10] | |||||||||||||