I'm currently on a one month Sanitarium Trip in Korea. I have shocked my family and friends, so please allow me to attempt a brief explanation. I live in Thailand, where it is hot or extremely hot year-round. It is also humid or extremely humid much of the year. There is also plenty of air pollution, especially for me in the form of diesel fumes. Overall, Thailand is a wonderful country, but the weather and the diesel fumes are not part of that wonder. Well... Maybe the weather is part of the wonder. If so, it proves the maxim that too much of a good thing can be bad.
I can do hot and humid weather. I grew up in 18 hears of hot and sticky Ohio River summers. I did 11 years of oppressive rainy seasons in Korea. I can handle this weather for two or three months.
Thailand is different. Near the equator, the sun is not your friend, but rather it's like being inside a large microwave oven. You have to hide yourself from the sun--always. The heat is relentless, with little to no relief at night. In the lengthy rainy season, the question is: How many showers today? Three or four on a slow day, and up to four or five per day when you try to be active. (Hyperbole warning: Actual numbers are less.) There is no relief whatsoever for most of the year, with the exception being October through February, when conditions change from intolerable to tolerable for nearly four blessed months.
It was the Covid Years when I made my deal with the devil. I went to him, and I said: "Devil. I got this hypothyroid thing going on, and my hands and feet are always cold. I mean, when other people are out in T-shirts, I'm dressed for a winter trip to the Sierra Mountains. I just get cold." The devil, he looked at me with what seemed like just the hint of a sly grin, and he replied simply: "Deal done." That was it. That was when I made my deal with the devil to never be cold again.
To his credit, the devil has kept his end of the bargain. Since I got to Thailand, I have never once been cold. You might even say that the devil under-promised and over-delivered. When I go swimming, it's like being in a warm bathtub. Touch any metal object exposed to the full sun all day and you'll burn your hand. Chocolate? Thailand can fix your sweet tooth. Imagine being hot and sweaty and treating yourself to a liquid mess of what once was a chocolate bar. Good riddance to chocolate, anyway.
In the end, all the above descriptions of Southeast Asia's hot weather are destined to fail. It cannot be described, only experienced. For me, I got there in December, enjoyed a couple months of tolerable weather, and then held on until mid-August, when I simply couldn't take it anymore. As they say in mixed martial arts bouts, I tapped out.
I tapped out of the hot and sticky rainy season for a month. When I go back to Thailand in late September, we'll be almost to tolerable weather, and life will be good again. The biggest problem for me is being locked inside by the heat. I can take it for a few months, but this year, my first year, I couldn't take it for the full eight months. Other people can. City slickers who don't mind being locked indoors all the time are fine. The Thai people can take it. Forged in the fire, they are incredibly tough. But for nature boys and girls, the people who have to be outside a lot, I don't know. Even if you could do it, the question would remain: Why would you do it if you didn't absolutely have to?
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