This is the rainy season in Huê. It started about a month ago. The seasonal monsoon moves up and down Việt Nam so it is “rainy season” somewhere all the time – just at different times of the year. It also seems to manifest itself in different ways. In the south, around Sài Gòn and the Mekong River delta, the rainy season begins in April and consists of lots of thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Huê’s rainy season is quite different. By the beginning of November, it gets cloudy, and it stays cloudy most of the time. Yes – there is the occasional sunny day, but there aren’t many. The rain is the kind of constant drizzle that is just above being mist. Sometimes it will rain quite hard – it did this morning. Of course, there are puddles everywhere. Just get used to the idea that you are going to get wet.
The humidity unrelentingly stays at extraordinarily high levels. This causes your clothes to feel damp all the time. Of course, laundry takes a long time to dry – and there is no such thing as a dryer here. In effort to stave off having moldy clothes, the MGB decided to iron pants and other heavy items to be sure the seams dried out.
Most of the time, it is fairly chilly here. That means about 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (12 to 15 degrees Celsius). You folks in Minny-Snow-Tah or Colorado may laugh at that, but the humidity and wind combine to make it worthy of wearing a lined jacket.
People adapt to it. For the Huê people, they have lived here all their lives, so this is the norm. A couple of nights ago, the Mystery Guest Blogger and I joined our teammate Julie for dinner, and we remarked that most Americans complain about having to get out of the car and walk the ten steps to the front door of the mall. Here, we nonchalantly toss on our ponchos, throw a leg over the môto, and go eat.
After all – it doesn’t do any good to complain about the weather.