It’s Happening!

After our amazing but very sweaty vacation in Cambodia, I started to seriously consider the possibility that the weather in SE Asia was just always going to be somewhat unbearable.  I thought I remembered that the weather in Yangon was pretty nice when we visited in January, but that could have been my sun and heat starved London self revelling in a bit of tropical warmth.  Maybe every day was actually going to be 32 degrees until we hit March, and then it will be 40 and I might spontaneously combust.  But this week, on Tuesday, I left the house at 5am for a run and thought, hey! I don’t think it’s so humid today.  And sure enough, the humidity has gone from 96% to around 55% and it is delightful!  The difference is incredible, and although the high is still around 32, my weather app says it feels like 32 and not 42 like it was saying last week.  It’s still hot in the middle of the day, but the mornings and evenings are much nicer and I am so happy!

Gav has had to spend the weekend taking pictures, updating a website and live-streaming video for a volleyball tournament at school.  It’s also his birthday, poor guy!  I decided to take the time while he was out of the house to finally get a haircut, and since the weather has turned I decided to go on my bike.  It was actually a nice little ride there, although a bit scary as I didn’t know where I was going so had to hold my phone in one hand and try to dodge all the potholes at the same time.  By the time I arrived at the salon I was kind of sweaty (shocker!) due to a)the sunny ride uphill and b)nerves about the hair cut.  Ever since I got a very strange mushroom-shaped hair cut in Paraguay (after I asked for a trim) going to a new place to get my hair cut has given me some anxiety.  Add in a language barrier and I was a little worried about what would happen.  Of course when I stepped inside the ladies said “oh, it must be so hot out! You are very sweaty!”  I mumbled something about a very long bike ride (it was about 7 minutes) and tried not to worry about it.  In the end it was a perfectly fine cut, very cheap, and they had trashy celebrity gossip magazines in English!

Afterwords I cycled to school to see Gav and cheer on the school’s team.  I managed to sneak him out for a quick lunch (it was his birthday after all!) and then he had to walk back to school and I was going to cycle home from the restaurant. I thought I vaguely knew the way, but I asked Google Maps how to get home and it gave me directions.  I neglected to notice that I had asked for walking directions rather than driving ones, so I ended up in a weird little neighbourhood with a big monastery.  Then the directions had me going down a bunch of stairs so I just followed it blindly, carrying my bike.  This went on for a while (I could see that I should pop out onto a road) until I ended up outside of someone’s outhouse with no obvious way around.  Now I am realising that I have made a huge mistake and am going to have to carry my bike back up all those stairs like an idiot and of course I am now sweating, again.  I did eventually make it home after that unexpected arm workout, but will always be sceptical of Google Maps and its sneaky shortcuts.  It seems to think a lot of roads exist that just don’t.

Gav is off at the volleyball again today, so Nell and I will have a nice girl’s day, probably hanging out on the balcony and hoping that I have not jinxed the weather by announcing to everyone that it is finally not quite as hot!