Near Maximum: How To Beat The Heat
The absolute maximum temperature on record for Bangkok is 40.8 °C (105.4 °F). While writing this on April 24th, 2009, at noon, the thermometer climbed to 38 °C, but the day’s maximum temperature will reach nearly 39 °C.
The 30 year average maximum temperature for Bangkok in April stands at 34.9 °C according to the Thai Meteorological Department. Means this April not only feels like, this is an above average hot summer.
The good part: you’re hardly sweating as any sweat dries up instantly. Not much you can do about it. Beside the usual. Hydrate, don’t walk, visit the malls, cruise on the Chao Phraya – why not a refreshing klong tour -, and shower, shower, shower. Or:
Visit Dream World‘s icy snow slope or go ice skating – you’ll enjoy Esplanade’s Sub Zero Ice Skate Club. Or close your eyes and dream of Bangkok snow removing. Or start living during the night.
And one thing. If you care about the environment and go with a fan during the day, keep the windows closed. The outside air’s like a hairdryer.
If not now when else is the time for Bangkok’s lovely beer gardens.
I’m glad you can tolerate the heat with only a fan during the day. I think the concrete building construction is a blessing during times like these in that it keeps it cooler inside. You just can’t hang anything on the walls!
How to beat the heat? Start by contacting us
. The Bangkok Post featured our Heat Reflective Paint in article “Beat the Heat” published April 8th. We make houses, commercial buildings and even trucks cool by protecting them against solar radiations. And the best part? The product is certified to offset carbon credits: it directly helps fight global warming!
Problem with concrete is that it accumulates heat and releases it overnight, and with minimum temperatures at 29 it never ever cools off.
Good news is that we are near the sea so 39 is probably the highest we can get. In Delhi, for example, it can be 45 for days and, with concrete buildings, there’s no escape. They get brutal winters, too – if it’s 14, it’s 14 everywhere all the time, all the concrete is stone cold.
In summer they recommend chewing on nim leaves, which are bitter. They say bitter food keeps the blood “thin” in hot weather. Don’t ask me what it means but I tried and it worked, sort of, to the degree food can influence body’s adjustment to the weather.
I’ve been munching on “geng ki lek” here and it somehow feels exactly what the body needs.