Luggage weight restrictions being rather, well, restrictive, we didn't bring much in the way of warm clothes on our Vietnamese adventure. We figured, "Well, low 60s daytime isn't that bad. Nor is mid 50s in the evening. A light jacket and a couple long-sleeved tops ought to do us. And if it gets too cold, we can always buy something cheap there."
Ha.
What we didn't know, well what we didn't know could fill a book, but here are the major weaknesses in our reasoning: 1) The wind chill factor of the cold winter winds out of China makes the perceived temperature a lot colder. 2) Riding on a motorbike substantially increases said wind chill factor. 3) Vietnamese houses (and classrooms) may be air-conditioned, but they are not heated. At all. 4) They are made of brick and concrete and are very drafty. Great in summer. Icebox-like in winter. In fact it's often colder inside the house than it is outside. 5) Finding warm clothes in sizes we can wear is next to impossible here. 6) When you find them, they are not cheap.
So. Teeth chattering, we searched Hanoi for: warm clothes that would fit us, warm slippers (no more icy cement floors), sweaters, a thick comforter for the bed, and space heaters. It took most of the week and cost us more than we expected, but we finally found just about everything we needed.
And so it's been in the high 70s to low 80s every day since.
But at least now we're prepared.
P.
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