Put your sunscreen away. Rainy season is upon us in Vietnam

You have to take the good with the bad during this time of year because on almost any day with rare exceptions there is a really good chance that it is going to rain and rain hard. This could be considered annoying to the people that love it when the sun is out but to me, I actually prefer this time of year because the temperature drops dramatically to the point where on some days it almost feels a bit cold.

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Sometimes this rain can be exceptionally strong and it is almost impossible to do anything in it, even walk regardless of if you have an umbrella or not so you just have to prepare accordingly and accept the fact that you are probably going to get wet. One of the big problems we have here is that the streets have very unequal drainage so if you are walking on the footpath look out because there is a good chance that there is a small lake next to you in the street and the cars aren't going to pay much attention to the fact that they are going to be spraying the hell out of you on the sidewalk. it can be a bit of a challenge to get from place to place without getting soaked.

The good news is that the really intense downpours like the one pictured above are situations that will normally only last a few minutes and then the rain will really taper off or even just stop all the way. This is not a time to sit on your laurels and celebrate the fact that the rain is over because it definitely isn't over. If you have to be somewhere this is the time that you should utilize to scoot and get to where you need to go because chances are there is another deluge just like the one before that is just around he corner.

Take this picture for example: Seems lovely and tranquil right? Well those clouds that are just over the mountain in the distance turned dark and 15 minutes later the rainfall was some of the most intense we have seen in months. Thankfully, we have been here long enough to know that this is coming and it rarely has a chance to sneak up on you especially if you are on the beach and can see it coming from very far off. Because of the air pressure and topography of this area the rain seems to originate from over those mountains on a regular basis. Once you see the clouds you need to start planning your exit. On this particular day we could actually see the line on the horizon where he rain was falling and it was quite interesting to see these circles of sorts where the rain was falling very hard right next to an area where it wasn't falling at all. This is why sometimes you will see one neighborhood that is just a km or so away from your place gets drenched and your placed doesn't get any rain at all.

During this time of year everyone saves money on air conditioning because you don't really need it. Right now it is the middle of the afternoon and it is 25 degrees outside. While this might not seem cool to people in the west that is what a lot of us that live here turn our AC down to, so this is a nice time of year.

For the most part I think that Vietnam is way too hot most of the year so I welcome this change in the weather. I don't really have to ever go anywhere except to get food so it doesn't affect me very much. You really should shop more "in-depth" at the supermarket when you do go for the next several months though because there are going to be many days like today where the skies could open up at any second.

For people who just want fun in the really hot sun all day every day, this would be a terrible time to visit Vietnam because until around January it is going to be like this nearly every day. Tourism dies out a lot during this time of year but for me, that is probably just another reason why I like it so much. There's too damn many people here anyway in my opinion.