Hot and Humid

It's five to six in the evening and the sun is accelerating towards the horizon. The hot air hangs heavily around you, as it has all day, and you don't know if the salt on your skin is from seawater or sweat. Your head pounds with the relentless humidity. Then the sun's red tip touches the horizon, suddenly revealing the silhouettes of palms on a distant island, shimmering in the heat haze. The mirage vanishes and with it the daylight. There is a pause in the rhythmic purr and cheep from the undergrowth and a whisper of wind flickers in off the fast-cooling sea. You reach for your mosquito spray.

The tropics are anything but delicate. The humidity can hover in the nineties for weeks, and you only get relief when the moisture in the air hits saturation point and promptly collapses on top of you. So if you're not dripping with sweat you're soaked to the skin. Wind, when it finally comes, makes up for weeks of stagnant air by turning up in the unmistakable shape of a hurricane. Rain doesn't so much come in drops as jets. As for seasons, don't think 'spring, summer, autumn, winter', think 'hot, wet, hot and wet, hotter and wetter', and throw in a few destructive local winds for good effect. And don't think about all those bugs that would be killed off by a nice sharp frost. It's just breed, breed, breed.

It may be tough if you're holidaying in Darwin or Dhaka, but at least you're forced to take it easy. There'll be no dashing from museum to gallery in Mozambique or the Gambia. In Manila they say that the Tagalog word for tomorrow is said to be very close to mañana, but without the same sense of urgency. And at least the weather reminds you that it's there - and so are you. When it's 41 degrees and 94% humidity at least you'll never turn the corner and think, 'it's just like the High Street!' Unless you live somewhere more exotic than I do, that is.

So how do you survive it? First rule: take it slow. Give in to that tropical lassitude. Second up: clothing should be avoided wherever and whenever possible. Without offending the locals, of course. And without getting sunburnt, which can happen even when it's cloudy. And without exposing your flesh to all those biting insects. OK, maybe you'd better bring a full safari suit. Appetites get much lighter in the heat, so skip heavy meals and graze on tropical fruits - which taste quite different when they've ripened under strong sunshine rather than supermarket striplights. So put a straw in the top of a fresh, green coconut, get yourself comfortable in a hammock (remembering to lie across rather than along it, of course), and just wait for that sunset breeze.

Even if you are a mad dog, stay out of the midday sun. This is the time to take a long lunch, and a longer siesta. It works all over Spain and Latin America. Get up early, when it's cool, and stay out late. Turn up at a Spanish restaurant at seven o'clock and you'll eat with other tourists and the locals come out at around ten. And there's nothing like strolling along the streets of an old Italian town, eating ice cream at midnight.

Travel Tips: Hot and Humid Weather
If you need to cool down in a hurry, stick your wrists under a tap. Running water applied directly to the pulse points just draws the heat out of your blood even if the water isn't particularly cold itself. (Bathing your temples and ankles works just as well). The secret? Water conducts heat much better than air. You can even die of exposure in tropical seas - which is a tip in itself.