One of the thermal challenges in hot-season Bangkok is sleeping comfortably without air conditioning between bedtime and about 2 am, when things finally begin to cool off. With temperatures remaining in the low 30s, the body cannot pass off its 100 watts of heat to the environment by convection, especially if one is sleeping on a fahlang-style mattress and using a fahlang-style pillow. So sweat begins, and soon enough you are lying on a disgusting wet pillow that is hard to dry. Your head, with its ample blood supply, becomes especially sweaty.
It never would have occurred to me, even after watching the natives, but a guy on Soi Cowboy told me that fahlangs are overly attached to their sleeping apparatus, fluffy pillows and soft mattresses, but the fact was that in a few nights they could get used to the local way, hard pillows and sleeping on concrete was no serious inconveneince once you got used to it.
So I replaced the fahlang pillow for a few nights with this smaller hard thing. He was right, I was more comfortable the first night, with air circulating nicely around my neck. Assuming that I am evaporating half a can of Singh every hour, 90 grams at 2500 joules per gram heat of vaporization, I'm picking up 60 watts of cooling. Good for my blood pressure, too!
Next challenge: go all the way, sleep on a wooden pallet which is the Thai tradition.
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