I started waking up early a few months ago whereas previous to that I kind of prided myself on the fact that my job is so versatile that I was able to wake up whenever I felt like it and get on with my day at my own pace. This is nice and all until you factor in that I tend to gravitate towards booze and well, when you don't have to wake up at any particular time and have a penchant for alcohol, that can lead to lying in bed feeling sorry for yourself frequently.
I started setting an alarm a few months ago and sticking to it and that alarm has been going off earlier and earlier as the weeks have gone by.
A big reason for this is the fact that we are entering the time of year here in Vietnam where it is unbearably hot most of the day and doing anything outdoors, even just a walk, becomes like playing a game of walking "hot potato" every time you go outside.
Once that blazing ball gets about 25% of the way up the "screen" the world becomes an almost unbearable place to be outdoors, so it was just a few days ago that I made the choice - during a 7am or so walk at the time - that Nadi and I were going to start waking up earlier.
Walking around my neighborhood at that time was nice because the idiots in cars and on motorbikes haven't started honking at everything yet and the construction isn't allowed to start using power tools. The roads were basically completely empty and quiet. I did do a bit of a morbid curiosity walk-by at the 24-hour bar near my house and of course I knew a few people that were still there from the night before. That was my old life and when I was speaking to them I could see that they were having a some moments of self-reflection because while I had just woken up and was heading out to take the dog for a walk and get a bit of exercise in, they were hammered and haven't gone to bed yet. I haven't gotten to the point of being preachy towards anyone...yet.
Down at the beach though, which is just a few blocks from my apartment, it was a completely different story: While I knew this was the case I was unaware at the vast numbers that the Vietnamese head to the beach in the morning.
it's about 5:15 in the morning and this place is much busier than it will be in the afternoon. The Vietnamese and most other Asians don't care to be in the sun and this is the one time of day that you can enjoy it down here without it being hot as the Blue Blazes complete with foot-skin melting sand. It's a bit nuts that there are so many people here swimming, paying volleyball and just doing what foreigners would do at a beach in the middle of the day. A bit further down, Nadi and I discovered even more people in the promenade.
She is trying to be polite and not stare at them... well, it's either that or the little food truck that is selling sandwiches is in the direction that she is looking. But just behind her there is a group of people doing aerobics as a team.
Based on the bags that are in front of most of the participants as well as the matching shirts for some of them, I would say that this is not a flash mob, but something that these people do every day. Maybe this is part of the reason why Vietnamese people tend to be (or at least appear) healthier than their western counterparts. I know that these are locals too because I walked past hundreds of people and almost none of them were foreigners even though this is one of the most popular tourist areas in the entire country.
We ended up walking over 4000 steps, which isn't a huge amount of distance for me, but when your legs are only 6 inches long and you have 4 of them, that is quite a distance, especially when adjusted for dog years you are 84 years old. So Nadi is back to fast asleep behind me on her special window chair right now and will likely remain there for quite some time.
Me? Well I am still kind of waiting for the caffeine to kick in from my coffee I just made.
Do I enjoy this new way of life? Well, I guess so. It certainly is better than waking up with a hangover around 10 AM or so, which honestly, is something that in the past 20 - 30 years was something I started to become quite familiar with.
This started out as a way for me to "beat the heat" but I think there might be more to this than just that. My sleep should improve as well as other aspects of my life as well.