Vietnamese Sweat Lodge

I returned from my quick trip to San Francisco and Scottsdale with some gifts from my grandchildren - a very feverish cold/flu and a case of pink eye. We are staying at the farm house for two weeks until the Tet New Year on the 14th. Salem and her family gave me 3 days to get well my way and I wasn't having much success, when it was announced that they were putting together what I have to call a sweat lodge - a 2000 year old cure. Ignoring the many multi hundred year old graves behind the house, I agreed to give it a try.

First, Salem and her mom built me a tent out of straw mats and blankets.



Next, a big pot of 8 different leaves from the farm and environs was boiled. This did not appear to be Colonel Sanders secret recipe.




With the pot in place I was asked to strip naked and squat in front of the pot inside the tent. I come up short in the squatting department in comparison to any Vietnamese, so a small stool was found for me. After about 20 minutes of breathing in the vapors and sweating I was allowed to come out and sat down for a very hot bowl of rice chowder heaping with black pepper.



I have no earthly idea if it was related, but about 3 hours later, having spent a few hours napping under a comforter, I went up to the rooftop to read a while. I broke into a vicious sweat and my fever broke. My jet lag ceased the next day as well. Picture a bunch of naked guys in first class huddled over pots of steaming leaves on their flights to Asia to solve jet lag. Might work on global warming too.