There are lots of ways to beat the extreme temperatures of Southeast Asia, beginning with cold beer and aircon. But one of WoWasis’ favorites is the liberal use of Snake Brand’s Prickly Heat Powder, which you can use for a lot of stuff, and it’s cheap and readily available, too. 

It’s usually sold in a tin 150 gram shaker can, and it’s marketed as a “soothing powder which is effective in relieving itching, prickly heat rash, and skin irritation from hot weather.” You just put it on like talc (or better yet, have a friend do it), and its spices really go to work to cool things down. 

Not only that, but we used it in a pinch one day when we ran out of deodorant. We smelled great all day and that night too! One of our pet peeves about all of Southeast Asia is how bad many westerners smell, and we wish like hell that they’d use Prickly Heat Powder and save the rest of us from misery. 

The company that makes it, The British Dispensary Co. Ltd., has been around and active in Thailand since 1892. Although they market the powder in lavender, herbal, and anti-bacterial iterations, real men stick with the “Classic” formula in the red-banded can. We have a devil of a time finding our favorite deodorant in SE Asia, and try to pack enough from home so we’re never caught unawares. But Prickly Heat does a nice job as a backup, and feels nice everywhere else, too.