A Beach, A Crab and... A Mud Bath?

Friday 10 December

The train from Ho Chi Minh arrived at 515am in Nha Trang. To be honest, I really didn't sleep very well, because even though this was "first class", like most trains, there were things that didn't work - and on our train it was the compartment door. It just kept flying open during the night, and as I was on the bottom bunk, I kept having light shining in my eyes. So I didn't sleep much.

We were met at the station by our local bus driver and quickly transferred to our hotel, the Vien Dong. It was quite nice, our rooms though were in B block which was in a small building outside the hotel. Everyone was just shattered from the journey so we checked into the rooms and had a sleep.

About 9am I got up and headed off to the beach for a bit of a look. Nha Trang is like a seaside resort, with a nice beach, aquatic activities (like snorkelling and scuba on the islands nearby), nice cafes and restaurants , and of course sunbeds and swimming. The locals don't really partake of that sort of thing however. Seems a bit of a waste for it to be a stinking hot day on the beach and you're all covered up in long sleeves and long trousers, but hey, to each their own.

Vaughn had suggested that we take advantage of the beach in the morning if the weather was nice, and then go to Cham Tower and the mud baths in the afternoon, so I settled down for a bit of a sunbathing session on the beach. It wasn't particularly pleasant though, as the locals were wandering up and down trying to sell you jewellery or seafood all the time. Quite annoying actually. Fortunately Beate, Erik and Francois turned up and although the locals kept persisting, it was easier to ignore them when you all just start talking together.

About 1130ish we headed back to the hotel and had a swim in the pool before running into the girls on their way out. We all decided to go for lunch (or in the case of the girls, breakfast) together so we headed back across the road to one of the cafes there. Erik ordered a coffee which arrived in a most peculiar contraption. There was a thermos of hot water, a strange looking silver pot drip filter device on top of the cup, which already had some coffee and of course, condensed milk (as most Asians are lactose intolerant so they don't drink real milk) inside. The whole thing however took an eternity to brew and by the time it was ready, the drink was lukewarm.

For lunch I ordered some sort of chicken noodle dish, but Francois ordered a fish soup. Whilst we were sitting there, in the restaurant, eating our meals, some street sellers came up and tried to sell us seafood. Francois went over for a closer look and before we knew it, it appeared she was cooking him up a crab. He came back and we asked how much - he shook his head and said "I don't know... She kept trying to add more crab too it and I kept saying no but now it looks like she's cooking me a crab". When he came back with it, she charged him 150 000 dong ($7.50) for the most piddling little crab you ever did see. Talk about ripped off! But he said that was the missing ingredient for the soup - so I guess all was well.

We headed back around 130 and then took a taxi out to see Cham tower and to take us to the mud baths. The tower was nice, it was obviously a Buddhist temple though and as such you had to cover your shoulders and knees if you wanted to go in - so Beate and I were given sexy little grey robes to wear. You also had to take off your shoes and wear their ugly slippers.

In walking around we observed the musicians who were just sitting there drinking rice wine. They offered some to Erik who had found a beer at the kiosk. He had a photo with them instead.

Our taxi driver had been waiting for us but when we returned to him the meter had barely changed - obviously waiting is part of the service I suppose - and he then took us along some very windy, muddy and unsealed roads out to the mud baths. He agreed to wait 2 hours there for us.

We headed in to the mud baths and paid 900 000 (about $50) for 6 people to have mud bath treatment, mineral water soak, and use of the swimming pool. Included was the hire of bathers (essentially a tank top and terry towelling shorts) and for 30 000 dong deposit, the hire of lockers. Pretty cheap eh?

The mud bath experience was fabulous, I can highly recommend it. It was a particularly good bonding session for us as a group. You go up the hill to the mud bath, which is just a large ceramic bath that they fill with warm muddy mineral water. You then cake this on and relax in the water for 20 mins or so (but we were longer because we thought they'd tell us when to get out - and they didn't) and then you shower the mud off. You then walk through a special outdoor corridor with water jets shooting both sides at you, for further cleansing, before soaking in a warm mineral water bath. After this you head down to the main swimming pool which is also warm, and then you just relax there until you've had enough. There's also massages and so on which you can get, but this costs extra.

When we had finished we went outside and our taxi man was diligently waiting for us. This whole journey, some 3-4 hrs, cost us no more than $7 for all 6 of us - and that included the tip!

We met with Vaughn at 630 in the lobby and he took us out to one of the local restaurants. The food was incredible. I had fresh spring rolls which literally were to die for, and the most delicious Vietnamese noodles. Yum!