Same, same but different!
As we had arrived ridiculously early – at a time so early that even the early bird contemplates having an extra five minutes lie in- our rooms at the hotel Vien Dong in Nha Trang were not yet ready for us, so we headed to the beach until noon. The sea was a refreshing cool temperature which was just as well as outside the water it was scorching. Fully aware of the ever present danger of travelling to far flung places as a self confessed quasi albino, I opted for the shade, protection and, if I’m honest, damn right laid-back funky style offered by one of those quintessentially tropical looking beach umbrellas and donned my ultra handy mauve aeroplane socks so as to not burn my feet. Lying back, I listened to the dulcet tones of Jack Johnson- essential music for a chilled out sesh on the beach and thought back to all the stress and strain of the previous year’s work. This, though completely unrelated, made all that hard work and effort worth it, as I tend to like to think of it as both a reward and a pick up from the last hellish year. Though naturally a little sad not to be able to share this with all my friends and family, I was thoroughly enjoying being able to lie on a beach and not be overly concerned about getting burnt. The others however, who had decided for whatever reason- either intent on getting a tan, or put off by the relatively cheap 30,000 DONG charge- not to get an umbrella all burnt horrendously badly, especially those with paler skin and those on doxycycline Anti-Malarials. So be warned, when heading to a beach in a super hot country, irregardless of what you may or may not be accustomed to doing in Europe, you should really think about some greater protection in far flung places. Everyone to a greater or lesser degree applied suncream but it didn’t stop them from turning a shade of red normally reserved for screaming babies and overweight men who attempt to do some jogging.
I was also in no danger of getting dehydrated as my newly acquired Vietnamese lady friend (no, not that kind!) was ever attentive to my needs (and her opportunity to make a tidy profit) and in between chats she scurried back and forth with ultra refreshing coconuts and water.
In the evening we went for a nice meal at… as recommended to us by our guide. The food was reasonably priced and the place had an amiable ambiance which made for a relaxing meal. The only thing which made me mildly uneasy was the gigantic leopard print eel which glared at me menacingly from his tank for the almost the entirety of the meal. It’s quite hard to enjoy yourself when you’re stuck in a face off between yourself and an enormous eel, but somehow I managed.
The next day we worked on finishing our first video blog, hampered ever so slightly by a weak wireless connection and intermittent power cuts. Once we’d sorted that out, we headed to the hot springs and mud baths which our guide Apple had told us about. A taxi shared between 4 came to about 75,000 DONG, working out at roughly … each, … in dollars. Entrance to the hot springs was free, but for the mineral mud baths there was the option of either a four person private mud bath totalling 700,000 DONG or access to the public ones working out at 100,000 per person. We opted for the public baths: a) because they were cheaper but more importantly b) because we weren’t segregating ourselves off from the locals. In the event we were guided to a bath for just the four of us- presumably they’d assumed that we would choose the private option, though later I joined in with some of the locals. I’d hopped out of our bath to take some photos with Matt’s new SLR when an ‘official’ photographer popped up and started snapping. I swivelled round and began to take some general photos of the place and my attempt at National Geographic-esque snaps of the locals enjoying the mud. It was at that moment when the Vietnamese photographer approached me gesturing to the camera and pointed at a group of women in a bath that I’d just photographed. Oh ok, don’t take pictures of them I thought- perhaps they don’t want to be in other people’s photos. Yet that wasn’t what he was trying to get at. What the women wanted was, in fact, a photo with yours truly. Umm… ok, I said, surprised at the request, though I suppose we are just as interesting and photo worthy to them as they are to us.
After my somewhat bizarre bonding session with the three women which, as far as I can gather, involved variations of the Vietnamese for ‘Man, how white is she?!’ and ‘what on earth is she wearing?!’ (apparently unbeknownst to us swimwear clad Brits, it was actually customary to dive in to the murky green liquid mud fully clothed, complete with jewellery and watches- not sure how they still worked!) we headed off to first shower and then hop into one of the luxurious hot springs where we were joined by some fellow travellers from Canada and the UK. Our next stop was a warm waterfall, which was exactly what are aching muscles needed. Finally we headed into the pools, both hot and cold to enjoy a leisurely swim before heading back to the hotel. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and one which I would recommend to anyone. The muddy water, although giving the appearance and smell of watery cement was in fact full of minerals which made your skin incredibly soft. Those with sunburn also mentioned that it appeared to soothe their discomfort somewhat. After wolfing down some delicious, and I’d have to say most authentically italian of all the pizzas professing to be so, (purchased from a charming lady from the restaurant Little Italy- she was so nice she even gave us some extra sauces for those who were taking their meals away with them- we headed back to the train station, safe in the knowledge that Apple had promised us that this train would be just as comfortable and well equipped as the last. Now I’m not trying to call anyone a liar here, but the Vietnamese (technically Apple’s thai but this rule applies to her as well) have a wonderful way of stretching the truth slightly to fit their purpose, and nowhere is it summed up better than in the oft heard phrase (so much so that it now appears on souvenir t-shirts) of ‘same, same, but different’! More of slight artistic license used by Apple to describe our second overnight sleeper next time.
Til then!
Becky