Sickness, Sweetness and Awesomeness

As I write this most recent post I have unfortunately fallen under the weather with an intense cold. Not to fear as I am soldiering on through the blocked nose, puffy eyes, headache, blocked ears, retarded voice and constant sniffing, blowing and shooting gunk everywhere I seem to go.

Well as most of you probably gathered from the last lot of photo’s we kicked day 4 in Nha Trang off with a hot spring and mud bath visit located up in the hills of Nha Trang City. As we expected, it was a pretty popular thing to do on a Thursday morning seen as though nobody actually works (unless you’re selling books and glasses to sucker tourists). The mud bath and mineral spa treatment seemed expensive at the time as the package topped just over 900,000VND (which roughly translates to around $40 AUD which works out to be about $20 each), but for such a unique experience we thought we would spare no expense. As it turned out it was well worth every cent (or dong). You started by jumping into a mud bath for two which felt like you were literally sitting in a bath of chocolate milk, however it unfortunately did not smell like chocolate milk (nor did it taste like it as I found out in the previous lot of pictures) and was significantly thicker than you would expect a chocolate milk to be. After about half an hour in the mud baths you were then given a private mineral bath with a platter of fruit and your own set of reclining chairs which were happily accompanied by a rotating fan.

As part of the package we purchased, we were entitled to a foot massage which was weirdly nice, especially when they would play with your toes (surely you would have to have a foot fetish to become a foot massager because I certainly wouldn’t massage my feet let alone Laurens with her mangled little toes). After stabbing our feet with some pen looking thing and causing discomfort to my unsuspecting heels, they offered both of us a full body massage for just a little bit extra (it was 150,000VND each which is roughly $7.50, bargain!), I was more than happy to accept. There is something very calming and sensual about a complete stranger slamming their hands all over your body and poking you with sticks, but overall it was a very relaxing experience. After our massage we went off to the next session of hydrotherapy, which in simpleton words actually means jets blasting out of a wall and hitting you, or the equivalent of someone holding a high pressure hose and shooting you with it. As part of the package we were also granted free access to their pools, however it was a really hot day (the forecast was 33 degrees however the taxi outside temperature displayed 38, so we will just agree that it was damn hot) and what we didn’t realize was that the first pool we jumped into was the ‘hot’ mineral pool, and boy was it hot. After seeing the sign for the cold swimming pool we immediately jumped in however it was no colder than my usual bath temperature.

After leaving the spa we headed into Nha Trang for some lunch and met a fellow Australian named Roger who had been living in Vietnam for the past couple of years. He was really helpful actually telling us all about the place and some inside knowledge about things you would only learn if you were a local living here. However there was one thing that had been bugging us for a while and we were dying to ask someone: why are there so many Russian’s? We first started to notice when all the menu’s had the primary Vietnamese names and sentences, followed by the English underneath for the tourists, but underneath that was always a Russian translation. Turns out the Russian Mafia are quite big here in Vietnam, thanks to the relationship forged through the war and Russia siding with the North Vietnamese and the communist way of life. Also as it turns out, we had dinner at a Russian restaurant that night and had eaten at another restaurant owned by the Russian mafia (how cool!).

After eating at Roger’s Bar Oz restaurant over the road which have all traditional Australian meals (except for a parma) and quite a decent cheese burger, we noticed on his card that he gave us, he had scooter hire listed as one of the things his guesthouse (called Oz Guesthouse) offered, which I was very keen to do.

It was our last day staying in Nha Trang City (we only moved 15km down the road so it is still Nha Trang) and at The Light Hotel (we now much prefer Diamond Bay’s facilities) so we thought what better way to spend a couple of hours than to burn around on a scooter in the hectic streets of Nha Trang. I must admit, it is one of the best things you can do in Vietnam by a long shot. There just comes a feeling of overwhelming freedom when weaving through different streets and traveling anywhere you feel like going with nothing holding you back. Unfortunately I only had the bike for just over an hour because we needed to get back to the hotel to check out and move onto diamond bay, but it would have to have been on of the most exciting (and freakishly frightening at the same time) hour of my life. The traffic is just manic, there are motorbikes and scooters coming at you at every angle and every one of them goes around you as if you do not exist. Even the roundabouts are hilariously fun, people just storm in at every angle and drive without consequence, however there is some method to their madness as the whole system does actually work. And here comes the craziest part, Lauren actually rode on the back of the scooter for a bit of the journey (and secretly enjoyed it)! We started off on backstreets just to get used to the bike and the traffic but as the confidence grew I went lone ranger on the esplanade than runs the way down the coastal beach line of Nha Trang, however couldn’t go very far due to time constraints. Upon returning the bike to Roger (which in the ended up costing me about $5 for the whole time because he’s such a nice guy), he said that if I ever wanted to use it again he was more than happy for me to take it out anytime as long as I put fuel in it. This was a pretty generous offer seen as though it was actually his bike and not just a hire-bike he had sitting around.

After we had packed our stuff we jumped in a 20 minute taxi to our next hotel of Diamond bay. This was an extensively luxurious place located around the mountain which gave it its own private bay for guests to use at their leisure. After checking in we were given a guided tour in the golf buggy (because the place is do big they run golf buddies to different parts of the resort) with a friendly Vietnamese man who had obviously been taught English. However he was not taught normal English, it had been extremely Americanized and had a hilarious twang to it. He was also extremely polite, whenever he would like to tell us something he would start by saying ‘excuse me madam and gentleman, can I show you…’ and every time we would have to answer ‘yes you can show us…”. He also had a few stumbles as he would frantically try and remember the word he was trying to say, we just felt like finishing his sentences for him because it just sounded so painfully unnatural. It was a nice touch but a little bit over the top.

I think I’ll leave it at that for now as it is approaching our dinner time and we are getting on the free shuttle bus into Nha Trang for a bite to eat. I’ll post another entry tonight about Lauren fighting her French fries and also her attempt at drowning my thongs in the man-made beach. I am also aware that I owe an explanation as to the Lauren-loving-midget and the crazy cyclo, I can ensure you they are coming in due time.

Until then have fun and we will speak to you all soon,
Kristian & Lauren.