August 24 to 25—Mud Bath and Hot Springs, and Overnight to Hoi An, VietNam

Dear Family and Friends,

Friday, August 24, was our last day in Nha Trang, and we started it by sleeping in until 7:30 AM for Dani and 9:00 AM for Martha … a pattern has formed here folks … but Martha definitely enjoyed sleeping in after SO many days of early, early mornings. We enjoyed the room, watching a movie during waking-up time and then packing to make our noon checkout time from Room 203 at the AP Hotel. We paid 200,000 dong a night (10 USD) for our four nights in town and dropped our packs off at Sinh Café for the day before finding brunch of Spanish omelet with baguette, chips, and fruit shake for Martha; egg, cooked onion, and tomato baguette sandwich for Dani.

At this fine dining establishment of Vietnamese name unknown, we struck up conversation with the Easy Rider of the house, who offered to take us to the local Thap Ba Hot Spring Center on two motorbikes for 30,000 dong (2 USD) each way for the two of us. It seemed like a good price for more than 5 KM distance, so we hopped on with our bags and headed to see what our options were for a pampering-us day. Glorious news! Just 60,000 dong (4 USD) each bought us a mineral mud bath,therapeutic mineral spray, soak in the hot springs tub, and as much time as we wanted in the warm mineral pool (at 38 degrees Celsius). A one-time 10,000 dong deposit gave us a lock to secure our belongings, including the computer that Martha didn’t want to leave at Sinh with the packs, and we climbed up the hill in our swimming suits to pre-shower before getting into the warm mud!

Neither of us had experienced a mud bath before and were pleasantly surprised to find how nice and soothing the mud could be. It was not thick, but instead felt very cleansing and like a good way to exfoliate our skin with the rough texture and to play in the mud by dumping it over each others’ heads! Good times. The instructions told us to soak for 15 min in the mud bath before moving on to a hydrotherapy spray for 5 min and then into the hot springs tub for 45 min for best effects to the body, so we followed the instructions, although we had to get out of the heart-shaped hot springs tub every once in a while since it was darn hot! The warm water of the hot springs pool was also a bit too much for us coming right out of almost an hour in the hotter springs, so we sat in the cushy ‘reserved for foreigners’ section of the seating around the pool to lounge in the coolness of the shade and drink lemon drinks for 5,000 dong (0.30 USD) a piece. Eventually we swam around for quite some time, until we got hot, then hopped out, then back in. It was a great way to pass the day.

Changed, refreshed, and relaxed, we caught a taxi back to town at 5:20 PM, walked the last bit of the way towards Sinh Café, stopped for dinner at a “local” spot—a large hall only yet partially full in the early evening—but ended up with the foreigner menu in English. Even from it, as we attempted to order eel, red arca, and a few other yummy-sounding exotic-to-us dishes, we were not permitted by the multiple wait-staff surrounding our table. Did they not have the item or just not think we would enjoy it so told us no? Finally, they found a pork dish to be acceptable for Dani, and Martha was led to the Japanese style beef. It was pretty good, but the adventure in dining would have been better regardless of the taste.

We walk to the booking office to check on our bags and see what time we needed to be back and headed off to learn the name of the shallots that Dani had loved so much at the corner with Dr. Tung the first night. They were called “O.K.O” and Dani planned to find some of her very own before the trip was done. We hurried back to the bus and settled in for a long night to Hoi An, VietNam.

Just across the aisle on the bus, we met three ladies from Holland and struck up conversation with them for quite a while during the long overnight trip. They were lovely people, vibrant and making the most of the bus time. (They would have preferred to take a comfortable overnight train with proper sleeping berths, but we are secretly glad that the train was full because we got to meet them!) We loved watching the ladies jest with the little Vietnamese kids in front of them. We had no idea that we were about to make new friends! By 8:30 PM, we had a much-needed bathroom break and stop for gas. As we got back into boisterous talking on the bus (and we were not the only ones as many locals were riding the bus, headed home from their vacation at the beach), we were told to hush! Sleep was not easy since the air con was too often off and the bus got overheated, but at least our seats reclined. For others, that was not the case.

Saturday, August 25, our arrival to Hoi An was an early 7:00 AM. The bus ride was listed as a 10-hour trip, but it took more like 11.5 hours, which annoyed Dani no end. Before being dropped off at the Sinh Café office, they took us to one of the local hotels to try to get folks to look at a room and stay at their choice; no one budged as many already had hotels and folks like us were too tired to put up with touts so early in the day. Our first step once we got away from the collection of hotel touts surrounding the bottom of the bus stairs, we went inside to sit with the computer and look through the map of town to find where the recommended hotels were. It took us a few minutes to find that our first choice was RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!! In the lobby at Dai Long Hotel, we asked about rooms, when they might be available, and were shown an example of one that was still occupied. For 10 USD per night, we had an internal room with a bit of light, air-con, a TV, and en-suite bathroom, but it wouldn’t be ready for our naptime until after 11:00 AM.

They were kind enough to let us leave our bags (except the computer bag that Martha carried, of course). We found a wonderful breakfast at Café 43—the strong, sweet Vietnamese ice coffee, a baguette with spread cheese for Dani, and a wonderful French-style pancake with honey for Martha. The gentleman owner of the café walked us down the alley-way back to our hotel, showing us a short-cut and therefore the fastest way to return. Café 43 was something special; even that early in the morning, the lady of the house was working to post boards where foreigners had written in their native tongues the praises of this place, what to order that was specifically local, and how kind the family who ran this little café were to folks. This town is exceedingly service-oriented, and has learned a thing or two about marketing.

With our bellies full, it was now time to feed our eyes; we walked to the beautiful town’s riverside. As we opened the computer to work on some more of the writing tasks to pass the time in the early part of the day, one lady approached and we bought peanuts from her as she told us about her three children and that she had left her husband because he hit her. She said that Martha was very beautiful, proving that she had taken at least one to the head. The peanuts were presented as a brittle on rice paper pizza, with hard, sticky sauce of lemon grass and sesame seeds, sweet and salty. We whiled away the time typing away under our umbrella to block the sun. Wandering back, we looked at clothing options in this tailor’s town, picking up five cards, being shown some ongoing work, asking about prices, and getting a feel for how we’d like to work with the women. Finally, we checked into the hotel, where a shower and nap awaited Dani and more typing lurked in the corners for Martha.

When we left the room once again for lunch, we headed back into the Old City by the river, looking at the old French buildings that were part of the UNESCO Heritage Site in this town. People live and work in these buildings, which have seemingly also been converted over the years for current needs, like shop fronts and combining of houses to enlarge space. Temples and monuments with Vietnamese designs could be found around the outskirts of the main living areas. We found a great little place to grab a snack, Cafeteria Ly, and Martha tried one of the local favorites, ‘white rose’ with its delicate design of rice noodles holding a shrimp ball that could have been the center of a ravioli, covered with dried French onions and a few chili peppers and dipped in a sweet soy sauce. Dani enjoyed her beef with vegetables, including French-style cut green beans, over a bed of fried noodles.

The local marketplace was nearby, so we enjoyed an afternoon under the tent, looking at the abundant fruits and veggies, trying to buy more insect spray, and being accosted by shoe sales ladies. Martha simply had to show an interest in the market's sandals before one woman was kneeling at her feet, trying to rip off her cracked and worn sandals and sell her a new pair for a whopping 250,000 dong (almost 17 USD). But they had no arch support whatsoever and that’s a necessity for flat feet, so we went on. We began our shopping spree in this town with a few purchases, and agreed that we were wrong about shopaholics being in danger in Siem Reap, Cambodia … there were many more, more expensive, items here to buy, some of which were much more useful!

Martha was still a bit hungry as the white rose are pretty, but not too filling, so we returned to Café 43 for some fried spring rolls and the cheap local fresh ‘bia hoi’ that cost just 3,000 dong (0.20 USD) a glass. We continued our walk about town back at the river, where we found a nice balcony to watch the people traffic.

Conversations were soon struck up with a couple of the waitstaff, the first of whom told us about her kids, including her 15-year-old son who made necklaces to help fund his future college years and her daughter who was currently studying to be an accountant at the local university—and the second of whom was a young university student (studying to be a receptionist at one of the local hotels) named Ly. She wanted to know about the dice game that we were playing, which we carry with us for easy entertainment while traveling … and thus our new friend, Ly was introduced to Yahtzee. Dani explained the game, making notes so that she could play it again in the future, and inviting her to join us so she could really see how it was done. Beginner’s luck held true, and Ly was ecstatic to be the big winner at the end of the game. By then, it was late; we said our goodbyes and headed back through the winding streets of the old city to bed.

In love and light,

Martha and Dani