25.02 Day 41 Nha Trang
Sunday 25th February - Nha Trang (Day 41)
A bug bear on this trip is the amount of plastic consumed. We’re guilty of it for some but it seems endemic - everything is one use, disposable. Shopkeepers want to put items in individual bags inside another bag. Every drink comes in a plastic cup with lid, plastic straw and plastic slip to hold the drink in. We’ve tried where we can to take our own bags and turn down a plastic bag, or bought 5 litre bottles of water to decant into our (plastic) 500ml bottles we try to use for 4/5/6 days.
Yesterday morning I’d found a nice iced coffee cart out the front of someone’s house a few blocks back from the beach. It even came with an iced tea as that’s seemingly what those drinking in (sitting on plastic stools on the pavement) would also get. Returning there today I take back the two plastic holdall slips which are met with a noise, or rather squeal, between surprise, laughter (at me) and excitement.
I also get a similar response by asking for Trung Banh Mi (egg) for the “baby” to try and encourage them to not put any of the usual salad in the roll. I try a dozen Banh Cam which are a cross between a pancake and a quiche, cooked on a griddle with large dimples. Sadly they’re not as good as the smoking theatre when they’re made. I’m saved though with previously bought mango for the breakfast table.
One of the Nha Trang “famed” attractions are its mud baths, so that’s the plan for this morning. It’s almost 30 degrees but a little overcast as we get a Grab taxi to the North West of the town to the Thap Ba Spa / Mud Bath. You can just visit the swimming pools, and/or the mineral bath and/or the mud bath. We go whole hog and after donning some borrowed swimmers, make our way up the side of a hill to a series of pools of varying sizes.
We’ve pointed to an oversized bathtub-shaped pool and told to get in, at which point muddy water with a green tinge starts pouring in. Perhaps there are health benefits, but really it’s just fun to wallow in warm mud for 20 minutes. It takes Seb all his willpower not to dive under.
After rinsing under a Hills Hoist washing line shower type set-up, and weaving through a series of vertical water jets to remove the mud, next is 30 minutes in a hot mineral soak. From here we’re allowed free access to the 4 pools, 2 jacuzzis and even 2 waterfalls - all with water around 38 degrees or higher.
You can enter just for the pools and seemingly quite a few local families have done just that, bringing huge picnic spreads and crates of beer. Aside from the plastic rubbish generation, another noticeable aspect in Vietnam is the smoking. As soon as we stepped out of the airport in Saigon, we were hit with not just the heat but also the secondhand smoke fumes. On the trains, people smoke at the end of the carriages. On the street, teams of people walk carrying baskets of cigarettes to sell or push a bike laden with cigs. If you’re sitting at a cafe near the pavement, you’re approached in hope you might need 20 Marlboro Lights (do they exist anymore?) And so it is amongst the swimming pools, that familiar smell wafting over and through you.
Not bringing our own lunch we get something from the in house restaurant and the kids continue to speed walk from the pool to the next waterfall to the next jacuzzi. Finally we drag ourselves away, but after a brief rest at the hotel, the kids are keen for even more swimming at the beach - Seb is content in the shallows, whilst Sienna and I try and float just behind the breaking waves.
Dinner is at the un-Vietnamese Mr Mac who deals in one dish: Macaroni and Cheese. The kids share one large bowl in the bright yellow hole-in-the-wall cafe with Kate and I then also carb loading on Zatar Manosh and other Turkish breads in a place next door. A complete, fun filled day.
