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Well since we were in Hue the rain hasn't really stopped. The plans that we had made whilst we were there had to be scrapped as looking around the sights of a city is not the most fun whilst it is raining cats and dogs. We had to take up our time by finding little bars and restaurants, walking around with our ponchos on and camping in our hotel room in the warm and dry. Whilst in a bar one night, we were chatting to the locals over a few drinks and a game of Jenga, I had to make a trip to the little boys room. Through the swing doors there was a sudden drop due to a step, I hadn't noticed this and as I walked through my toes bent underneath me. The big toe had caught on a tile and had split the toe from the tip of the nail downward by about two centre meters and looked like a fishes gob. The blood came thick and fast and we had to hobble back to our digs pronto to get it cleaned up. It is doing fine now but the past few days of walking about has been a bit of a pain in the arse. But anyway I will stop crying about it and fill you in on the rest of our activities.
As I was saying about the rain, after spending pretty much two days cooked up inside our hotel we decided to move onto Hoi An in the hope for better weather. We turned up after a five hour bus ride and climbed off the bus to grey skies once again. We had read a few bits and bobs on Hoi An in our Bible and had decided that the rain would not stop us from venturing out and about.. We spent a few hours walking around the towns bustling market on the lookout for a cheap Casio watch for Ashleigh. It took us two days but we finally found a great red Casio that set us back only $5. There is a great bar here called Before and Now. The walls are adorned with original art works that follow a pop art style spliced with the whit of Banksey. My favorite painting was a mock of Apocalypse Now, with a painting of a buddas face with his hands covering his nose with a tag line painted 'I love the smell of my palms in the morning!' We had also read in the Bible about a place to eat called Café 43. This place was great with amazing food for pennies and beers even cheaper. A beer cost 10p! That's right 10p. The beer was advertised as 'Fresh!' and it is pumped out of a keg in front of you, freezing cold and fizzy, what more do you need. Needless to say we had quite a few beers here. Over the few days we spent in Hoi An we popped into Café 43 a few times. I wonder why? One day during the rain, we broke the boredom with a full body massage at a place only five minutes walk from our hotel. After a few months of traveling about, your back, neck and legs take a bit of a beating and it was about time to get them sorted out. After an hour of body MOT we left feeling brand new and very chilled out. With the rain still falling 24/7 we moved on again to Nha Trang via a night bus that would take about 13 hours, setting off at 5.30pm and arriving there at 6.30am.
We had slept quite well and were amazed to wake to blue skies. I know that you are used to seeing grey skies back home especially at this cold time of year but it was a great relief after the past 6-7 days of none stop rain. With the blue skies above us, we found a cheap hotel and had agreed to have a day of action doing as much as we could. After a quick wash we were out the door around 8am full of beans and ready to roll. We decided to check out the beach as it was just around the corner and was what we have been wishing for over the past few days of rain. We walked the length of the beach in the early morning sun and found a place to take a load off and grab some breakfast. Ashleigh had spotted a place that would be cool to check out in the Bible and we hopped in a taxi to take us there. We went to the National Oceanographic Museum that is a aquarium of sorts I suppose. There are a large number of squirming and swimming sea life ranging from turtles, sharks and fish right through to sea snakes. In one of the buildings you enter, the first thing you see is shelf after shelf of pickled specimens of sea life form floor to ceiling. It was funny to see and rather eerie but yet held your interest. I kept staring at the lifeless creatures expecting them to twitch or move. Ashleigh summed it up in a great way as she said "It's nice to see what they look like when they are alive and then what they look like when …….their dead!" Our taxi driver had waited outside for us until we left the museum and called us over with a rather camp "YOOOOWHHOOO" We jumped back in our cab ready for our next stop.
Ashleigh had spotted info on the Thap Ba Hot Spring Center and as soon as we read about the mud baths we were sold on the idea. I know we had had a full body massage just a day before but we decided it was ok to treat ourselves just a little bit more. For what we got for the price was fab. We paid 900,000 dong (30 quid for both of us) and we got the works. Mud bath, mineral spa, massage and unlimited time at the 38 degree pool. We hopped into our bath tub full of mud quick as you like and were covered from head to toe in seconds. You seem to float in the mud baths and it is really hard to actually sit on the bottom of the tub. After a good 20 minutes soak in the mud it was time to let it dry on our skin for a while whilst lying on sun loungers and once a bit dry, we blasted it off ourselves using hot salted water. Our skin felt amazing already but it was about to get even better. We climbed the stairs towards the thermal spa and were taken to our tub for the next 45 minutes. With a turn of a key, hot mineral rich water flowed into the tub and filled within seconds. A tub of boiling water with two parcels containing spices and minerals was added that was brown in colour and smelt like cinnamon and ginger. Water and fruit were brought to us and for a second we felt like Roman emperors. We soaked until we looked like prunes and took our places on our loungers for what we thought was just going to be a foot massage. It turned out to be another full body massage and we definitely weren't complaining. After nearly falling asleep and with skin as good as a new born, we made our way out of the spa and down towards the pool. On route we were told to walk through a small walk way and were blasted with jets of water from all angles that acted as a type of water massage. We made our way to the pool and feeling more relaxed than a man who had won the world relaxation championships, we bought a beer and sat in the sun and swam in the pool until we felt that we had been decadent enough.
Again our faithful taxi driver had waited for us whilst we were spoiling ourselves and this time welcomed us with a wave instead of his camp call. After what we had been through we felt action day had been a success and there was only one place to head and that was back to the beach. After a short ride there we paid our driver and said our goodbyes to him. We went back the place that we had been for breakfast, a place called Louisiane Brewhouse that is a cool joint that brews it's own beer on site and adds a bit of a twist. We bought two passion fruit beers and pulled up a lounger on the beach and spent the next few hours watching the kids running into the waves and the kite surfers pulling off crazy jumps. That evening we had arranged to meet a girl called Leonie that we had met on the bus to Nha Trang to pick up some hints and tips on some off the places she had already been namely Australia and Bali. We found a small place to eat that was cheap and tasty to pick her brains and all was well until through a small window about 20cm high by 45cm wide looking into the kitchen, Ashleigh spotted something on the ledge moving around. It only turned out to be two large rats. I was pleased we spotted them after eating as it might have been a different story if not. We told the owner and he came and looked with us "it's ok, it's just rats….here it's fine, rats are fine!" was his response. Not when they are bloody scratching around your kitchen there not. Good to know health and safety is a big thing over here! We hoped we might get some money off the bill but he didn't give a monkeys about the rats so it was never going to happen. To be fair for the three of us to eat and have a drink, the total bill was only around $7 anyway so you cant really complain. We made our way to a bar called Why Not Bar and had a good few drinks, played cards and celebrity hats until it was time for us to hit the hay. We left Leonie with some people we had got talking to in the bar and made our way back to our digs as once again, we were moving on the next day and had to catch a bus at 7am.
True to our arrangements we were up, packed, checked out and on the bus by 7am and on our way to Dalat. We were told that the bus would take about five hours which would give us a good time to arrive in the new place. After being on the bus for two hours the driver made a stop. Thinking it was a normal stop we all pilled off to use the toilets and what not then, without a word, the bus driver just drove off leaving us sat there without any of our bags and not a clue what was going on. We assumed that he might have gone for petrol or something along those lines. After an hour the panic started to set in a bit but we had been told by a local that our bus would be back in two hours as the driver was around 50km away getting a problem on the bus sorted out. This news went down like a lead balloon and most people had faces like thunder including me and Ash. We just couldn't believe he just drove off with all of our belonging and did not even say a word as to why. Fortunately the bus returned within another 15 minutes and we were back on the bus and Dalat bound. We arrived around 1.30pm so the timing was still ok but, the grey clouds had seemed to have followed us and were hanging in the sky all day spitting out rain here and there. After finding a place to stay we checked in and made our way out into Dalat for some food and a look about. We wanted to visit the Crazy House that we had read about and seen pictures of so after feeding our faces we plodded on using a map that was not really 100% accurate. We ended up walking for what felt like a life time due to the fact that we walked in the wrong direction and up the wrong road. I have to take the blame as I should have checked the map a little more often than I did. We got there in the end though and it was totally worth the walk. It was like stepping into a Tim Burton film. With the crazy distorted walls and stairs that lead to a number of different bedrooms that you can stay in (but there was no chance of us doing that due to the price from $30-$130 a night) and the many walk ways and bridges that link the buildings together. It was like an adventure house and would be great for kids to visit and stay as there are hidden compartment dotted all over the site. We felt like kids let loose in a cartoon word where walls could bend and twist defying the laws of gravity. We were lost in this amazing place for a few hours and every step lead to another interesting and quirky sight for the eyes. We loved the Crazy House and it lives up to it's name in every way. We will sleep easy tonight with thoughts of magical buildings that have the power to give you back your childhood adventurism even if it is only for a short while.
Love Peter and Ashleigh x
- comments
Stig Funny isn't it, doesn't matter where you are in the world they always manage to pump out a beer better than the Brits? Yet another fantastic array of photos and blog to match. My fav bit, the photo of the carving of the Kangaroo, or was it the doll in the market that looked like Ash, or the one of Pete's toe? Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhh the choice!! PS don't know if you realise it but that situ with the rats, you had merely done a stock take...........Love to you both always.......xxxxxxxxxx
Enid& Tom That mud bath sounded wonderful,you didnot have to many beers Peter when you split your toe[as if you would].Keep on having a great time& keep on writing. Be safe Love Aunty Enid&Uncle Tomxx
MAM & RAY well again love ya blog & ya photos son glad you both got to pamper yourself,s didint like the bit when the bus drove off with all ya bags phew----- you and ash look like yi have lost some weight ? ya beer belly has gone Pete !! dont know how cos ya drinking plenty of it at 10p a pint who wouldn't .Thanks for your phone call on my birthday it was a fantastic surprise made my day even more special hearing your voice's had a great day. Love and miss you both Sooooooooo much take care have fun stay safe luv you stacks mam xxxxxxxxxxxx.