I'll Have Mine With Mud!

Guess what? Just for a change, we woke up and showered. Cool, huh? But really though, today would be spent reclining in mud baths, taking mineral showers, swimming in hot pools and standing under waterfalls. Life on the road sure is tough what with all these indulgent escapades to deal with as well as having to pack up and move on to our next destination of Hoi An. (Shopping capital of the world!) The minibus arrived soon after breakfast, and an intrigued Brett and Vanessa climbed aboard wondering just what the Thap Ba Hot Spring Centre would have in store for us.

After purchasing my new shorts, (which for the record are so not incredibly sexy!) we were pointed in the direction of our first mineral shower, where we washed ourselves of whatever it is mineral spring water cleans oneself of, before moving towards a spa bath filling quickly with the special mud that would be our bath for the next 25 minutes. Sliding into the warm, brown mud is quite disconcerting as it fills up and covers all, and I mean all, places on one's body!

After getting over the fact that we were indeed sitting, or more so, reclining in mud, we relaxed and floated in the natural healing properties of wet dirt.

After getting over the fact that we were indeed sitting, or more so, reclining in mud, we relaxed and floated in the natural healing properties of wet dirt. (It really is quite invigorating and great for the skin!) Moving on from the mudbath, we hit the showers for the 2nd time, but not before baking ourselves under the Vietnamese sun for 15 minutes.

Washing the baked mud from our frames and every spot the mud went, we moved onto a different version of the shower we had just had, but this one consisted of 4 different places to stand each with different river pebbles for massaging the feet, while slow jets of water spurted from the walls all around. (Very cool!)

What I've failed to mention was that the showers are all at 34 degrees so, by this time, we were both sweating and wondering when the cool shower or swimming pool would be coming into the picture. We found out it wouldn't be any time soon.

We moved onto the hydro-therapeutic mineral bath next. (Which for mine could have cooked lobsters, crabs or any kind of shellfish, it was so bloody hot!) Gingerly lowering ourselves into the steaming bath, we were soon slowly boiling ourselves to a tender pink and really looking forward to jumping into the swimming pool. This was until we found out once we got to the pool, that it was at a constant temperature of 30 bloody 8 degrees!! Will there be no end to this heated water? No, it would seem not! Even the waterfall cooked my already sweaty framefrom the bombardment of heated natural springs!!

A quick drink and a well-deserved ice cream under the shade of the pagola were definitely on the cards, as we watched Vietnamese families enjoying their day out. However, we soon had to return to our hotel to pack and be out of the room by 2pm and then kill 5 1/2 hours till our coach to Hoi An arrived. Sleeping in cramped chairs in the lobby was the way this afternoon would float by, with the occasional movement for food, drinks etc. whilst Ness brought the journal up-to-date on the computer.

I can't tell you how excited we were when we realised that we would have the same driver from the bus trip 2 days ago! But in all fairness, he was much better this time round and even quite nice. We met another Aussie couple on the bus and Matt and Carla made the trip even easier. We joked and generally had a decent time as we cruised along.

Till next time, my avid readers. Hoorah!!!