Adventurous Beginnings

I have woken up to today not quite sure what the day or date is which means that I am well and truly on holiday now. This will end shortly when we arrive in Da Nang and Jules reports to teaching duty. As for me well I will have to smarten up my act and start to plan a bit of a time line. I thought instead of trying to tell you what we have been doing the past two weeks I would just tell you about our favourite day that transpired a couple days ago. The perfect day.

We were in Na Trang, a long stretch of beach where it seems the Russians go to spread their massive white carcasses across the sand to burn like Baltic whales. That morning we chose ‘Lanterns’ as our place for our standard muesli with fruit, orange juice, coffee and a slice of toast with our jar of traveling vegemite. No marmageddon here folks. This for all three dollars each.

As we munched on breakfast we were accosted by the usual bunch of street vendors selling books, sunglasses, Vietnamese paintings and small orphaned babies. We had decided to hire a moped so we could explore the local mountains. In particular the local Mud baths and hot springs. Jules had what was commonly known in backpacker circles as the ‘squirts’ or runny bottom so we thought the mud baths would be a brilliant place to visit thus disguising any unfortunate accident that might occur. So we hopped on our motorbike and joined the other 60 million motorbikes that take the streets everyday. So there we were. I was like Dennis hopper in Easy Rider cruising down the high way with the wind in my hair only we were on a 50cc Honda Wave and it was the Na Trang coastline not Route 66.

We wound ourselves up the small streets to the Mud baths where we were greeted by a small morning crowd. Once we negotiated our way through the ticketing process that consisted of purchasing the ticket, taking two steps giving the ticket to the ticket ripper, walking  20 metres, presenting the ticket to gather another ticket to receive a towel, turn around to another counter to present our ticket to receive our towel and locker key. Once we got changed we went to enter the mud bath area…….doh! needed our ticket, which we left in our locker.

We spent the morning soaking in mud, then hot water, then cold water and man made hot waterfalls. It was a great relaxing place to spend the morning. We concluded that it also doubled as a Russian white whale sanctuary. Russians are big big people and some of the Russian women that bathed that day looked like they had attached a couple of basketballs in stockings to their chests.

After our soak we hit the highway again powering along at an impressive 40km per hour while 10 ton trucks sped past us blowing smoke in our face. We were on the hunt for the elusive Baho Waterfall. It was an off road track that we finally found that consisted of ducks, and dogs, small children yelling ‘Hello’ every two metres. Adults smiling and probably telling us that we looked stupid and to cover up. Just a side note……Jules and I dress in our daily tee shirt and shorts, as it is about 30 degrees out and sweat pours from every orifice. I think the local girls think we are crazy as they saunter around in jeans, a hoody, with the hood over their heads and a mask to keep out the germs or sun or exhaust or perhaps its some new fandangled hip hop gangster thing?

So we found the waterfall and had one of those deserved swims only a sweat-laden person can have. On the way back we stopped to watch the sunset in a local fishing village. Drinking beer and eating little prawn crackers. The day was finished where it was started, at Lanterns restaurant, eating a creamy tofu curry and caramelized onion and pork slow cooked in a clay pot. So there you have it, our perfect day and Jules didn’t even shit herself.  We have had a few more great days since I started writing this email and are now in Hoi An which by the looks of thing, we may spend a week here. We are loving Vietnam. The sights and especially the smells. There’s the fish mixed with poo smell. The steamed rice and poo smell. The BBQ and poo and my favourite poo and poo which stays with you for a while. Right so on that note I must say goodbye. Will be in touch soon with more stories.

Shann and Jules