Hot springs and a mud bath in Ninh Binh

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We arrived back in Ninh Binh on Friday for some some free time over the weekend. On Friday night me and Amy just chilled out because we were still exhaused from our trek and Amy had the beginnings of a cold. On Saturday morning Amy was still feeling a bit ropey so I joined the rest of the group and set out for the day's activities while Amy tried to sleep off her bug in the room.

We had heard about some hot springs near Ninh Binh that sounded cool so Giang had organised a minibus to pick us up from the hotel at 10am and drive us to a jetty where we would catch a boat downriver to the village where the springs were. Quite a few people were hungover from the previous night's festivities and when we got to the pier and it started to rain it looked like the day might be a bit of a failure. Then we saw our boat. If was a very ancient clumsy looking beast and the odd looking local lady who stepped up to steer it didn't inspire us for the trip. We jumped on nonetheless and sat for around half an hour getting wet and watching rather unattractive shanty towns go by. Finally we arrived at a slightly more attractive riverside village and jumped off, just as the rain started to ease. After paying for entrance and for use of the pools we were shown to a pair of swimming pools that contained rather murky and gross looking green water. I had been expecting hot springs in the fields like you see in Iceland (the country, not the shop) but it transpired that the water in the pools had come from hot springs and that the green tinge was from the minerals in the water.

One pool was hot and the other pool was cool and we spend a couple of hours messing about in the surprisingly nice water before Giang spoke to the owners about the other treatments available. The only other thing on offer that day was mud baths so after paying a little extra and sorting out a boys' bath and a girls' bath for those people who wanted to mess about in mud for a bit we left the pool and went to the side of one of the hills where the tubs were. The seven girls who had paid jumped into one big tub but the four guys (David, Matt, Giang and me) only had one tiny tub between us. David and Matt had half an hour in it first before I spend a while in the hot mud, chilling out and enjoying the view and Giang decided he'd pass up on the bath after all.

Afterwards we all cleaned off in lovely high pressure showers before heading back to Ninh Binh for dinner

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Comments

[jayne]

lee in the mud
hello again intrepid travellers!! thankyou once more for the brill Bloggs and photos. Can't believe you agreed to do more time in a monastry; you are both barking!! The mud bath looks nice(eh?) . I'm wondering if Amy was really unwell,or just whimping out.!!.Tell her to man up and bath in the green slimey mud :Oh joy, i think i would have been poorley too. At least if you were not ill before, you would be afterwards!!!. hope you enjoyed yourself lee. loads of love to you both , still misssing you both . Take carexxx Jayne/ mumxxx

[Dad and Kathy]

Hello Hippies.
Just caught up with your blog again, fantastic stuff and great pictures. We are missing you and its good to read all about what you are getting up to. Keep having fun, love to both of you XX