Mud, mud, glorious mud!

---

For the last day in Nha Trang we had a free morning so I headed off on my own in an attempt to see a massive white Buddha statue. Unfortunately the map we'd been given didn't have a scale on it and by the time I'd reached the Catholic Cathedral (bizarre!) and then a war memorial statue near the train station, I admitted defeat and gave up on my mission, opting instead to get a cyclo back to the beach area. I haggled my price and off we set across the main road straight into oncoming, wave after wave of mopeds! We eventually got across to the right hand side of the road and only a couple of roundabouts - with criss-crossing madness - to endure and we arrived at the beach.

I spent the next hour wandering along the front and sitting on a bench watching the world go by, fortunately with some shade from large palm trees, writing up my bit about the 'Sorrows of War' book I'd been reading and also people-watching the flabby, rich, white, holiday-makers basting themselves in the blazing sun! They come to Vietnam via the nearby airport, plonk themselves in the 5 star Sheridan Hotel and walk across the road to the beach every day. To them, this IS Vietnam. Such a shame. They are missing out on so much.

I saw a guy shinnying up one of the palm trees, no safety ropes, just him and his machete. He was off to do a spot of pruning of the dead leaves and older coconuts. He had a rope, but this wasn't for his safety, just to lower the 'lovely bunch of coconuts' to the path below. A ground crew was going along behind him picking up all his prunings - no safety notices about tree work, just drop it and hope it doesn't hit any passer by!

I also saw in action what Phat had described regarding the difference in what Vietnamese people want to see when holidaying versus what westerners are interested in. Along the front was the odd-jobbing photographer hoping to snap some holiday photos of family groups to sell to them. A large family of Vietnamese were grouped together, lots of lovely little children, posing around a kind of art-work statue on the front. The photographer's first shot was with the sea and islands in the background. They then switched around to the preferred shot, taking in the massive hotel being constructed as a back-drop, complete with scenic cranes! They really are more impressed by big man-made structures than natural beautiful scenery!

I came across a building that looked a bit like a massive flower budding out and later found out it was meant to be a representation of sandalwood, which had made some people in the area very rich and helped build up Nha Trang on the proceeds. Have to say it looked more like lotus flower so not sure I quite got that right, oh well. It was a concrete pink and white monstrosity anyway, even if somewhat unusual.

By now it was way, way to hot to be out and about, so I grabbed an icecream on the way back to the blissful airconditioning in the hotel and got ready for our trip to the mudbaths. On the way we visited the Cham Ponagar towers just outside the city. It was built by the Cham civilization between the 8th and 12th centuries. It had 4 towers, the main one being dedicated to Cri Canbal (I'll get the proper spelling when I have my guide book with me), the Goddess of the Countryside giving help to all her followers with their fishing and farming.

Inside the smaller towers were temples with a figure in each combining linger (a representation of the male sex organ and yoni (a representation of the femal sex organ) obviously intended to aid fertility. The Cham people were influenced by Hinduism and Indian references are seen all over the building. No mortar was used to keep the bricks together and it still isn't known how the builders managed to make the temple last so long. The theories include using the bricks when wet, thereby sticking them together, or perhaps using some sort of plant extract. Nowadays around 100k descendents of the Chams still live in the area of Vietnam between Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City.

We also saw lots more of the little blue painted wooden fishing boats in the harbour nearby and Phat explained that the colour blue represented 'hope'.

And so we headed off further out of Nha Trang to the mud baths with the sign 'Mud bath, beauty from nature' at the entrance. I was dubious to say the least! Phat had promised that it would take 10 years off our appearence. For some this was welcomed but younger ones in the group weren't so impressed at the thought of coming out looking like 14 year-olds! 'Zits, mmmm, thanks'!

After we had changed into swimsuits we all went up to the little pools and waited while ours was filled with liquid mud. We then had to sit there for 15 minutes (not a minute more, not a minute less) with little plastic containers to pour the mud over ourselves with. It was hilarious, slippery and gritty and the mud got literally EVERYWHERE! The next stage was to slide over to the stepped area to dry off the mud in the sun. Then the funniest bit, trying to shower off all the mud. You should have seen our group squeezing costumes, directing water down tops and bottoms. So funny. And what could we possibly need to do next? Stand in fine, hard jets of water coming at us from both sided of a passage way between rocks. Owwww! And then it was on to the hot tub area to swelter in the heat before heading off to the hot swimming pool and finally the cool swimming pool. What a hilarious and enjoyable, if a somewhat bizarre, thing to do. And did it work? Kind of, our skin was very soft. Not sure about the 10 years younger look though!

After another scrummy meal that evening we headed off to the train station to be ready to catch the overnight Reunification Express train to Ho Chi Minh City. In the end it was over half an hour late and we had to sit in the waiting room, dripping with sweat, it was so hot. Eventually the train arrived and I ended up in a mixed berth with Phat and a couple of strangers. I was knackered and just collapsed into my top bunk and slept for a lot of the 7 hour journey (an improvement on the previous over nighter)! We arrived a tad bleary eyed to a very hot Ho Chi Minh City and the wonderful welcoming entrance sign at the train station saying 'City Thong, Tin Tin Hieu Duong sat Sai gon'. No sign of Snowy though, he probably melted!

---