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We slept until 10am this morning, so missed our breakfast at the hotel but the sleep was worth it. The three of us then headed out for a walk around Nha Trang. We had a wee shopping list... I needed to get a fuse for my adapter, Nikki needed to get cheap local phone and Lauren needed a new adapter too. The guy at an electric stand gave me my fuse for free which was affa nice o him. It was weird not having my phone charged but when we got back to the hotel the fuse actually worked so managed to get life back to my phone. We went for brunch at the same cafe as Charles had taken us to yesterday, but shock horror I was feeling sick again!
We were meeting the 3 couples at the hotel at midday to go to the mud baths. We shared taxis there, but it was nothing like the natural mud baths I had been to in Fiji. It was a huge spa type place, where there were loads of huge baths that they filled with watery type mud. All 9 of us were given a tub together for 15minutes to soak in the water/mud, before then letting the sun dry it onto your skin. Our problem was that the exact time we got out of the mud, the sun completely disappeared and we were quite cold. I went straight into the warm mineral water showers to clean up, and my skin still felt extremely soft afterwards. Next on the list was a power jet shower, basically it looked like you were going through a hot car wash and I'm not kidding. It was really powerful and it fairly removed the mud from everywhere. You walked between these two high dry stone dykes and waited, until the water just came shooting out from all angles, it was smart because you couldn't even see the jets in the wall. Following the car wash experience, we had 45 minutes in a huge 40 degree mineral water bath, I'm meaning huge as in the 9 of us all fitted in at a push. This part was bliss, as I hadn't had a bath since leaving home.
There was a swimming pool and sun loungers at the place, but it was packed full of locals. The couples all went to the pool side, but Nikki, Lauren and I went and got our nails done. How could you refuse a manicure or pedicure for 60p...?!? Since I still had shellac on my fingers I couldn't get a manicure so it was only a pedicure for me but it was an amazing one!!! She spent an hour on my toe nails and now I have a nail on my little toe, which I've never had... well obviously I have but it's been under the skin. I chose a cool colour too and afterwards I couldnt stop admiring them haha. The other girls had both a manicure and pedicure. I think the next 3 weeks is going to be full of massages and pampering at these prices :)
It was late afternoon before we got back to the hotel, and time to get showered and freshened up before the overnight train. Today I managed to blow up my travel hair dryer :( I had changed the voltage on it yesterday to 120V and forgot to change it back, so after 15 years travelling the world with my companion I had to say bye :( I got the travel hair dryer from Karina Cable in P7 as a birthday present and it really has been the most useful present ever. It has fairly been on its travels, and used many a time on the two world trips but especially in Florida on the school trip where 10 girls used it continually in the 18 days as no one else brought one.
I managed to have a viber call when we got back with Dad and Adam which was good to catch up. Adam said he was told Vietnam is like what Cambodia used to be like 10 years ago and Vietnam is like what Thailand used to be like 10 years ago, which I thought was very interesting. He also informed me that the overnight train I was about to get was the mice infested one he experienced. Charles had tried to prepare us already, that this overnight train was going to be awful, he had told us about the mice and cockroaches that he has seen on this journey etc. Also the beds would already have been slept in by the time we get on, so if it's possible he would try and get clean sheets for us, but this wasn't always possible.
To say the least we were all pretty nervous and intrigued as to what this experience was going to be like. First though we met at 7pm for a group tea and went back to a bar that we were in last night. It was famous for its burgers and it had won awards on lonely planet and trip advisor for the best burgers in Vietnam, which in fairness wouldn't be hard as theres not much places sell burgers. We waited for well over an hour after we placed our order until the food actually arrived, and by this time we were starving as we only had a toasty late morning. To be fair it was actually worth the wait and we all ate it in record time as we were so hungry.
At 9.30pm we were picked up by a bus and taken to the train station, to get the 10.10pm train. Everyone was quite excited to find out what tonight was going to be like. The train didn't start from Nha Trang therefore we had to wait at the station until it came through, and no shock that it was late already. We saw a train stop that had metal bars for windows and no glass, Charles had warned us that there was the possibility ours would be like that. Luckily enough ours arrived and it actually had proper windows, but it looked horrendous. When the trains stop at stations, they empty out the toilet waste onto the track which is absolutely disgusting as we then had to walk over the track to get to the platform our train was at. I think they're meant to connect pipes to the train but they don't, they just open the hatches and drop everything onto the track and I mean everything.
When we got inside it was something from a movie scene from the olden times. There was rubbish everywhere, the beds had all been slept in, the walls were all stained and you could smell the toilets as soon as you got on the train. It was such an old train with wooden floor boards and you could see the outside in the joins between the carriages!!! Charles managed to get clean sheets and blankets thankfully but we still had to take the old ones off and fold them up... yuck yuck yuck, plus even the clean sheets didn't look the best so it was defiantly a sleeping bag job tonight!
Mica the Glaswegion had anti bacterial wipes and had cleaned her whole cabin, we managed to get rid of all the mouldy rubbish and make the place look a tiny bit better. It was half 11 by the time we got settled so it was straight to sleep! xxx
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