Mud Wrestling the Olsen Twins

Travelling through Nam has been a real eye opener. The country has everything to offer from vibrant bustling cities crammed with activity and nightlife galore to deserted coastal beachfronts with not a soul in sight for miles. On top of that you have the French influence in idyllic little fishing towns such as Hoi An and there really is a plethora of tantalising fruits to satisfy every single palate.

We stopped at Nha Trang after Saigon and had a couple of days to explore this coastal resort and get the tan topped up in the meantime. I say resort because the place is well aware of the tourist market and rather than being an idyllic retreat is much more built up and even has a promenade type feature (reminiscent of Barcelona) protecting the housing and hostelries from the pretty choppy sea.

So myself and the Olsen twins decided to hire push bikes and search beyond the tourist zone and off we peddled with lashings of home made ginger beer on our adventure around this unchartered territory. About 2 miles out of town and the people had vanished. We had the roads and the coast virtually to ourselves (give or take the odd cow) and as the scorching sun beat down we took in the coastline scenery and got some very welcome exercise. Our mission was to find a deserted beach but it turned out that the coast was all rocks for about 15 miles and so plan B saw us set off to seek out the prolific mud baths and spa as advertised in the lonely planet bible.

What a bloody palava! After being sent in opposite directions by amused locals about 15 times my pedal decided it had had enough and decided to drop off the space age machine of a bike I had hired right in the middle of a busy bridge. Fortune was smiling on the Freel as about 20 yards up a local mechanic was welding some stuff and as I approached pedal in hand he almost welded his own nuts as he doubled over in stitches at the poor white mans predicament.

Saying that el weldo was a legend and 2 minutes later I was back on the road and eventually after about 30km of pedalling we found our way to the spa. Well worth it that's all I can say. Myself and the twins headed straight for the mud bath and knowing that this opportunity occurs as often as the solar eclipse I ensured that the sisters had a little wrestle whilst I took my ringside seat in the baths. After the excitement of this we soaked in the sun, rinsed off and bathed in a 38 degree pool before a gentle cycle back to the town - such a shit afternoon!
Nha Trang regardless of it's ok beaches, bizarre nightlife and relaxing persona will always be remembered for Mud baths and mechanics no matter what else it may have to offer.