Nha Trang, Vietnam

21.4.2024 Nha Trang

The fifth tender boat brought me ashore. While most of the passengers were dispersed among the various buses, I listened to the drivers' offers. Four hours as the sole passenger in a fairly new Hyundai for USD 70.00 seemed an acceptable price to me. The driver showed me an illustrated list of his usual destinations, but I was no longer interested in temples and shrines. Using my translation app, I made it clear to him that our first destination should be a hairdresser.

We drove along the beautiful beach and then plunged into the web of narrow streets. There we parked and walked to a garage that housed a hairdresser/barber. I sat in a barber's chair and showed the hair artist how I wanted my haircut on my phone.

My driver seized the opportunity, sat down in the neighboring chair and had his hair cut by the second hairdresser.

At the end of his work, the hairdresser gave me a pleasant facial, neck and back massage. He did a great job, and all for less than USD 8.00!

Then we drove to the mud bath, which I already knew from my visit fourteen years earlier. This time my driver was waiting outside. We had agreed on a one-hour time slot.

I bought the all-inclusive package with a twenty-minute mud bath followed by use of the jacuzzi and swimming pool. At around USD 12.50, it was quite cheap.

I was given a towel and a numbered padlock that belonged to the corresponding locker.

After changing, I was assigned a hot tub into which the warm mud water was poured. I sat in it for a pleasantly relaxing twenty minutes, took a thorough shower and then spent five minutes in the hot jacuzzi.

I was then led to a small pool where hot mineral water was waiting for me. I then showered under a warm waterfall and briefly went into one of the swimming pools.

My hour was slowly coming to an end and I went back to the changing rooms. The path there was now so hot that it almost burned the soles of my feet and I had to keep stepping into the shade. On top of that, one bus after another was now dropping off its passengers in front of the pool and I had to fight my way through crowds of people.

I was back at the taxi just three minutes late. My next wish was to visit an electronics store to replace a broken charging cable for my trusty travel fan, which keeps me cool when the air is stuffy. My driver drove straight to the right little cell phone store.

Afterwards I felt like having fried noodles with beef and my driver knew the right place for that too. Two fellow passengers greeted me from the table next to me in this rather modest restaurant. I invited my driver over and we ate and drank well and inexpensively together. I explained to the driver that I just wanted to buy some mangosteen somewhere to eat as dessert before returning to the ship.

My driver had another idea: he spoke to the innkeeper, who within a few minutes procured a kilo of the requested fruit and served it to me as dessert. Now I really had to struggle to eat my portion.

The total bill was about as much as I would have had to pay for the mangosteen alone in the Stuttgart market hall.

Now we went back to the ship and the driver and I said goodbye with a friendly handshake.

I skipped dinner and instead enjoyed the concert of the three gentlemen from "Rat Pack Reloaded".