We had to check out of our hostel early at 10am today. Hoping the weather was better we had planned to do the cable car, unfortunately the wind remained and so we had to change our plans. We went to one of the thermal mud spas across the river.

It started with a warm mud bath being run for us. We got in and instantly felt strange as the minerals made us float. It was hard to stay submerged as our legs and arms floated straight to the surface. Robin decided she did not like the mud spa very much because it was mud. After 20 minutes we had a shower before walking through a tunnel of water jets. The sprays hurt a little as you walked through but we were assured it was for ‘exfoliating purposes’. The next stage was a bubble in a jacuzzi. This was hotter than the mud bath and only lasted 10 minutes. Then we went into a herbal and mineral bath for as long as we wanted. All of that for £8 each! We also got given water, a towel, and access to other parts of the spa. We tried out the heated pools and floated until we were too hungry and had to go for lunch.

We returned to the pho place we had visited the night before. I was craving the beef stew and for once Robin was too. The one beef dish she will eat we will never find again as it was the creation of the lady who worked in the little pho shop.

After stuffing ourselves, we went back to the hostel for a quick shower before grabbing a taxi to the bus stop.

We waited for the sleeper bus to come and hurriedly got on in search of a top bunk to lessen the chance of a travel sick Robin. Our organization had other benefits when we found out they had over booked the bus and people were told to sleep in the aisles for 12 hours. They wanted to get off and go tomorrow but the bus drivers were not letting them off or letting them access their luggage under the bus. Eventually they did, and the poor boys got off to go back to a hostel. This had delayed us 2 hours. Not a good start to our over night bus.

Now time for us to try get some sleep.

-M