Day 5 - Continued

The Vietnamese people have suffered terribly at the hands of westerners and the foot massage is how they return the favour..

It started with an electronic footbath in clean water. When the machines were switched on though, what appeared to be pond scum floated to the top. The small girls then bought out a bucket of what appeared to be semi processed sewerage and tipped half into each bath. This placated Dawn as she could see that that explained where the pond scum came from. I, on the other hand started to freak out. I had hurt my foot on the way to the beauticians and though I had had a tetanus shot before coming over, there is more to be caught from raw sewerage than just lockjaw.

We asked the ladies what was in the bucket and they bought out a small pack of secret Chinese herbs and spices that in Chinese said something about to be used for feet. Hurrah the scum was legit!

Next it was into the back room for the massage proper. I like to think I can handle pain but agony in the name of relaxation is beyond me. Now I was prepared to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. My feet and calves were quite tender from walking around in the heat, that could explain the pain right? I peeked over at Dawn to see if she, too was suffering. She lay there serenely, maybe even smiling a little. I gritted my teeth and decided to endure in silence. The massage went on and on. The gritting went on and on.

Finally it was over.My pain brought on a nice endorphin rush and as I stepped through the doors of that House of Pain and Beauty, I started laughing. To my surprise Dawn did too. What I had thought was almost a smile was actually a grimace. She told me she was reciting a mantra of "go to sleep body, go to sleeeep" to survive.