This magic water will...

"So Jack handed the stranger the money he was supposed to use to purchase food. The stranger, in return, handed Jack three magic beans...

I recognize this story from somewhere. Where have I heard the words magic beans? I recollect it was from every person who has ever visited the numerous hot springs located on this island. They all return acclaiming the magical and healing powers these special waters poses. I remaine leery of strangers peddling “magic beans”.   

 Two weeks ago my friend Jim came down to where my desk is located to talk “American” and reminisce about home. Hearing “blah blah” starts to disrupt one’s inner serenity after being subjected to it for prolonged periods. I can hardly imagine what Jim must endure on a regular basis at home. One can only withstand listening to the Blah Blah Language for limited intervals and then crazy notions begin to take shape in your mind. For example, I wonder what would happen if I just dropped to the floor and faked a seizure. Would they stop the mind numbing blah blah long enough to see if I needed medical attention. Probably not… I could yell FIRE! I have always wanted to do that back home, but it is not permitted. Even yelling fire would not slow the continuous droning noise of their blah blah. If the monotonous hum of blah blah in normal tones doesn’t drive you to the brink of insanity, one only has to wait for the natives to become excited regarding the topic being discussed and the drone of blah blah becomes high pitched shrieks. It is this that pointed me to a theory regarding the extinct Lemmings. Basically the non blah blah lemmings jumped off the cliff so they no longer were subjected to the grating sound of the other lemmings speaking blah blah. Just a theory, mind you, could  have happened you know...

Jim and I conversed for a bit and as he was leaving to return to his classroom he stated a few of us “foreigners” are going to the hot springs, not next weekend, but the next. Would you like to come with us? I inquired where the springs were located, how we were going to travel there, and all other pertinent information. Most I was fishing for information on the type of food they served at this “resort”. I know this seems like a trivial motivation for considering not attending, but you have to understand what types of substances are termed foods in this country. Seriously… Jim assured me there was food, items even I would determine as food, and it would be fun. I agreed to attend the hot springs with the merry band of foreigners and Jim, he has been deemed in some respects, a local due to the fact he married a beautiful Taiwanese woman and can speak a little Chinese.

On Saturday Alex and I headed toward the bus station where we were meeting the others to travel to the hot springs together. Seven teachers from diverse countries were waiting for Alex, Jim, and I to show. Finally, we were all together and we meandered in the direction the bus stop where the #790 would whisk us away to our hot springs retreat. The promise of relaxation, rejuvenation, and succulent food was the theme of every conversation. The most pleasant portion of waiting for the bus was listening to conversations containing accents which were blah blah free.

The 790 arrived, in Taiwan you never really know if the busses are on-time or late due to the fact the signs and schedules are written in blah blah, and we boarded the bus. A short, bumpy, yet interesting ride in the direction of the ocean and we were in a new city. When we stepped off the bus the sun was shining and a sweet smelling breeze greeted us. We continued our trek from the bus stop on foot and Jim assured us the hot springs were nearby. Dialogues fixated on the hardships of teaching in Taiwan and camaraderie provided distraction and before we realized it we arrived at the stairs leading to the unassuming entrance of the hot spring resort. We arrived in the lobby and began investigating our surroundings trying to locate the check in. We mistakenly confused the lady behind the large counter for the person who procured the money required for day use of the facilities. We quickly discovered the person in charge of taking payment was located behind the caged window area. Back home you see women behind bars in very few locations. Vegas has ladies behind bars and glass in their exchange chips for real money place. Freaky gentlemen's clubs in New Orleans have ladies dancing in cages. I guess some men can only get a date if she is caged before hand. The only other place  that would have "ladies" behind bars would be prison. I am still not sure what the resort would be so worried about they would take this type of precaution. The lady behind the bars gladly accepted our money and even gave us a discount due to the fact we had 10 people in our group. The day use cost 265$NT. This sum is equal to less than 10$ USD. The bus ride to the resort was 30$NT, which is 1$ USD, so far the day had cost 11$ USD. The diminutive price for use of this subtly beautiful resort included use of the hot spring pools, the shower and changing rooms, one towel, and one bottle of water. This was where the lady behind the large counter motioned to our group and handed everyone their one towel and bottle of water.

 The water fall, complete with realistic jungle located directly behind, empties driectly into the warmer pool. The picture is a little fuzzy due to the huge scary bug landing on my foot. He scared me and I jumped. I didn't realize the picture was affected by the dumb bug.

This is the hot pool. The source of the hot spring is located not even a foot away from where it empties.

 This is the warm pool. This is the largest pool in size and has several sources of water which keep it pleasant and tepid. However, this pool is cold once you have been sitting in the hot pool for any amount of time.

Water from the source being funneled through a long pipe to ensure it cools off before it is allowed to mix with the water in the cooler pool. The water flowing out of the pipe can be compared to a shower.

This water flowing into the cold pool is piped a great distance. It is amazing how distance and plastic pipe can cool the water so much the pool is actually cold. Hard to believe this pool is usually unoccupied huh? 

The balcony over looks the cold pool and it's drangon head water outlets. These dragon heads are hand carved and made from the porous abrasive stones found at the hot spring source. The balcony looks out to the ocean, but we didn't get to see the view. The upstairs is reserved for the bathers who prefer to go a'natural. No saggy old blah blah men for this foreigner! Saggy speedo wearing men were enough...

Cold pool and view of the mountains.

The patio furniture pushed right up against the jungle. I was wondering what would happen if the jungle animals decided to rise up and protest? Scary thought when you consider the size of spiders they have in Taiwan alone. Remember Ivan?

Once properly dressed we parted the curtains separating the changing room from the pools and stepped out into what can only be described as a mankind taking advantage of nature. The concrete created a division between nature and luxury. On one side of the division was a breath taking jungle complete with butterflies and enormous leafed plants. On the other side was concrete walk ways and patio furniture. The two halves stood in stark contrast and I began to doubt the accounts of the magical properties of the hot springs. We located a table and dropped our one towel and bottle of water. There were four pools of water. One was located a little distance from the other three and we learned this was the “cold” pool. The other three pools were varying temperatures of “hot” pools. The largest of the three was warm like a pool in the middle of summer. The bottoms of the hot pools were carved from the naturally occurring stone from the hot springs. The second and smaller pool was warm like a hot bubble bath. The third and smallest pool was actually hot. The temperature of the water reminded me of a hot tub, hot but not unbearable. The water flowing into this pool was being filtered through various stones and was directly from the source of the hot spring. Our group settled into the warm and relaxing embrace of the third pool. The water had a coppery smell, but felt amazing. After three hours of soaking in this magic water we were pruney and hungry. We decided food sounded like a fantastic suggestion, the resort food was not to the standards which had been previously guaranteed. We left in search of decent food and to explore the city just to the right of the hot springs. The encounters we had on our adventure are coming soon in my next post.

 

Jing-Xi’s Lesson of the Day: Every person who is in control of their lucidity recognizes Urban Legends are just that, legends. These carefully and skillfully crafted stories are used for many purposes by people from every corner of the globe. The purposes for these tales range from encouraging children to eat their vegetables to keeping children from wandering into danger. However, sometimes these yarns are simply designed to entertain with their unbelievable, yet totally accurate elements. I believe Big Foot and visitors from other planets can be funneled into this category. However, some legends do hold a shred of veracity. The hot springs may not have possessed magical powers, but disbelief in their powers does not validate dismissing the whole legend as myth.