Stinky But Oh So Comfortable

Nope, not talkin about Taiwan's famous stinky toufu which makes Gorgonzola smell sweet.  Rather I'm talking about the BaYanHsi (Eight Pipes Creek) hot springs which we visited today.    Taipei is a basin surrounded by mountains.  We live at the foot of one of the most famous called YangMing mountain.  While not an active volcano, Yang Ming and the surrounding hills are covered with hot springs, sulpher hot springs...so many a morning  if the wind is coming down the moutnain you wake up and smell....rotten eggs.
 

Sulpher residue on the rocks in the stream....or at least I hope its sulpher

 

Mud makes the skin supple!!!

The upside is the hot springs which are usually captured by resorts for people to enjoy.  But if you are willing to hike a bit there are still a few places where the hot springs flow into natural streams and have been pooled up by the locals so you can take a relaxing soak.....BaYanHsi is just one of those places.  It's about an hour from our place over very windy and VERY foggy mountain roads, but worth the trip.  A 20 minute hike is all you require.  Going on Sunday has its downside as you lose a bit of the tranquility one usually seeks in such locales, so while not crowded there were plenty of folks there.  Still the pools are great,varying from warm to very hot depending on how much  of the stream blends in.  If the heat gets to be too much of course you can jump in the stream for a shock that makes the hot pool all the more comfy.

Tranquilty ...with 30 friends off screen

All is well otherwise with  Halloween tomorrow ....a bit more limited as it is just amongst the AIT/American community. Natalie turns the big 6 Tuesday....She is becoming a reading and piano monster....taking every opportunity she can find to read to us or play a song she has learned on Nana's piano, which made the trip here with us.

Fall Break in the Taiwan Mountains

While leaves are no doubt falling back home, here in Taiwan the switch to fall...if there ever is one...and then to the gray drizzle of winter is still a ways off.  Nonetheless, at the Taipei European school individual country holidays are set aside and students  have one week long break in the fall to get them to Christmas or winter break.   

For our part we took 5 days to visit family in Chiayi (3 hours south of us in Taipei), to visit a college friend of Hsiu-ling's  up in the mountains in central Taiwan, and to visit one of the most famous scenic spots in Taiwan, Sun Moon Lake.

Chiayi was still surprisingly warm with temps in the upper 80s.  We took Hsiu-ling's Mom and Dad to a fishing town named Puzi on the Taiwan Strait (opposite China) to buy some fresh seafood...of which my vegetarian family did not partake...But if it swims, wriggles or floats in the ocean...you can see it in Puzi.

Mr. Ray

                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mmmmm....Octopus

Then we hopped back in the car to visit the small mountain village  of Guguan.  This village was almost wiped off the map in 2004 when a landslide came surging down the steep mountain slopes during a typhoon.  Today the semitropical jungle has won back the slopes, and the townspeople have rebuilt the town along with some flood channels.  We didn't stay that long but had enough time to soak for a few hours in a local hot spring and go for a hike along a long forgotten railroad bed built for logging during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945).  Nearby we saw one heck of a giant caterpillar

The mother of all caterpillars

Our Lucy on the prowl

Guguan

Lastly, we wound our way through the central mountains of Taiwan to the town of Puli which is close to Sun Moon lake.  We stayed in a traditional Taiwan minsu (a Taiwan B&B) which while cool looking on the outside was a bit of a dump on the inside and overrun by ANTS!!...  We took a cable car where Hsiu-ling overcame her fear of heights...NOT, and the highlight of the trip was  a visit to a small paper making factory  which we toured and then got to hand make paper.  The kids made clocks which now hang proudly in their rooms.

 Talk with you soon