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