Springin' in Hot (part one of potentially several)

So, I really love nature and I really love water and I love swimming and I love relaxing and I love recreational culture so a major draw for me here in Taiwan is the many natural hot springs that exist because of the island's volcanic origins and location on the boarder between (at least) two tectonic plates.

Beitou is the first of the many hot springs I have on my itinerary. It is a well develped tourist destination to the north of Teipei.

After a little rest and re-fuel, I started off there in the afternoon. First I walked to the bus stop, and found I had a good 15 mintues to wait, so I visited two sites within a few blocks of the busy stop- a small shrine among apartment doors and a larger, preserved temple.

I got on the bus and rode it up through central Taipei and almost to the end of the line, to the Beitou metro station. There was a festival with some dancers going on outside the station exit. I wasn't sure if I needed to take an additional bus to get there but it was just a few kilometers so I rented a YouBike. The area around the station was very built up with cheap restaurants and bars and I should have stopped to get food there! But instead I enjoyed my little ride up the hill to the main tourism attractions . The area was an  large Japanese resport during their time colonizing the island, and there was a free musuem that was very light on information but had some very pleasant displays within the old bath house.

I left there, walked a bit more along the river flowing through the town, and felt the beginnings of rain. I looked into the municipal hot springs and considered going in, but it was very crowded with old people and was going to close in 40 minutes, so didn't seem worth the investment.

I had my eye on a hot spring that was "just a bit up the mountain" on a tip from the friendly Goth dog owner, so I had that as my eventual goal. I had planned to rent one of the Electric YouBikes at a close by docking station, but this hot guy with tattoos rented it just as I was walking up to the station and I had to re-make my plan. This turned out to be a total blessing as if I had tried to do what I did next on a bike, I probably would have died.

Instead of biking, I decided to take a bus almost all the way to the baths. First, I stopped at a Family mart and bought some onigiri and a juice because I was unfortunately famished. Next to that was the famous "Thermal Valley" which was an outflowing of the hot spring that has been turned into a tourist attraction. It was starting to rain so I didn't walk around its well manicured paths among 900 Korean people taking pictures, instead I stated my walk up the mountain to the bus stop...only to realize that I had missed the bus for the next 30 minutes or so. To my right up a long flight of stone stairs was a Buddhist monestary so I climbed up there, admired their seating and architecture, and felt spiritual for a bit, before climing down and continuing up the road.

Twisty, steep road. Cars and scooters streaming past. Fancier and fancier cars as we (me and a bunch of strong older people who were on a similar trek) climed higher into the hill now populated by fancy hot spring resort hotels. It rained, briefly and hard several tmes. I didn't have an umbrella and putting on my rain cape seemed like too much of a hassel each time, so I was getting wetter and wetter. I stood under the stone entrance to a beautiful resort and watched the rain for a few minutes, then kept climbing to the next bus stop. The bus was always 10-15 minutes away, so it made sense to me to just keep walking in the meantime.  One thing that was crazy was that there were grates along the sidewalk for water to drain down (not unusual, these are all over the place in every street I've seen here so far), but what was wild was that the water running down them had a sulphurous stink and was so warm it was giving off steam that I could see rising out of the vents!

I got to a point where I wanted to stop climbing upwards and stood at the bus stop...and then it started to pour again. I climbed up a little more and shared a few minutes in this beautiful shrine with this stranger, and had my second rice ball- thank goodness I thought ahead!

As the rain stopped, I went down to the bus stop and watched Mazaratis and Porsches emerge from the parking garage of the hotel across the street. Finally, the small, run down local bus came and I got in and rode the rest of the way up the mountain. It was raining heavily and as soon as I stepped off the bus my foot was in a puddle. Google maps kept guiding me towards this location and down I climbed, along the main road and then a side road cutting down the mountain. The creeks and floodplain I had seen on the other side of the moutanin, coming up, were on this side a wide and torrential brown river, with a strong odor and lots of steam! I wanted to get close but it was clearly dangerous and far away. I was hoping to get to my destination before it was fully dark outside and kept slogging along. The hotel (I need to look up the name in English, I just have the Mandarin name saved on my Google Maps was PAST several other, more lux hot spring resports and I was cursing them as I walked past, but the idea of the baths and the delicious food that was part of many people's reviews kept me going.

Finally, I arrived. There was no food served there. But I paid 250 NTD (under $8 USD) for entrance to the women's bath. I tried to plug my phone into the sockets used for the hair dryers in the municipal-pool style locerk room but was told not to by a grandma swatting my hand and saying 'no you, no everyone" which is a fair policy but filled me with anxiety. My phone was at 35% battery so I put it on air plane mode, exhaled, and hoped for the best.

The women's bathing area had a few pools- a large one with very hot water, a cold plunge, a bath with some extra jets and sort of chairs to lounge in, a steam sauna, a few showers with powerful jets of water that could be called up with the press of a button, and 5 or 6 bathing taps- pretty similar to what I've seen at a low-budget Korean spa. 2/3 of the space was covered by a wooden roof and the other part was open to the air, with the rain falling into the pool as well.

There were tons of women there, from some kids to very old women. There were no people that I recognized as foreigners. The space was bustling but not fully crowded, everyone could have their personal space to sit, stretch, chat, take breaks on the side of the pools, etc. I decided I could spend up to 90 minutes there and that I would check in with my self after 45 and 60 and then chilled the heck out! The bath was hot and sulphurous and I was able to put asidr my anxiety about the rain and my phone and just be in my destination.

After a good while, I got out, dried myself with my kefiyya ( one of the best travel items I've got with me) and then put on my dry T shirt, Gym shorts, wrapped the scarf around my shoulders, put on my damp poncho and sun hat for extra protection. I got the phone connected again, just seeing SJ had made some spelt noodles with the flours I had brought and encouraging but not worring about me. I used Translate to ask the recpetionist if a taxi would come down the commercial driveway leading up to the spa. She said it would not and called  a taxi line, only to wait on hold while she folded towels for 10 minutes. During this time I contemplated buying cup o noodles for $1.25, filled up my water bottle with hot water to keep me warm, and contemplated my life choices.

Eventually, I gave up on the taxi line and just left, walking out into the rain. Luckily, I saw that there was a direct staircase up to the main road, and I didn't need to take the winding path I had down! That was great. I waited a few mins at the bus stop at the top, then got on the bus, looking like an absolute goon.  There weren't too many people on it, thankfull. We drove through bougie suburbs, so that was a good observation. After 40 minutes of the bus route, we arrived and the Jiantan station on the Red Line- my plan had been to ride this train a few stops, then get a cheap taxi for the rest of the path home...but the station was huge, confsuing, teaming with people, and I was so hungry. I left the transit area to look for food and walked into a nightmarket FILLED with teens. I kept my goals in mind and found one of my bucket-list foods: soup dumplings! I ordered in English and waited a few minutes beofre they arrived and I devoured them. After that, I decided a taxi was necessary, so I walked out to the main street, did some flagging, and got in. Taxis, like most things here, are quite safe and regulated, so I was able to see the cost tick up on the meter- the equivalent to $14.50. Very worth it. 

At the apartment I was too tired to even try to spelt noodles (I did the next day and they were amazing!) and I fell asleep right away. A big day!