Hot Springs

Taiwan is volcanic. It is easy to forget that in the flatland west where I live, but the whole middle of the island is mountainous and most of the beaches are black. The side benefit of this history is hot springs. There are many hot springs around the country, most have been "included" into a hotel so that for some you must be staying at the hotel to use them but most are also open to the public.

We went to a couple at the beginning of our vacation. We went to Taitung, a lovely small city on the southeast coast of Taiwan. The first night we went to the hot spring at our small hotel and it was okay, but no great shakes. Kind of like a big bathtub but not as hot.

The next afternoon we went to a "real" one. A huge place associated with the fanciest hotel in the area. The water comes out of the ground hot enough to boil eggs so the different temperature of the pools is a result of hot much cold water is added, not the other way around.

There was one huge pool which had a bunch of different stations around the sides where water jets came out to massage different parts of your body. Quite nifty. Then in a different room there were hotter small pools with the temperature displayed on the wall above each one. I went into one that was a little hotter than the big pool but there were four hotter ones, the hottest could have cooked a chicken.

Great fun.