Mud Hot Springs

This past Friday was Erin's birthday.  The fun started that night when our friend Amy came over dinner.  As I cooked up some fish tacos the two chatted the night away even finding out that they had the same Myers-Briggs personality type.  It was nice to entertain and proved to be a relaxing evening after a full week of work.


As my gift to Erin I decided to surprise her with a trip to a spa.  After consulting our friend, Melinda, I reserved a room at a spa/hotel in Guanzihling, Taiwan and reserved a rental car.  Guanzihling is marginally famous for its muddy hot springs.  It's supposed to be good for your skin and one of only three in the world.  On Saturday afternoon we rode the subway up to the rental car place.  Once we found the place the agent was very helpful and we were soon on our way. 

Along the way we stopped at an interesting attraction called "Fire and Water".  Apparently it is the site of a spring with natural gas in it so that as the water and gas reaches the surface a flame burns on the water.  The flame has been burning for over three centuries so there is a story that the spring is the result of a battle between a water tiger and a fire dragon.


Once we finally found our hotel and had dinner at a nearby restaurant it was time to check out the spa.  Rather than the mud pit we had been expecting they had a bucket of mud.  The point was to slather the mud from the bucket on your skin, let it dry out, and then rinse off in one of the large spas.  Apparently this is supposed to be good for your skin, but as it was cold out we didn't spend too much of our time outside of the spa waiting for the mud to dry.  Still, it was an interesting and relaxing experiencing.


On Sunday we drove back to Kaohsiung to take advantage of having the car.  Our first stop was Cheng Ching Lake which is a beautiful lake area somewhat far from where we live.  We took this opportunity to start a jogging program called "Couch to 5K" which includes a podcast that helps a person gradually increase their running potential.  It was pretty fun and the lake provided a beautiful location to start.  We then went to a store called "Hola" similar to Wheel&Barrow or Pier1 Imports so that we could get some lamps for our place.  Our place looks a little more home-y now.  Even though it was nice to have the car it was also stressful driving in the city traffic.  I think we'll keep with the walking and public transport.