Welcome to our Taiwan Travel Series. If you’re thinking about traveling to Taiwan, check out our travel itinerary. Check out more inspirational stories, like visiting Jiu Fen; our Christmas experience in Taipei; a sunset experience in Yangmingshan Park and your Wednesday Wonder fixes–Taiwan-style.
A long time ago, my dad and I decided to visit Yellowstone National Park. At just eight years old, my dad was on a mission to show me the many natural wonders that the USA had to offer. One of those natural wonders was Ol’ Faithful, a geyser who faithfully blew her top about once an hour. The whole area smelled visible like a stinky batch of eggs. Or a big fart.
Beitou, in Taiwan, is also a natural hot spring. Just like Ol’ Faithful, Beitou’s hot spring also smelled like a fart–or more scientifically, hydrogen sulfide (or even more scientifically: H2S …yeah, Breaking Bad! — I mean — Science!). The hot spring runs like a tiny creek through one part of the town. People can sit and dip their toes in there if they want. When Frank was young, he and his family used to be able to cook their own hard-boiled eggs in the spring. There were no fences, just open spring. Today, however, there is a fence surrounding the major part of the spring, presumably to keep people safe.
Nice little steam bath going on here…As we walked closer to the hot spring, the smell of sulfur permeated the air. Clouds of steam wafted up to the sky until it became so densely-packed that visibility was basically impossible. My hair started to frizz and people who exited the steam had tell-tale signs of melted makeup.
We didn’t partake in the free hot spring bath. Instead, we went to Villa 32, a hotel and spa. I’ve honestly never thought about taking a sulfur bath. After all, who wants to willingly smell like an egg fart. However, sulfur has a lot of cleansing properties. It helps with rosacea, eczema, acne and other skin problems. And it’s especially beneficial when the sulfur comes right from the hot spring source. Each room has their own spa-like tub that somehow links to the hot spring source and it is piping hot! The water comes out –I know this is weird–mildly yellow’d. We were also advised not to spend too much time in the sulfur bath because too much of a good thing always ends up being bad. It was really relaxing to have our own spa and –I swear! –this really large pimple on my jaw finally started to go away (stupid travel acne…).
Villa 32 Hot spring water straight from the source. Bucket and floating ball thingHaving 90-minutes or so with our own spa led to some really interesting conversation between us, too. Like, “did you fart?” “No…” “You sure?” “I think it’s the water.” “Oh, my bad.” “…actually it was me…I farted.”
After the hot spring bath, we stopped by the Plum Garden Mansion, a historic mansion that was designed with Japanese influences. We also went to the Hot Spring museum where we could actually learn about Beitou and the significance of the hot springs. The only downfall to those FREE museums was we had to take off our shoes. Luckily the sulfur cleared up our horrific foot odor….I’m kidding, we don’t have foot order… Or. do. we…
Now it’s Your TurnCheck out our Taiwan travel itinerary for more inspiration!
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