Some like it hot

Healing holiday

Beitou, a valley hidden in the outskirts of Taipei, is home to several exclusive mineral-rich hot springs that are a gateway to paradise. Gustasp & Jeroo Irani come close to attaining ‘nirvana’ while splashing around in these exquisite waters.

Were we in the devil’s own backyard? It seemed so... whorls of vapour and steam curled upwards, resembling huge clouds of candy floss floating above our heads. There was a very faint smell of sulphur and thanks to our fervid imagination, the devil himself, sporting horns and cloven feet, seemed to dance in the inferno.

We were in the geothermal valley of Beitou, on the northern outskirts of Taipei, Taiwan, a much sought-after hot springs destination, where a cluster of resorts and spas beckon guests with a pleasurable hot springs experience.

Rimmed by the Chingshan peaks, this misty area, lush with green vegetation, hugs the foot of the Yangmingshan National Park, whose dark depths resonate with the chorus of cicadas and birds. Hikers in search of the park’s bucolic pleasures embark on muscle-wrenching treks along forested trails where wind-twisted cedar trees intermittently provide shade.

We chose to linger near the 4,000 sq m boiling, bubbling, hissing lake (75°C to 90°C) at Beitou’s heart, which is more a scalding hot pool of sulphuric acid than a benign lake. The disembodied voices of other tourists wreathed upwards with the mist and people emerged like ghostly wraiths from the dense fog.

The origins

Also called Hell Valley and Witch Soup, Beitou was the ancient dwelling place of the indigenous Ketagalan people. They whispered that this seething mass of green-coloured hot water was poisonous and called it Pa-Tauw or the Shamans’ Abode. (In actual fact, green-coloured hot springs have been found only in Beitou and in Akita, Japan.)

As everywhere in this island-country, off the south-east coast of China, history nudges you with a sly wink and the future embraces you as well. Apartment blocks are as visible as the mountains, but modernity cannot obscure the serene beauty of this valley. It was in Beitou that the Japanese tried to re-create their much-cherished onsens (hot springs bathhouses) in the country that they were to occupy for 50 years (1895 to 1945). A year later, in 1896, Hirada Gengo, a Japanese gentleman, established Taiwan’s first hot springs hotel and in 1913, Asia’s largest public hot springs bath was founded in Beitou. No less a person than Japan’s Crown Prince Hirohito splashed around in the waters when on a visit to Taiwan.

For many decades, the hot springs culture with traditional Japanese inns, beer halls and bathhouses was also an excuse for nocturnal trysts in the waters. In fact, during the World War II, many Japanese inns located here offered “rest and recreation” to army officers, while Japanese kamikaze pilots (trained in suicidal air attacks) spent their last few nights, brimming with earthly pleasures, in the Beitou hot springs.

However, today, the ritual is shorn off its risqué overtones and has become a convivial and therapeutic gathering place where the warmth of the welcome matches the heat generated by the hot springs. The Hot Springs Museum, a Japanese-era bathhouse, re-creates those bygone times when the occupants took the curative waters and then relaxed on traditional tatami mats shielded by delicate shoji screens. Located in a restored brick and wood, European-Japanese style building, the museum’s 12 rooms are like an unfolding narrative. They bring to life that romantic era when Beitou was known more as a place to pursue clandestine affairs of the heart than health.

In a neighbouring garden with wood pavilions, a bevy of women exercised to music, a man slurped noodles revelling in the cool breeze, and students studied under leafy trees. After checking out the museum, we explored the home of a famous calligrapher. Other visitors headed for a good soak in the adjacent outdoor Beitou Public Bath (swimwear is mandatory) where entire families hopped from scalding eddies to teeth-chattering cold pools.

Taiwan’s love affair with these paradisiacal burbling pools is all-embracing and today locals aver that hot springs can cure anything from general aches and pains to athlete’s foot and arthritis and even depression! Revelling in the womb-like serenity of the pools, in waters that are as warm as an incubator, offers unmatched bliss that is mental, spiritual as well as physical, they say.

We too felt a sense of connection with the earth at a luxury boutique spa resort. Hallmarked by Japanese style minimalism, this property serenaded our senses at multiple levels. It was an oasis of Zen-like charm, fragrant with the scent of cypress and seemingly detached from the real world. A flagstone path led us to this unusual villa of five suites, ensconced within mist-shrouded forested greenery, 100-year-old maple and camphor trees as well as camellia, peach and plum. Each elegant suite has its own private hot springs tub and two Japanese style suites with tatami mats and shoji screens re-create Taiwan’s colonial era.

Health benefits

But what is really special about this resort is that it has five different hot springs (which guests can revel in the gender-specific outdoor public baths or in any of the private hot springs rooms). Apart from Beitou’s jade-green sulphur springs and the white sulphur springs, a trio of alkaline hot springs in three different colours also spurt here.

Japan’s Hot Springs Research Institute Foundation confirmed the existence of a deep-blue chloride sodium bicarbonate spring (christened Azure Spring), a golden yellow dolomite hot spring (Crystal Spring) and a deep-green carbon/hydrogen/calcium/sodium spring (Jade Spring). The hot springs water is pure, unfiltered and mineral-rich when it gushes out in this property.

We took a dip in the resort’s outdoor pool and realised that the devil’s playground was stolen from paradise. There were rituals to follow here: plunging in is a no-no. We first had to warm up by trickling water on our feet and slowly working our way up right to the shoulders. We sprinkled water on our heads and then gently slipped into the pool. As steam coiled up, we uncurled ourselves and felt like nirvana was within our grasp. A sweet languor swept over us but after 15 minutes of sublime pleasure, we emerged and took a dip in the cold water pool and were back again in the hot sulphurous healing waters. The mélange of colour, curls of steam and the sheer bliss of soaking aching limbs in hot water almost did us in.

Later, we relaxed in the lounge that overlooked the geothermal valley — a pool of mysterious light and shadow where the mist-wreathed vegetation bristled with unseen life. Life couldn’t get better than this!