Hot Spring Heaven - Saturday with John Chang's Family

Do you remember WAY back when we arrived, there was a woman, Mia, who met us at the airport, took us with the help of her friend in two cars to our first destination, and helped us get SIM cards in our phones here? Well, her husband John (my former gator's former boyfriend, and incidentally my former boyfriend's roommate's former gator, just to confuse you completely) generally works in China, but came back to Taiwan for one week and gave us a call because they wanted to take us to play.

Because it was his vacation as well, we didn't give him any suggestions and just went with what they thought would be fun, and boy, are we glad we did!

We crowd out a bit of the view of the volcano,
or it crowds out a fuller view of our loveliness.

John and his wife Mia arrived first thing Saturday morning and drove us to an active volcano in Taiwan! It actually isn't too far from where we live, and the drive there was GORGEOUS! (The weather was also beautifully clear, so high on the mountain top, we got great views!) The volcano itself was pretty fun to see, though it wasn't the molten pot of glowing red lava I imagine when I think volcano. Instead, it was just steaming holes in the mountain side and the smell of sulfur, but cool, or rather quite hot, nonetheless, and the drive was truly beautiful.

The ocean is behind the girls in the distance.

After John bought each of us our own ice cream treat, and we walked around to let the kids stretch their legs and catch their breath from the windy mountain roads, we headed back down the other side of the mountain and back through the long tunnels, back to the town of Yilan, this time for a dip in the hot springs there.

But we first stopped at a reportedly-famous place for a chicken dinner, and man, was it delicious - probably the best chicken I've had in my life! Q was given the honor of "cutting the bird," only instead of a knife, he got to use gloves to protect him from the heat, covered with plastic gloves to keep the other gloves clean. He ripped us up one delicious bird! The sides, though John explained they were very "traditional," were not very noteworthy. Still, it was a fantastically beautiful feast.

After we thought we were done eating, I pointed out that no one had touched the chicken heads or feet. John's family said they weren't the "eat chicken head types," so my family went crazy on them and impressed the pants off our hosts! Arthur's enthusiasm for gnawing on chicken feet seemed especially amazing. And Kai ate, guess what? Chicken butt.

(I am the biggest culinary wimp of our trip. Even Rachel is WAY better and braver than I am. Though I'm fairly picky about textures in America as well. So I couldn't do the chicken head, or feet. And later that night they bought us duck neck, which tastes great, but again, put me off for all the little duck spine bones. Anyway, I'm proud the kids have taken from their dad the eat-everything mentality. They ROCK!)

After polishing off all the deliciousness above, we were off to the hot springs. I hadn't the heart to tell John, but I really didn't think hot springs would hit the spot for our crew. After all, we had a hot spring soaking tub right where we are staying in Tamsui, AND a swimming pool. So I didn't think sitting around in warm water would hit the spot for us. I'm SO glad I kept these thoughts to myself!

This hot spring, connected to a hotel, but charging per person fee to use the facility, had a splash pad which was all warm water! That alone would have been cool enough for the trip to be worth it in my kids' eyes, but it ALSO had:

A SOAKING POOL WITH TINY FISH THAT ATE THE DEAD SKIN OFF YOUR FEET!

Sadly, the glare gets in the way of the feet feast going on below the water's surface!

I was the only person I saw in our entire time there that couldn't handle the nibbling sensation for the tickle factor! I finally managed just the toes, and then just the heal of one foot at a time. The Chinese people looked at me like they couldn't understand what I was shrieking and laughing about. The kids took this in stride too. They were fascinated and it kept them entertained for a total of 1 hour or more in shorter time increments. 

I was MOST fascinated that this didn't seem taboo to anyone. I was embarrassed for the folks whom the fish seemed to love. I was the only one who seemed to feel that way. I don't know, would YOU brag about your tasty toe jam? So it all seemed a little gross to contemplate, let alone share with perfect strangers. And if you feel like I do, perhaps you would feel similarly blown away with what I saw as we were walking out! So, I'm thinking a pool with fish that eat your dead skin is a little public for a matter of hygiene, right? But back to the cars we passed a coffee bar where you could sip a caffeinated or alcoholic beverage of your choice with your friends as you have your feet exfoliated by living creatures. The thought makes my skin crawl even now! And to think, we wear swim caps by rule here because all the hair in the pool drains is too gross?!?!

So I went to put my phone back in the lockers to keep it safe and protected, and when I got back to the fam, they were neck deep in what else but a SULFUR bath! (Obviously I made another trek back to the lockers because who could miss recording this moment?)

This was a lot of fun! We tried most of the "flavors" there, which included coffee, tea, Chinese herbs, lavender, rose, and MILK!

Supposedly, all these are beneficial in different ways to your body and skin. Honestly, the only part of me that felt especially different after the fact was, of all things, the fish exfoliation! BUT a great time was had by all! The place also had a large pool with all different types of jets and shower heads for massage, and heated stone slabs for resting on. I kept thinking our large and rowdy crew would disturb the "spa experience" for others, but no one seemed to mind, and John said this was the most family friendly.

After we were all showered off, for dinner we had tapioca pearls and ice cream, the duck neck, more chicken feet for Stew's sake and mostly enjoyed by him, and some "dry" tofu. None of it especially hit the spot, but it was nice to try some of the very famous and traditional foods of the area. 

John was SO generous. He even bought two cakes from a famous cake shop to send with us for the next day! And they drove us an hour to home, and finally had another hour to get to THEIR home, not putting them back 'til about 10:30pm! 

What a day! What an adventure! THANK YOU JOHN, MIA, and son Howard, for your time and generosity!

John and Mia in the milk with Q and Arthur.