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By the fourth day my Chinese New Year plans veered away from
beach, sun, art and carefree living, when my friend Ted and I took off on his
scooter to meet some friends at the Lisong Hot Springs, the most remote and
hard to reach hot springs in all of Taiwan. Discovered in 2002 by Aboriginal hunters.
We began the 2.5-hour journey going the wrong way for about
an hour, making it more of a 4.5-hour journey.
It was no problem though, I am
always happy on a scooter in the sunshine, and the scenery was
breathtaking. A place where the mountains
meet the sea is always a good place to be.
When we were on the right path growing closer and closer to the
mountains, it dawned on me that I was not at all prepared for this impromptu
change of pace to hike a hot spring. In
fact, all I had brought with me was what I was wearing: a swimsuit, a dress,
and a pair of Tom’s. Over my arm was a
straw beach bag with some notebooks, pens, makeup and a random pair of
dinosaur socks. As the
mountain air grew colder it was decided it would be beneficial to pull over and
purchase some warm clothes.
On the right path, with our new warm clothes, we were
ready to take on the mountain. We
scooted up the road through rock faces, caves and cliffs deeper and higher up,
up, and up on our way to meet friends at the mouth of the path to the hot
springs.
It was more than half way up the mountain that Ted realized
we were almost out of gas. I had no idea
what was going on at this point and was exhausted. He stopped and spoke Chinese with a police
officer for a while and was told to take the road leading left, because along
that was an aboriginal village, where there would surely be petrol for our
trusty stead.
When we arrived to the village I was in awe. It was so picturesque and different. We were in another world on this road. The people were so friendly and it seemed
like such a happy place. There were
people outside and puppies frolicking around everywhere! We spoke to a woman and she led us to a young
big-bellied man who happily siphoned gasoline into our empty ride. The people were so friendly and happy to
help. I was pleasantly pleased to be in
the presence of these aboriginal peoples.
Then I heard a yelp and looked to my right to see a cute brown and white
Taiwan dog being completely run over by the back left tire of an SUV. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!!” I gasped as I put my hand to my mouth and did
everything I could not to cry in front of this ancient civilization.
As I am watching this dog squirm, and die, dragged to the side of the
road, I look around to see the poor girl who lost her dog running to its
aid. However, there was no little girl,
little boy, old lady or anyone who this dog belonged to. He was just left on the side of the
road. Shocked, I tried to look anywhere
but at man’s best friend dying in the dirt.
I looked away only to see a baby waddle out of its home and pop a squat in
the front yard, peeing like it ain’t no
thing. “Where are we?” I
thought. Ted immediately just started
laughing nervously and we decided to get the hell out of that time
capsule. In a strange daze, we slowly
found our way back to the road leading to our friends.
It was starting to get dark now and the clouds were
beginning to descend on to the mountains.
The higher we climbed, the darker and thicker the misty mountains
became. Eventually, we found the trail
marker. We were close. The path to the trail led us on a muddy,
rocky journey to what was the beginning of a horror film. Dogs viciously barked at us, chained to
multiple wooden dog shacks along the chilling, dirt road.
When we arrived to the trailhead, there was no trace of
anyone. We looked around and an old
woman emerged from a small house surrounded by dark, ghostly mist. She was small, and old and scary as
hell. She spoke in Taiwanese tongues and told us
she had seen our friends. Eventually, we
were able to find a spot to get service and called our friends. They were not on the trail or even near the
trail. They were down the mountain and
had texted us earlier to tell us the locals said it would be crazy to drive up
at this time of day. Yeah it was crazy,
but kind of fun at the same time.
So we made our way slowly back down. All that could be seen were the scooter
lights for about two feet and the white lines on the side of the road. As we made our way down the mist eventually
cleared and we found our friends and feasted.
That night we found our way to some hot springs down the
mountain where we hung with a rowdy bunch of Taiwanese people. We drank beer, relaxed and thanked our lucky
stars that we had made it out of this day alive.
We all woke early the next day to take on the path to the
most remote and hard to reach hot springs on the island. Wearing only a dress, bathing suit, and
ill-equipped shoes, I wrapped my mom’s old pink bandana around my head ready to
take on this trek. I led the way. The hike began as a nice path with a few
steep inclines, and poles and ropes to lead you. Then the trail led to a 400-meter steep path straight down, complete
with ropes used to repel. So I took them
in my hands and began to step down the face of the mountain into the
gorge. We slowly made our way, panting
and sweating, when I heard the earth grumble above me. “Helen!!! Move!!” “Helen, watch out!!” The boys above me screamed. I looked up and saw a large boulder coming my
way. After a second of hesitation, I angrily
pushed off from one side of the rock face to the other. I swung around Just in time for the gigantic
stone to graze my elbow and lodge in a few rocks next to me. In just this small second in time on a
mountain, in Taiwan, I literally almost died, or lost a limb, or
something. Had it not been for the rocks
it lodged in, if it wasn’t me, it surely would have been the old Chinese couple
or their fat, annoying Chihuahua below. I
sat and waited as the people hopped up on adrenaline rehashed the tale
above. I was alive, and I was a Jedi, that much was clear.
After my near death experience, we couldn’t wait to get into
the gorge that housed the hot springs.
We made it down to the bank of the river and followed it to to our destination. Here we sat in amazement that
we were alive. Damn, we deserved these waters.
It is said that each hot spring has something they are good for. It could be skin, or health, or bones. These were for healing and they did the
job.
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| Aboriginals gifting us gas. SUV and perishing perro in the background. |
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| Crazy dog attached to his house in the mist. |
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| Creepiest tractor I ever did see. |
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| Beginning of the hike. |
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| The boulder. |
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| I call this: "Shit, I almost killed Helen." |
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| Lovas in the Gorge. |
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| The beautiful Lisong Hot Springs. Totally worth it. |
