10/23/10 (luzhou)

Luzhou - Taipei - Luzhou

Last October Annie and I attended a wedding in San Francisco. It was located at city hall and we were the lone witnesses. The couple of the day was Annie’s cousin May and her fiance Herry. Annie and May had grown up together in Taiwan and had remained in contact after Annie moved to America. May had won an annual Taiwanese green card lottery that allowed her to come work in America and she had recently moved to Sacramento. Herry lives in Taiwan and comes to America on regular basis and the four of us had become fast friends. May and Herry decided to get married in the United States and asked us to be in their wedding. 

Fast forward a year and this was our day to get together with Herry in Taiwan. Herry is a tour guide in Japan and Annie and I were about to get a first hand sample of his organizational abilities. Herry had planned out an ambitious day for us that started with lunch at the 101 building. He took us to Diamond Tony’s, an Italian restaurant because he thought I could probably use some western food. At lunch Herry called May and we got a chance to get caught up from our eight months of travel. After lunch we went to a nearby cinema to watch the movie Red. From the cinema, our next stop was Elephant Mountain. To get to Elephant mountain we climbed several hundred stairs to ascend to the peak. The view from the top provided a spectacular city scape view of Taipei and the star of the show is the 101 building. I shot a few time lapses and we cooled down from our big climb. We then descended back down to the city and after a quick snack Herry wanted to wrap up the day at one of his favorite hot springs. This is no ordinary hot spring, it was a super secret hot spring only select locals knew about. You could only visit this hot spring at night because it was illegal to visit and you had to sneak in or risk some pretty heavy fines. 

The hot spring turned out to be an awesome adventure. The path to the spring is long and follows a fresh water river that eventually meets with the hot spring source. The water combines into large natural pools that are at the perfect temperature to relax the body. In order to get to the spring you need to cross the river and this is done traditionally via a small bridge but with the recent typhoon the bridge had been wiped out. This is where things got exciting as the three of us crossed the cool water river while the heavy rapids tugged at us from below. The only light was from the full moon. The water was waist deep and the river was lined with jagged rocks. It was quite dangerous and yet exhilarating at the same time. When we passed the river the narrow path ascended for roughly half a mile until we reached the hot spring. Upon arrival it felt like we were entering a secret society as the huge plumes of steam rose from the water where hot and cold met. The steam was illuminated by small battery powered lightbulbs. There were several different pools varying in temperatures, some natural and some man made. We were preceded by a handful of people who allowed us access as we entered into the secluded valley. We spent the next few hours exploring these many pools. It was much more rugged than your average hot spring as the pool floors were lined with sharp rocks and our feet took a beating but it was all worth it because of the forbiden sense of adventure we got from the experience. 

After our hot springs visit, Herry escorted us back to Luzhou and we said goodbye. We will see him in a few weeks in Northern California as we visit May, who is currently eight months pregnant. It was a good to see Herry again and he did an amazing job planning our day together. One of our final adventures but one of our most memorable. Thanks Herry, see you soon.