Guanziling 關子嶺

At the train station

Amy, Me, Laura, Libby, Kristi, Erin, Devin

On Saturday, we had the most fun adventure.  Devin, Erin, Kristi, Laura, Libby and I went.  We departed Fengyuan pretty early in the morning, and took the train two hours south to Chiayi (嘉義市).  Upon arrival, we found a scooter shop and rented three scooters for the day.  I was delighted to be one of the drivers.  Kristi was my passenger.  When I first got on the scooter, I was a little nervous.  I hadn't driven a scooter since I was home, and Taiwan city streets are crazy with heavy traffic, and even crazier drivers.  Kristi's first experience on a scooter was an interesting one.  I misjudged how sensitive the brakes were and gave Kristi a bit of whiplash.  Not really, but it was not a proud moment of mine. 

So happy to be on a scooter!

Once we got out of the city, the ride was significantly more enjoyable.  Taiwan's countryside is gorgeous!  We rode an hour passing rice fields and palm trees.  I could have gone on forever.  We went up to 80 km/hour, but mostly stayed at around 50 km/hour. 

Some random temple in Chiayi

Beautiful Taiwan countryside

Pit stop

 

Our final destination was Guanziling (關子嶺), a small mountain town.  On the way up the mountain, it started to rain, so we pulled over to a restaurant to sit out the storm.  It was open air and under a tent.  Apparently Guanziling is famous for it's chicken.  So, that's what we ordered, and wild boar, rice, soup, and two plates of mysterious vegetables.  (I am not sure what they were.) 

We finished eating and waited.  The rain wasn't going to stop.  We decided to leave anyway.  Only two of our crowd bothered bringing rain apparel.  We must have looked like a pathetic bunch of Americans.  The people cooking the food took pity on us, and gave us each a plastic poncho.  I am so grateful for their kind gesture.

We look so hot in ponchos!

We went on our way, in the rain, and quickly found King's Hot Spring Villa in Guanziling.  This small mountainous town is known for its naturally cloudy white water, which can only be found in two other places in the world.  The minerals in the water are said to contain healing properties, and the mud left our skin feeling soft and smooth.  King's is a resort of sorts with several differnent pools to soak in at various temperatures.  My favorite was the milky white pool at a medium temperature.

Mud

Star

As we were going to change back into our street clothes, we came upon a fish pool.  We stuck our feet in and all the little fishies came to eat the dead skin off our feet.  Gross, I know.  But it was so cool!  It felt like the fishies were giving me tons of little kisses.

Guanziling

After the hot springs, we happened upon a beautiful temple, the Temple of Azure Clouds (碧雲寺).  It is situated beautifully on a mountainside.  There were lots of colorfully painted statues and carvings.  It overlooked the side of the mountain.  So pretty!

After the temple, we went to the Water and Fire Cave (水火洞), considered perhaps Guanziling’s most famous. Which I think is kind of funny.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be.  "The underground springs contain huge amounts of methane, which rises to the surface where it ignites and burns. At the Water and Fire Cave, the gas bubbles up through a pool of water. Despite the fact that the resulting flames are now fairly weak and less than a meter high (they used to burn as high as 3 meters into the air) the overall effect of seeing fire rise out of water remains both interesting and unusual." (http://www.chinapost.com.tw/) 

There is a legend posted near the spring: "A Fire Dragon and a Water Tiger did not coincide in opinion and caused much disputes, therefore they decided to make a final bid for the stronger but ended wearing each other out.  Eventually, the Fire Dragon became fire while the Water Tiger became that of fountain, thus the formation and coexistence of fire and water."

There is also a Scientific Illustration: "According to the natural laws, water and fire can't coexist, however, the geologic structure here is different.  As the spring water flows out of the cliff, its pressure diminishes, and the methane (CH4, namely, the natural gas) which is originally dissolved in the water turns into bubbles and rush out.  Once ignited, the flame will never die out.  A amazing water-fire coexistence scene comes into being."

The journey home was rainy, very rainy.  When you are on a scooter, rain feels like a ton of little needles pricking you.  Fun!  I love scooters, so it was okay.  By the time we got back to the train station, we were all soaked and cold. 

It was such a fun trip!  The best one to date!