Hot Springs

We heard there were some of the best natural hot springs in Nanjing so we decided to take advantage of the experience while we were on vacation, and headed into the mountains to pamper ourselves a little bit. Once we arrived, it was not exactly what I had pictured, but it was interesting. I guess I had pictured something a little bit more exotic and natural and adults only. Instead, it was a built up resort with rows and rows of hot tubs and pools and a ton of kids. Don’t get me wrong, we made the best of it and we had a good time, it was just different. So let me tell you a little bit about it.

First of all, I should start by telling you that the majority of the hot springs are fully nude, but fortunately, we ended up at one that was not (thank goodness). Nonetheless, as we walked down the stairs to the locker room, there were naked women and children everywhere. Like I told you before, the culture has very little discretion so being naked is no big deal. Anyway, we made our way to our locker, changed into our swim suits and headed outside. I was nervous about going outside. After all, it is the middle of winter, and I wore a scarf and gloves into the resort, but strangely enough, it was actually not cold outside. I guess that is the good part about being on a hot spring, the hot water below the surface warms the air just above the surface and makes it feel warmer. Surprisingly, it was warm enough to walk around in bathing suits comfortably.  

Like I said, it was not exactly what I had pictured in my head, but it was nice. There were like one hundred different hot tubs with all different kinds of herbs, minerals and teas in them. Of course this is just my conclusion based on the fact that they each smelled a little different and some had different thing floating in them – I do not actually know what the heck they were because it was all in Chinese. It also had several pools with jet massagers and stuff. There was one pool that had little fish that supposedly eat all the dead skin off your body – kind of gross, right? When we found that pool, it was jam packed with people swimming in it, when you are supposed to sit still. Looking at the water, I could see lots of little fish, lots of dead fish floating and murky water I attributed to the combination of dead skin, fish and a whole lot of fish poop. Gross!

My favorite part of the hot spring was the mud bath!  We had to pay a little extra to go in, but we were the only one in it at first. It was very strange. The mud was really soft and warm on our skin, and we were supposed to rub it all over. The strange part was that we floated in the water because the mud was so thick. It scared me at first because I tried to sit down and couldn’t because I was floating. After the mud bath, we were buried in a pit of hot red rocks – literally buried from our neck down. The rocks were really heavy and they were pokey, so to be honest, it was not very enjoyable. When we got out, we were all freaking out because the rocks had turned our skin red and our entire body was textured from the pressure of the rocks. We looked like snakes, and it took a really long time for the color and texture to go away.

After a day like that, you would not think that we would have been so exhausted. I guess it is kind of like spending the whole day at the beach – even though it is relaxing, the heat and the water is just draining. After leaving the hot spring, the Courtneys hit up the street corner for some street food, I opted to get pizza hut instead, a couple dessert from the bakery (because it was H’s birthday) and some wine and headed back to the hotel to pass out.