Bathtime in Beitou

So, it’s a boiling hot day and we’ve been dripping non-stop for hours. We should be spending the rest of the day inside a mall or museum but strangely, we had made other plans. We were going to visit a hot spring!

We took a train to Xinbeitou, a spa town. We made our way up the hill to the outdoor public baths to find that they were closed for cleaning. Not to worry, they would be open again in an hour. In the meantime we walked back down the hill to the town museum where 4 little old ladies armed with brooms scowled at us and told us to take our shoes off. They stalked people as they looked at old photographs and exhibits in the museum. If one toe accidentally brushed the antique tatami mat a granny would spring from nowhere and shake her broom at you ferociously.

I admit I didn’t take much in. The heat was frying my brain, but I do remember signs everywhere starting with “DO NOT…”. Friendly place then. The only air conditioned section of the building was the video room and a Chinese movie from the late 60s was being screened. The movie was set in the town of Beito. The quality was terrible and looked like it had been made in the 1920s. There were hand-written Chinese subtitles for Cantonese speakers.

Museum link

The last thing I really wanted was a hot bath, but as we were in Beito, we may as well give it a go. We had enjoyed the baths in Hungary in summer afterall.

The showers were in individual cubicles with doors which was a good start. I’m never keen on public scrubbing. We chose this particular spa because it was for both men and women. People wear swimwear and it was a very relaxed place. The swimwear was a bit odd though. Men wore biking shorts and women wore very conservative (bordering on Victorian) one-piece swimsuits. I was the only foreign slapper in a two-piece bikini. Note to self: next time bring sensible cossie. There were mostly old people in the baths. The alpha-males up in the hottest pool or perched on rocks looking down on everyone else. We’ve seen macaques in Indonesia doing much the same thing.

We stayed in for about half an hour and then got too hot (wimps). We walked back down the hill and into a convenience store and bought salty nuts and sweet fizzy drinks and stayed there until our body temperatures had returned to normal.