Bamboo Forest/Mountains:
After a four hour drive and lunch, we finally arrived at the bamboo forest. It was a bit of a hike just to enter the park, but once we entered the park, it was an even further walk to get to the attractions. The walk was pretty scenic though, and it looked a little bit like the above picture and this:
Finally, we got to the base of the park, which had a giant Buddha or Taoist statue. There were two main attractions: seeing pandas and going to the top of the mountain. You took a train sort of thing to get to the pandas and a gondola to get to the top of the mountain. First, we went to see the pandas. Pictures? You bet! Video? We'll see if blogger, my internet, and my VPN can handle it.
FAILED! You'll just have to hunt me down when I get back and ask for the videos. Teaser: Kung Fu action.
We then went back down the tram/train thingy, and up to the mountain chairlift. It was beautiful; some saying about 1000 words and pictures...
Too many pictures and too few words. Just the way I like it.
We arrived at the hostel, and it was actually pretty nice, more like a hotel than a hostel. Not five star or anything, but a decent place to spend a night.
Shortly after arriving at the hostel, we went to the hot springs, and it was not what I expected. I expected very natural hot springs, like a forest that you have to walk through to get to a natural hot spring lake or pool, with sand or rocks at the bottom. Actually, the hot springs were part of a super luxury hotel, and the hot springs felt like a spa filled with hot tubs. We entered and got to a locker room where we had a wrist band that acted as a key to our locker. The attendants (it seemed like there were twice as many as needed) handed us fresh towels to carry from hot spring tub to hot spring tub.
The actual pools were totally relaxing. They were not incredibly hot; most of them were 37 degrees celcius, which is like 99 degrees Fahrenheit. A normal hot tub might be 105 degrees Fahrenheit. There was a main area with a regular tub, three tubs containing either beds or chairs with jets. One of them had little bubbles oozing from the bed that lifted you, and that was totally relaxing. There was also an area in the center with three bed like things where cool water poured like a shower over your body. That also felt awesome. There were also a few other types of pools, including two with fish that eat at your skin and it's apparently supposed to be good for your skin. Call me whatever mean names you want; I didn't go into those pools.
After, we relaxed, ate complementary fruit platters, sat on their comfy chairs, and watched Chinese movies. Then, I went into the sauna, where I practiced the routine I learned at Agree Outpost Camp, where you spend 10-15 minutes in the sauna, then take a dip into cold water, and repeat this 3 or 4 times. It feels awesome, and it also helps sweat out your mosquito bites. By teaching this to other people, I quickly became the most popular person in the sauna. Yay, Agree! Also, I was shocked there were no naked men in the shower, because in the locker room, they pranced around with no shame. Woo cultural differences.
On that note, I didn't bring my camera, so here is a website with pictures/information:
http://www.spawor.com/english/
This morning, we were up too early to go to the lake. It was a pleasant day. We took a ferry to two different islands where we were able to see and do various things. First island had a waterfall. Second island had a zipline over the water, which took us to a third island, which was really just for the zipline. The highlight was definitely the zipline. Really fun, and felt completely safe. After waiting for around 20 minutes under the hot sun, it was my turn. The guy hooked me in and I swung down (before he tossed me off the platform, which he did to anyone who seemed remotely uncomfortable). I turned backwards for the camera, gave a "Go Blue," and relaxed. I leaned all the way back, not upside down, but horizontal, and swung my head backwards to see the rope on the bottom and water on the top. Pretty cool vision. Wish I could have taken a picture of it.
Pictures of the lake:
Finally, we left the lake and went for lunch. The restaurant served a large pot of chicken soup with the whole chicken still in the broth. It was awesome. The chicken was really tender and juicy, and the broth was super flavorful, not salty. I didn't think to take a picture since I was hungry, so I must go deep into my archives to find this, from our cooking class. Most of these were gone before I had a chance to take a picture:
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