貝迪溫泉五月一日 Beity Hot Springs

(Entrance.)

(Flowers outside the hot springs.)

(Lake/pond in front of the hot spring entrance.)

(Indoor portion of the hot spring.)

(One of the many pools outside.)

The beginning of the day started out a bit rough. It was drizzling outside, and I convinced myself that if I didn't take a shower now I would regret it later. I popped into the tiny closet sized bathroom, took off my pajamas, and balanced myself carefully over the porcelain hole in the floor that serves both as a shower drain and a toilet. In this house, the shower head actually stays put when the water is running. Whereas in the prior family's house, the shower head would have fallen.

After I finished showering, I quickly put on my clothes. Packed somethings into my messenger bag given to me by the Ngan family in Hong Kong and went downstairs. The stairs groaned under my feet announcing to all downstairs that I was awake. I looked around the living room. No one really appeared ready. My host mother asked me why I was ready so early. I told her that the night before my host dad had said that we were to pick up Ben around 9am. She looked at the clock. It was five to nine. She called to my host dad who was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"You didn't tell me you planned it like this! Aiya, Ben is waiting for us! Why didn't you tell me?"

My host dad something inaudible, something he grumbled.

"That's no excuse!" my host mom responded.

She popped her head out from between the kitchen door and the door frame.

"Yaoxia, go get Ben. Tell him he can have breakfast with us."

I nodded then slipped on my black sandals.

It was cool out. Which is not unusual for Chongqing weather. Chongqing has a problem deciding on whether it really wants the seasons to change or not. I have been through rainy periods, foggy periods, sunny hot scorching sweaty humid periods, and warm drizzling periods. Today it was overcast and drizzling.

Ben was already waiting outside his apartment's lift lobby. Like me, he didn't carry an umbrella. I lost mine, Ben just refuses to have one. He is from England after all. It seems like whenever it precipitates outside Ben insists that it is "spitting" and not actually "raining" hence the lack of an umbrella. I told him what was happening. Then we walked back across the wet and green campus to my family's apartment for a breakfast of noodles and egg.

The car ride to the hot spring was a bit more time consuming than we thought. We ended up waiting in the car at the front gate of Chongqing University for over half an hour. We were waiting for my host dad's older sister to arrive so her car could drive in front of ours and take us to the hot spring. She finally arrived. Much to the frustration of my host mother and the embarrassment of my host father. I do not think my host mom enjoys my host father's older sister's company too much. In the end there was no point in her coming because after ten minutes on the freeway her car sped off. We were lost.

It took us an hour longer to get to the hot spring than originally planned. In fact the hot spring is quite close to Chongqing. The journey back lasted for about forty-five minutes to an hour.

Our caravan of cars eventually met up at a conference center/ hotel near the hot spring. The plan was to get some lunch. However, the restaurant wait was too long. Time was short already because Ben and I needed to be back in Shapingba (the district in which we all live) for a birthday party. There was a wedding ceremony going on in the middle of this huge restaurant. The restaurant building looked like one of those huge glass topped indoor plant nurseries you sometimes see off the highway.

As soon as Ben and I got out of the car to go into the restaurant we were greeted by two small girls. Well, they didn't really greet us. They sort of pointed, said "wai guo ren" (foreigners), walked up to us, and stared. This happens often, but not when the children who are staring are the children of your host family's friends. Ben and I ignored them, as we have learned to do now.

"It's funny how in some countries this place would be full of plants. But in China it's a restaurant full of people and a wedding." Ben said while my host mom inquired about the wait for a table.

The wait ended up being too long. Everyone piled into their respective sedans and drove out of the well landscaped conference center towards the hot springs. I was expecting some sort of indoor hot spring, possibly dirty.

I definitely did not expect marble floors, showers with nice water pressure, unlimited towels, hairdryers, an internet cafe, acupuncture salon, massage parlor, free fruit bar, 68 yuan all-you-can-eat-buffet, or huge lazy boy chairs with televisions attached! Not to mention a wonderfully strange pool where small fish eat your dead skin!

The host family paid for our entry and left. They had all decided to find a bite to eat since the all you can eat buffet was too expensive. 68 yuan per person is a lot for three people. My host mom asked Ben and I if we wanted to join. We politely declined saying that we could feed off the free fruit bar.

There were many different kinds of pools in the hot spring. A large beach like one that would change into a horrible-high-pitched-techno-playing wave pool. All of the pools were shallow enough for people to sit on the bottom without drowning. You could buy a drink from the bar and sit in the spring marveling at the condensation off your coke can.

Another was a fish pool. The water itself wasn't so clean...it was filled with little bits of fish poop. But it must have been cleaned regularly because you couldn't smell it. I didn't mind, we could just pop into another pool couldn't we? After sitting down in the fish pool one must remain still in order to entice the small brownish fish to have a nibble. Once they had a bite all their other friends would join. The feeling was tickle-ish. I heard many Chinese people exclaim "Yang si wo! 癢死我!" or "Hao yang a! 好癢啊!" meaning "I am being tickled to death" and "So tickle-y!" We went back to that pool several times.

Due to our hunger we eventually caved in to the all you can eat 68 yuan buffet. Which was glorious! I had noodles, cakes, coffee, pastries, spinach, chocolate from a chocolate fountain, and a real danish! The best 68 yuan I will ever spend. I met another American lady there from Texas. We talked briefly. She asked all the questions. I was too giddy from all the good food to remember my manners and ask her in return!

We returned to the pools to digest our food.

Later Ben and I ran into my host mom, host dad, and Rose (my host sister) in the fish pool. Rose was having a hard time sitting still and therefore having a difficult time understanding why this pool was so special. We chatted for a while, admiring our little finned friends.

Hot springs are really nice! I hope to return soon!