Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 8 Green Island Zhaori Saltwater Hot Springs

[ continued from Taiwan Trip 2011 Day 7 Green Island Dinner ]

Zhaori Hot Spring (朝日溫泉)
[ The Zhaori Saltwater Hot Springs has been well known since the late 18th century for their clean, transparent water and ideal temperature, which fluctuates between 60 and 70 degrees centigrade. The springs are fed by seawater and underground water heated by the volcanic lava of Green Island. This is one of only three saltwater hot springs in the world along with the springs on Kyushu Island of Japan and Sicily in Italy. Zhaori has three open-air pools and a spa pool where visitors can listen to the sound of the surf, enjoy the sunrise, or watch the stars as they soak away the stress. ]
Source : Discover Taiwan Website

After a few hours of sleep, we awoke early and quickly made our way to the Zhaori Hot Spring so as not to miss the sunrise.

As we got there the sun began to rise. However there was a layer of clouds blocking it somewhat in the horizon.




Beside the open pools, there is a well like structure which is specially built for cooking eggs. You can purchase your eggs from the main entrance and hang them on these bamboo sticks in a cloth pouch, then lower it into the hot spring water. Sign actually says : Dangeroud High Temps, 95 degrees, careful when using.




As this was our first time here, we just found a big rock and hung our eggs over the side. This was gonna be our breakfast :D We then hurried off to the open pools to see the sunrise.



Some locals were already there, soaking up the seawater and waiting for the sunrise.




Sun finally coming up over the clouds...






Our first Taiwanese Island SUNRISE!! YAY!!

After viewing the sunrise, we decided to try out the indoor pools. The water here was at 41.2C, but felt pretty hot compared with the open pool water. The indoor pool has nice waterfall spouts that you can stand under for a direct blast of salty hot spring water.

We actually thought someone had taken our eggs from the hotspring as they were not there when we went back to get them. Luckily the guard at the entrance had our eggs! Someone had taken them from the hotspring and kindly passed them to him for safekeeping. *Whew and Yum!*

Finally it was time to go. We had to ride back to the Minsu and prepare for the morning activity of snorkeling.