Phoenix Hot Springs is basically exactly what it sounds like:
it’s a resort built around a set of hot springs. But I don’t exactly know if
they are real hot springs or if they’re man-made hot springs, with today’s
technology I figure it’s pretty easy to make fake hot springs now: just a
little hot water flowing into a pool and that’s that. That’s what it looked
like there, but I’ve never seen real hot springs before so I don’t know if
that’s just how normal hot springs look like. Don’t get me wrong though, it
really was a very beautiful place. It’s situated in a little pocket of country
behind the mountains so that you can’t see civilization as far as the eye can
see. It was especially pretty at the time we went, the pools accented against
the backdrop of mountains really made it very picturesque.
My fellow teachers and I went there twice, and it really was
a great time. I’ve never gone to a resort or hot springs before, but apart from
most of it being like being in a pool or a hot tub, there was one other
particular attraction that made it exclusively something I can’t get just
anywhere (they also had massages, but they were mad expensive and not even
full-body so we didn’t get those). The exclusive thing was this “Kiss Kiss”
pond. It’s basically a small pool (man-made of course) filled with thousands of
these teeny little fish that like to eat dead skin. That sounds gross but it’s
like a symbiotic relationship: the fish get their food, and the humans get a
pretty awesome ski- exfoliating experience.
We went over there, and already some other teachers who had
been there previously had given me some really great reviews of the place and
how your feet feel like heaven by the time you’re done. They also mentioned it
tickles just a bit. So of course after their lovely review I was keen on trying
this experience. So we went over there and the other teachers stuck their feet
in no problem. A few comments of “oh, this tickles” were uttered, but no more.
So I didn’t think it was going to be that bad. There were literally thousands
of fish, and as soon as you put your feet or hands or whole self in, they
immediately came and proceeded to make a meal of you. I watched as many of the
participants’ feet could hardly be seen underneath the inch-long fishes
crowding around for a bite.
Now I had to be a part of this, so I stuck my feet in. The
fish came swarming and began to nip at my feet. That was not fun for me. As
many of you know, I’m SUPER ticklish (a comment that I will deny if I ever see
you face to face and you are asking me with a sly look on your face). And to me
the nips of these little fishes were the most intense form of foot tickling I’ve ever had to
endure. Immediately, I took my feet out of the pool and was almost resolved to
watch the rest of everyone enjoying a great exfoliating experience while having
none myself.
But after a few seconds of watching everyone have so much
fun, I made the decision to get my money’s worth of this place and stick my
feet in again. Once more, the feet came out almost immediately. I did this
several times until one time I just bit the bullet (and my finger to keep from
laughing) and just kept my feet in there, enduring the tickling. Finally after
a few minutes of this ordeal my feet and shins got used to nipping and things
got a whole ton better. We chilled out in the pool for a while, until the fish
decided they had got all the meal they were going to be able to get from our
feet, and then we got out of the pool. When I stepped out of the pool, I felt
like my feet were the most perfect feet in the world, and that I was walking on
heaven. It was the best and cleanest my feet have ever felt, and probably will
ever feel again (until I get rich and famous and buy myself my own little kiss
kiss pond of fishes for my own pleasure- and it would be indoor so I can get at
it any time of the year).
That really was pretty much the highlight of my time at
Phoenix Hot Springs. Later on, a few of the other teachers returned to the Hot
Springs to do this little TV competition (which was like a very VERY VERY minor
version of Wipeout…aka a few mats floating on the pool and they had to try to
run across them blindfolded without falling). I opted out of doing that because
I’ve had my time on TV and I have made a personal promise to myself that if I’m
ever going to be on TV, that I’ll be there for my name and not for my face (aka
I’ll be on TV for my talent and/or accomplishments, rather than for being just
a face in the crowd…and in the case of China, for being a foreign face in the
crowd; it’s not that I have anything against this, because I don’t, but it’s just
a promise I’ve made to myself because of certain goals I hope to achieve in the
future). So they all had a bunch of fun there, and I enjoyed watching them fall
all over the place in the videos they taped and showed back to me.
We really only went there twice, the weather got cooler (it
didn’t get cold, it just stopped being summer weather, and therefore not pool
weather) and so we haven’t gone back. Maybe we’ll go back in the spring when
it’s warmer…we’ll see.
This is by the entrance to the springs, the lake in the background was part of the complex, but it made a beautiful accent to it all.
I took these next photos from a balcony at a higher floor in the main building. The hot springs pools were hidden in little pockets along that hill on the other side of the big pool. Where the small pavilions are mark their location.
If you look closely in this picture, you can see the blue water slide peeking behind this closest building.
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