Wulai Waterfalls and Hot springs

Here's an outing we did back in February to a little town close by.  It was a pretty hazy day at first, but the weather cleared up in the afternoon and it turned out great.

Some of our friends joined us for the waterfall fun.  Tami and Jeremy Klomp are great people and they have really fun kids that get along great with our girls.

This is an aboriginal village so they were selling native art and clothing. Usually people take pictures of and with the native people in their traditional gear.  This day, all the cameras were snapping pictures of our girls instead.  So funny.

We road a gondola up along side and then over the waterfall. By this point the haze had cleared and it was a great view.  On top is a whole little world of things to discover from lakes, to hiking trails, bridges, rock climbing walls, and even a wierd haunted ride.

Elli and Evelyn

It was such beautiful, serene, calm atmosphere.

After exploring that area, we headed out to another waterfall and hiking area near by.  Also a beautiful spot.  The water hear is special mineral water that is said to be amazing for your skin.  It was very blue and looked good enough to drink.  

The only problem with some hiking areas in Taiwan is that everything is too clearly marked and even fenced off.  It makes it so you really can't walk right next to the waterfall which is sad because it takes away a lot of "in nature" type of feeling you could get if it wasn't so blocked off.   Todd and I were debating about hopping over the fence to get right next to the waterfall, maybe even put our feet in a bit, but we were pretty sure that we were already conspicuous enough.  I already had every other person telling me I should put more clothes on my children!  I promise NONE of us are cold!! It is humid and warm outside!! It's funny how bundled up everyone was- like they were going skiing, especially the kids.  After the sun went down it was a tiny bit chilly, and guess what!  I put sweatshirts on my girls, because that's when it makes sense to wear a sweatshirt.  In chinese, the way I tell them my kids aren't cold is "Ta bu pa leng" which literally means they aren't afraid of the cold.  This is greeted by exclaims of amazement that I have such miraculous children that aren't afraid or affected by the cold.  It's very comical most of the time, a little annoying other times.  

I did get scolded quite fiercely one time by an old chinese woman who couldn't fathom why my children didn't have jackets on at night in the LOBBY of my apartment building.  Did I mention I had to wake them up in a rush when the fire alarm went off and had to carry both of them down 9 flights of stairs on my own, since Todd wasn't home?  I'm sorry I forgot their jackets but I think they will survive the 5 minutes of being outside without them especially when its still 70 degrees outside.  That lady got close to being punched.  That was the first time I have felt anger about that issue before- usually I just laugh it off, but something about alarms going off, perspiration dripping down my head, crabby children, and finding out it was a false alarm because our ovens have no proper ventilation system, made me a little less patient.  But I digress.... Where was I?

Oh yes- in beautiful Wulai.  

That makes me feel better. 

We went back to the town to enjoy our own soothing hotspring bath.

So in Taiwan, they have communal bathing areas like you would think of for hot springs in the states, but more often you get a private room for two hours and enjoy the hot spring bath by yourself or with close friends.  This was perfect for our girls because we could make the water the right temperature and enjoy the mineral cleansing water all together.  

A very nice full day of family fun and a very nice memory.