The hotspring incident

To welcome my Mom's arrival in Taiwan (yeah! Everyone's so happy to have her here, especially my Dad), we took a drive to the nearby mountain town called Jian-shi ("pointy rock"), just 2 km from Neiwan. As we were driving into the moutain through the valley, signs of hotsprings caught our attention, so we followed one of the signs to a hotspring resort called Nature Valley (Tian-ran-gu). We were immediately impressed by the beautiful setting and the numerous hotspring pools. Too bad we didn't bring bathing suits!! We then found out that they have private rooms for hourly rental, so booked two rooms and decided to soak ourselves for an hour. What a great way to relax, and at quite an affordable price.

Walking into our Japanese-style room with a view of the valey and a gentle breeze, Paul and I and Noah started getting ready for the bath. We were so excited to be in such a beautiful setting. Without us seeing, Ben found a hot water dispenser for making tea, and promply burned one finger thoroughly with boiling water. He cried hysterically for over an hour, as Paul or I walked him around trying to find something to distract him. (Ice cream briefly worked, but only for the time spent eat it.) We tried to put ice on it, but it was hard to keep his hand on the ice, or even in cold water, for more than a moment at a time. By evening, he had two huge blisters, and went to the emergency room in Hsinchu. They gave us antibiotic ointment and a burn medicine (as well as some other things for a strange rash he has). Now the blisters have popped and the finger is a deep red. It doesn't seem to bother him, though he does talk about his "booboo" a lot. And we are yet to figure out what the strange rash is about, as he's still getting rash attacks.

The ER here was very expedient, for those of us not yet insured, it was amazingly affordable. Can you imagine a trip to the ER without any health insurance in the US?

So, we'll have to go back to Nature Valley another time... the hour we paid for the private bath was at least enjoyed by Noah. A cool fall day at the hotspring would be beautiful, and we'll use the outdoor pools, nowhere near a boiling water dispenser.