There are natural hot springs in Bali that overlook layers and layers of rice patties. The kind of place fairytales are made of.While I was sitting in the springs, thunder cracked and rain poured like I’d never seen it pour. It was so spectacular I laughed. It was so beautiful I cried.In that moment I knew, that’s what we’re here to feel. We’re here to feel things to their extreme.
Another well overdue post on some topical issues on soaking and bathing in Southeast Asia and the wider world.
Staying local first.
The Smart Local reports (Oct. 16) on hot spring resorts near Singapore that almost feel like Japan. Nearby is defined as less than 4 hours flying! Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Klook presents (Feb. 15) 14 mostly natural Taiwanese hot springs.
Mytour clocks up (Feb. 15) 12 Vietnamese hot springs, all very much resort like.
Mytour clocks up (Feb. 15) 12 Vietnamese hot springs, all very much resort like.
'The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has set the goal of urgently upgrading the hot springs in Thailand to “spa towns” like in Europe or “onsen towns” like in Japan in order to create a hot spring economy....To this end, the hot springs in nearby provinces will be developed into a system of 7 hot spring or wellness routes and linked together to create a global marketing brand and expand tourism to secondary cities'.
らしいので私も古い写真から秘蔵フォトを📸😂マロボ温泉♨️2011夏東ティモール🇹🇱を各所、温泉冒険した時のこと。ここはポルトガル統治時代に造られたと言われてるところ🇵🇹遺跡のような建造物、お湯は滝のように流れてて水路をつたい巨大プールに注がれてる。なんて強力な源泉掛け流し！🥺これがまた最高な泥湯で泥パックし放題。付近の川もそこら辺が温泉♨️温泉天国すぎてそれはもうびっくりだった。当時はオーストラリア軍が治安維持に入ってた頃だったんだけど、地図も詳細なものがまともに存在しておらず驚愕。どこに連れて行かれるか毎度謎のまま、道は現地のアテンド任せでなすままに。今Googleマップ見ても道ないね…笑 航空写真からは確認できた。当時は廃墟みたいでそこにこんこんと沸き続ける湯、という風情もなかなかに琴線に触れるものがあった。今は建造物も色々つくられてきてる模様。予定通り観光地化を進めてるのかな。それにしてもうっかり干支一回りしてしてた！なんてこと！ここ何年か温泉疎かにしてたけど、年齢的にめちゃ必要になってきてしまったことに最近しみじみ気づき、改めてちゃんとした湯をまた選んで入りたいなと思ったのでした♨️#marobo #marobohotsprings #timorleste #東ティモール#onsen #温泉 #世界の温泉#hotsprings #hotspring忘れてたけど#温泉ソムリエ #温泉入浴指導員 #温泉観光実践士今は放置だけど#旅程管理主任者 #添乗員 #ツアーコンダクター だしわりと特殊な#プロ添 #ツアコン#なおこの時より5キロ増 涙
'The Consunji family conglomerate DMCI Holdings is developing a 40-hectare (ha) leisure estate in the Philippine hot spring capital of Laguna province, which will include a Japanese-style onsen and villas, as part of efforts to diversify its property holdings'.
Then loads of blah, blah, blah.
The Diplomat looks at Indonesia's geothermal development (Nov. 21):
'Indonesia’s investment plan for the $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) calls for rapid growth in renewable energy of all kinds. This includes variable renewables such as solar and wind, and also what are called dispatchable renewables like geothermal and hydropower.Solar and wind are intermittent sources of power generation, because they depend on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Geothermal and hydro can supply the grid with steadier and more predictable forms of electricity generation.According to the JETP scenario, by 2030 solar and wind together will be generating 14 percent of Indonesia’s electricity. In the same year, geothermal and hydro will produce 22 percent'.
South China Morning Post (Jan. 21) focuses on Taiwan's few naturists. One way to escape textile culture:
'Hot-spring culture is popular all over Taiwan, but is usually gender-segregated. It may be traditional to go nude, but hot-spring locations will either separate men and women or require bathing suits in public spas.However, that doesn’t stop some from renting out a hot spring for a private party and using it however they like'.
duolong_ at Espa Yeh Panes Penatahan
Aeon has a large feature (Feb. 2) on how bathing water should be a cities future:
'In my daily life in New York, as a working parent with two young kids, I find solace in water. And not just baths and beaches, but the many watery environments that urban planners and designers call ‘blue spaces’: rivers, pools, coastlines, ports and other waterways and watercourses. More than anything else, water calms me and brings me to the present. I love the way it sounds, the way it looks, and the way it smells. But, most importantly, I love the way it feels. And I’m not alone....Appearing in many culturally distinct shapes and sizes, communal city baths – including ancient Roman thermae, Turkish hammams and Japanese onsen – have long fostered a deep, healing sense of togetherness, abundance, relaxation and grounding. Many of these public spaces were successful because they were inexpensive (or free) and widely accessible. However, in New York and other unequal 21st-century cities, as more luxury baths and spas are built, public blue spaces are in decline. Pools are built over and poorly maintained; waterways are polluted and neglected; and ocean beaches are rendered inaccessible to those who most need their curative qualities....As investment in public blue spaces has declined, there has been a concurrent boom in private ‘luxury’ spa facilities – a reflection of the growing influence of the ‘wellness’ industry on urban development. I must confess, a trip to one of these baths or spas is one of my favourite winter activities in the city, which I spread out because each visit is not cheap, ranging from around $50 to more than $100. These visits have become therapeutic rare treats, but also an indirect opportunity to create cultural connections with other bathers. After each visit, I leave feeling relaxed and closer to my local community. I also leave feeling irked that these experiences remain expensive due to a lack of investment in public goods. New York seems to have forgotten its past, its long history of communal bathing....Models for collective bathing do in fact exist, they’re just not easily accessible in New York. In Europe and the UK, there are trends toward public cold water plunges and reclaiming parts of urban waterways for mental health swims. But such initiatives tend to emerge in national systems that use public funds to prioritise collective wellbeing....We are living in times of crisis that require a global reconceptualisation of public health and urban planning. And some of our best solutions to the biggest health challenges may be the simplest ones. Water could do so much more for us. It is time to insist on our collective right to bathe'.
Japan Times reports (Nov. 6) on special made bathing costumes for breast cancer survivors:
“There are people who hesitate to go to public baths because they don’t want others to see their body, also for reasons other than surgical scars,” Masuda [user] said. “I hope it will become something that anyone can feel free to use, just like shower caps.”The special bathing wear was created in 1998.It is customary in Japan not to take clothing or towels into the water at public baths, and some facilities make it a rule for hygienic reasons.The health ministry says there are no hygiene issues as long as soap is washed off before a wearer gets into a bathtub. Still, there have been cases in which the wearers were denied entry into bathing facilities or faced complaints from other customers'.
It all seems to fit better with official policy to promote the use of bathwear. Unclear what usuers think about this effort.
The Guardian on a local Australian issue (Dec. 23):Hot spring ❤️อยากไปแช่ออนเซนจัง 寒い！温泉行きたい♨️#温泉 #温泉旅行 #温泉大好き #露天風呂 #露天風呂付き客室 #露天風呂大好き #天然温泉#hotsprings #sunset#ออนเซ็น #ญี่ปุ่น#japan #japantravel #atami#熱海#🇹🇭 #🇯🇵
'Hiromi Masuoka, 78, recalls when she opened Australia’s first traditional Japanese bathhouse down a narrow Collingwood backstreet in 1998, her friends tried to talk her out of it. “I remember all my friends at the time telling me that it couldn’t work here – that Australians would not cope well with the nudity aspect,” she says.“But for me that was just completely natural and the only way to keep it really true to the Japanese bathing tradition of purity and cleanliness.”After 25 years of running Ofuroya with her daughter Mocca, the much-loved inner-Melbourne sanctuary is closing this week, citing the effect of Covid lockdowns, onerous council access regulations on the three-storey property and the cost of needed renovations'.
A slightly older article from Sydney Morning Herald (Jun. 2 2023) on forest bathing:
'It has been called “the new yoga” and it’s certainly a hot travel trend. The practice sounds ancient, but it’s a modern concept. The name shinrin-yoku was only recognised in 1982, when the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries coined the term for “absorbing the forest atmosphere”.
A recent publishing by Greta Rybus concerns our globe's hot springs.
A visual adventure of the unique topographies, regional uses, and cultural meanings of thermal baths.
