Grotty

annapurna_mon_village

Hot springs in Kharpani, 2 hours walk from #annapurnamonvillage

A few recent photo's and older stories to add. 

From Nepal to Pakistan.

Garam Chashma hot spring, a hot spring regularly confused with it's namesake on the other side of the Himal in Tajikistan. Backpackingman heads up here (Oct. 10, 2020):

'The thought of visiting a natural hot spring soothes the mind with feelings of hot healing mineral water immersing your body.

Then the image of being out in nature along with that hot healing water makes it even better.

And so that was what we had in mind when we heard of a side trip we could do from the city of Chitral in the north-west of Pakistan, to a famed hot spring called Garam Chasma.

...

We are going to get into nature and soak it up in some hot springs with some new friends.

Oh no, you ain’t…

After only a 1 minute walk up the hill, we reached an area of some concrete pools measuring around 2 metres long and 50cm deep.

The guys pointed at it.

Yes? What are we supposed to be looking at?

The reality kicked in.

This was the Garam Chasma hot springs.

Just on the edge of town in small concrete structures.

But then the guys said how local people come here to wash their clothes in it and on top of that there was trash all around.

The hot spring dream trip was dead.

The local guys we were with never go there. You can see why!

Seeing the disappointment on our faces they gestured us down the hill to a small house where an elderly man had made an indoor bathhouse consisting of 6 small bathrooms where hot water from the hot springs is poured into.

So fuck it at least it was clean enough although a little grotty. But we came all this way for some thermal bathing I was not saying no!

And like a lot of things in travel the whole experience actually was a lot of fun. The thermal waters, although you can’t bathe in them like in nature, are very soothing even if just pouring over you from a tap'.

Then eastwards. Bhutaninbound (13 Nov. 2020):

'Hot springs in Bhutan are usually called Tshachu. Almost all the Bhutanese make it a point to soak in at least one of the Bhutan Hot Springs in their lifetime. As they consider it to have a lot of medicinal properties and benefits. The hot springs of Bhutan can cure various ailments ranging from Skin disease, arthritis to body aches . Bhutan has many hot springs'.

It then lists five while continues to explain only about Gasa Tschachu. The following pictures originates from this article:

Rickety

We head to the northern side of the Himals.

Isobel Ewing (Sep 11, 2019) at Bibi Fatima halfway up the Wakhan corridor, Tajikistan:

I have always loved hot springs.

There is just something about bathing in the wilderness.

Perhaps it’s enjoying a luxury that is normally confined within four walls, or the simple beauty of nature providing warmth and comfort for free.

So when I heard about a secret locals-only hot spring hidden in a gorge in the Wakhan Valley there was no way I was missing out.

...

We arrived just on dusk and realised there was no way we were finding the secret springs in the dark and on our wobbling legs.

The public springs were still open so we paid a dollar and parted ways into the men and women’s.

The Spartan concrete complex was built into the rock of the gorge, providing privacy for naked bathers but completely obscuring the dramatic view down the valley.

I stripped naked in the steamy changing room in front of a couple of Tajik ladies and walked down the slippery concrete steps into a dark grotto filled with the sound of hot water cascading out of the rock.

Looking up I could glimpse a sliver of night sky between the concrete wall and the natural overhang, while all around me piping hot water gushed from deep inside the mountain.

It was utter bliss for my tired muscles.

Meeting Jack afterwards I heard that he’d shared the men’s pool, which sounded much more like a dungeon than my magic grotto, with a collection of large naked men and it hadn’t been such a tranquil experience.

...

We located a track behind the public hot springs complex that followed the gorge up about 500m, across a rickety wooden bridge to a stone cubicle next to the river.

Unfortunately it was occupied so I waited in the sun while Jack went in and sat in the small bath while an elderly man did his ablutions.

He eventually emerged and we chatted before he ambled off up the cliff path and it was my turn for a dip.

As I undressed I happened to glance up over the stone walls and spotted the same man, who’d managed to take 20 minutes to cover about 10m and was copping an eyeful of my completely naked body.

Despite the old perve I had a lovely soak in the crystal clear hot water, soothed by the sound of river and the view down the valley to the snow-capped peaks beyond'.

mandemspang

Despite the unappetising colour, this #TaoistHotSpring with #medicinalherbs has been the best #hotsprings experience I've had so far...all following #taoist principles of health and healing... there were 30 of these dotted around outside all with various different temperatures, #herbs and #minerals...perfect way to end my #China trip and three days of hiking •

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#taosim #hotspring #spa #MountQingCheng #outdoorspa #mineralhotspring #HowardJohnson #daoism #dao #daoist 

kovalexan

Рядом с нашим лагерем у Мутновской геотермальной станции расположены Дачные горячие источники: именно здесь мы релаксировали по вечерам после всех этих восхождений на вулканы 🗻

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И даже вот этот водопад, в котором я позирую на заглавном фото, не ледяной, как может показаться, а наоборот тёплый! Ведь выше по течению холодный ручей из тающего снежника смешивается с подземной термальной водой и образует такой вот комфортный для купания поток 💦

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Ну а в природном бассейне (фото 4 и 5) собирается уже более горячая вода, которая расслабляет, возвращает силы и заряжает энергией на следующие дни. С такими источниками многодневное проживание в палатке приобретает совершенно новый уровень комфорта 😊 ))

A find: a website on the thermal springs of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Includes a link to a scientific report (just 378 pages) but alas, only in Russian. It also included a link to another website which has contains some info on hot springs here.

diano4ka_erkina from Kamchatka:

Как хочется лежать в бассейне и балдеть, а не вот это вот всё 😄

.

#малки #малкинскиеисточники #горячиеисточники #hotsprings #лето #летняякамчатка #мысливслух #kamchatka #kamchatkalife #камчатка #kamchatka_gi

Wandering

Ждём лётной погоды! Waiting for helicopter!

On Kamchatka peninsula, Russia. Source

Common people?

Development related news for parts of the region.

As of yet there are no mentions made of changes in Nepal's hot springs due to the recent devastating seismic activities. 

It can be expected. I did hear that bear the epicenter of the first earthquake, some of the natural springs had discontinued.

#hotsprings #freezingriver #natural #swimmingfullyclothed #nepal #abc #annapurnabasecamp #trekking #travel #latergram #tb #myfootlookslikeronalds

Jhinu hot spring still in working condition, source.

Meanwhile there's no end in sight to China's thirst for upscale soaking. The most recent addition comes from Sheraton who are opening another hot spring related hotel in Yunnan (travelmedia.com, Jan. 3):

'Located close to the borders with Myanmar and Laos, Sheraton Xishuangbanna Hotel offers 326 rooms and suites, all equipped with balconies offering views of the surrounding forest.
Facilities include three restaurants (international, Chinese and Thai), a lobby bar, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pools, a business centre, fitness centre, spa and its own on-site hot springs, with six indoor and outdoor sulphur pools.
...
Guests can choose to soak in the hot springs, explore the rainforest, immerse themselves in the local cultures and customs of Dai minority groups residing near the hotel, or take a bike ride to see the millennium-old Pu’er tree,” said the hotel’s general manager, Damian Chua'.

Elsewhere in Yunnan I recently came across this while doing research for this blog. It's another of those some weird and strange pictures. The following comes from the Yongning hot spring, northern Yunnan and what's happening here?

The new one where we went has a collective basin share in two parts one for women one for men, just separated by an enormous wooden beam,. It's open air so it is very pleasant.

When we ask to go to the collective bath the owner is surprised and refuses by saying to us "lao bai xin" what wants to say "common people" what in his eyes we are not!

The caption makes nothing clearer, but it certainly looks like the tourist is the odd one out for a change ... 

Basking
A recent article on research as towards soaking on Sakhlain  and Kuril islands, (far eastern Russia) has concluded that there's a lot of good in soaking, but enthusiasm needs to be tempered, this is still an area nearly dropped off the map ...

But not for the soaking enthusiasts in the accompanying photo:  

That said, below a what older photo from a Kamchatka expedition (source), mental and social health is certainly OK, don't know about the smoking. Caption reads translated as :

Bath of natural origin. In this cup flows over a rock hot water, so you can bask in even severe frost.

 Ванна естественного происхождения. В эту чашу стекает по скале горячая вода, так что нежиться здесь можно даже в лютые морозы.

Strange
An article (Tribune, Apr. 9) on Chitral hot spring, Lotkoh valley in Pakistan:

'Many find the water too hot to even touch, let alone take a dip in. As a solution, locals have built public bathrooms within the vicinity where the spring water can be mixed with cooler water, said another visitor, Mohammad Jamil. “People bathe using this water for five to 10 minutes and then sit for the next 10 to 30 minutes in a warm room as it is advised not to step out in the open immediately.”
People who have indulged say they feel “fresh” afterward; some go as far as saying the water has magical characteristics which has relieved them from fatigue'.

A blog article on Maharashtra's hot springs with this photo:

 The pond for men...

It describes stumbling on this hot spring:

'We were in for a complete surprise when we reached the small village which housed the lake. In fact, there was no lake at all. However, what we discovered was this lovely hot water spring called Rajvade. An old woman from the village saw us as two lost wanderers and decided to take us around to the our destination. She spoke only Marathi and we spoke none, so our conversations were fun; all she could figure out was that we were strange people from Pune :)'

Struggle

Finally, recent unrest in Tibet explained (Tibet Post, May 5) as locals of Awong (Gonjo county) oppose developing a hot spring. Amongst their other complaints that is, as the development of a hot spring is lead to believe to be a pretext for mining a sacred mountain..

"On April 2nd, the local government told all the people of the village that there were plans to convert the natural geyser water near the mountain into hot spring baths," the sources told the TPI.

"Locals agreed to the plan, understanding that the project could attract many tourists and generate income," the sources also said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

...

Many locals were injured in the struggle, many of which refused treatment from the government hospital, instead going to private hospitals'.

Back to India, recent news is that the country is in the grips of a heatwave; not so for these fellas:

Wash your spirit clean in a warm bathing pool at Kheer Ganga. #hotsprings #holy #religion #mountains #snow #winter #himachalpradesh #himachal #india #kullu #parvativalley #kheerganga #water #instatravel #love #nature #beautiful #instaindia #spirit #wanderlust #wanderer #outdoors #explore #travel

source

Consuming

'Hot Springs at Iturup Island'. 

By Julie Robinson

Heading south
Following through with the feature on Eastern Russia's soaks, the smaller sections of the puzzle yet to be pieced together need to be filled in.
 
The Kuril islands are a string of (volcanic) islands which bridge the distance between Kamchatka and Japan's northern Hokkaido island.


Northern Paramushir island, one of the Kuril's biggest islands, is home to hot springs of Verkhneyuryevskiye (source) and there is also the mention of hot springs near Karpinsky volcano and near Ebeko (source). That said there's nothing much than these mentions.

Continuing south, one of the Kuril islands is the uninhabited Ushishir, which according to Wikipedia translates from the Ainu language as hot spring, a nice name for an island.  The island actually consists of two islands connected by a small spit. The southern part is called Yankicha.
Yankicha island features heavily on Kuril island cruises. It's hot spring seems too unique to miss. This site claims:

'Near the lip of the lagoon a srape in the beach fills with thermal waters;no natural hot spring bath can have a more spectacular setting',

a claim they attribute to Micheal Bright [1]. Others add:

'Yankicha is considered by many to be one of the most visually scenic islands in the Kurils. The ancient Ainu people used the thermal area of Yankicha for initiation rites that lasted three days and three nights, in which young men in ceremonial furs were bound together by ropes on wooden platforms over the boiling springs'. 

Photo of the Yankicha soak. Without the furs...

'Maxim, an officer from our navigation team, tries the impromptu hot spring feed bath'.

Others seem more inventive:

'With characteristic Russian make-do-with-what-we-have-ness we managed to construct a makeshift pool with one of our tents! Who’d have thought we’d be getting all touristy-resorty in this desolate place? Was nice to have a warm dip, as if to make up for the earlier cold shower. Karma :)'.

See also the Global Volcanism Programme's entry on Ushishir.

Closeby Rasshua island has 'numerous' hot springs.

Urup island is attributed to have hot springs on the flanks of the volcano Tri Sestry (source). As below:

hitokappu.bg:

'Hot spring. Uninhabited [but ....] Urup, Kuril Island Горячий источник. Необитаемый остров Уруп, Курильские острова'.

The South Kurils

Iturup (sometimes spelt as Etorofu) is the northern most island of the southern Kurils. A no name hot spring is situated 'above' the town of Kuril'sk (source). Or Kurilsk.
On flickr are photo's of the Iwo River (?) hot spring (resort) by ataq411, while FoxySakh has a set of photo's of the island, including a more updated version of the photo below.

A 1992 photo by Shepard Sherbell taken on Iturup with the following caption:

'Man in Hot Spring in the Kuril Islands'.

Note also the idyllic hot waterfall in the lead photo to this blog. More photo's can be found here. Looks like a fantastic place to soak.


Interesting
South of Iturup and closest to Japan is the island of Kunashir. Wikipedia:

'Kunashir is formed by four volcanoes which were separate islands but have since joined together by low-lying areas with lakes and hot springs'.

Aaltjeaworldwiseexplorer added on a now defunct blog that

'... some of them natural, others contained in regular pools and a beach filled with hot black rocks, called “Black Beach” which is owned by the military'.

Apparently this references to a ruin of a hot spring, which still affords soaking. Others mention hot beach. Below gives an impression, but not very beach like:

From the original Russian, googles translates this:

'Well, locals, of course, use this feature preaktivneyshe: firstly, almost half of the South Kuril heated by geothermal station, and secondly, wherever possible air baths, swimming baths and Kupalenka. For example - that this is the source of "Sink" on Hot Beach. Charming place with three swimming pools with water 30, 40 and 50 degrees'.

There is this photo of surely a beach hot spring, but don't know whether or not it's at the same location. But on Kunashir.

From damn interesting some biological significance:

'In a hot spring on the Russian volcanic island of Kunashir, there lives a particular type of microbe which consumes poisonous carbon monoxide as nourishment, and exhales hydrogen. The microbe is called C. hydrogenoformans, and researchers at the The Institute for Genomic Research recently finished analyzing its complete genome sequence.
One day, the carbon monoxide waste from other industries may be used to feed vats of these microbes, and the resulting hydrogen could be collected and used to power the fuel cells of tomorrow'.

Дикие природные ванночки на руч. Кислый, берущий начало на фумарольном поле вулкана МенделеевоВода в ручье теплая и на вкус действительно очень кислая #nature#russia#Fumarole#Volcano#kuril#kunashir#природа#курилы

#кунашир#Tourism#туризм 

source

Across the sea
Finally we cross over the Sea of Okhotsk at it's narrowest to the large island of Sakhalin. 

The wikitravel entry on Nogliki mentions Goryachie Kluchi:

'Goryachie Kluchi (Горячие Ключи) is a volcanic mountain mountain area, and a village, on a tough dirt road north of town, it has a hot spring to boot.'

This Russian language website has a couple of  photo's of the hot spring and some descriptions which when translated reveals that it's 200 km, 3 hours from the town of Okha. It's a very basic shed on a deeper pond. Surrounding is a swamp with some healing mud.

Or there is this reference:

'Hot springs are waiting for tourists not only in the Kuriles, but also in the north Noglinskom area of Sakhalin'.

 

A 15m high hot waterfall on Sakhalin (or near the Baranski volcano. Oh, ... that's on Iturup!), from a Russsian photo website:

'Горячий водопад высотой 15 метров на 3-й серной речке'.

And that seems to wrap up this blog entry. 

[Updated April 2015]

Notes:
[1] Bright, M. (2005) 1,001 Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die. Barron's Educational Series, New York, U.S.A.