My Lam Hot Springs

Mỹ Lâm Hot Springs lies only about 12 kilometers southwest of the center of Tuyên Quang city, and many visitors say it feels like another place entirely.

That is the first thing many people notice when they arrive. The resort lies in Mỹ Lâm ward, in Tuyên Quang city. There is no noise here and no hurry. The national tourism authority calls the approach to the resort peaceful and poetic. The Tuyên Quang tourism website gives the same distance from the city and the same direction.

What sets Mỹ Lâm apart from an ordinary hot bath is the water. Its story begins more than a hundred years ago.

In 1923, a French scientist named Madrolle found an underground spring in this land. The Tuyên Quang newspaper records that the spring lies more than 150 meters below the surface. Its water is close to 70 degrees Celsius and carries about 5 milligrams of hydrogen sulfide in every liter. That makeup is why the spring is called a sulfide mineral spring.

The Tuyên Quang tourism website measured the water at the working borehole and recorded 67 degrees Celsius. That is the temperature at the source, not the temperature bathers sit in. By the time it reaches the tubs, the water has been cooled to between 40 and 42 degrees, according to the national tourism authority. That is a gentle heat, comfortable enough that older people, children, and anyone not used to hot baths can soak more safely.

Chemical analysis shows that the water contains sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, fluoride and bicarbonate in clearly measured amounts. This is true natural mineral water, not ordinary water that has been heated.

People come to Mỹ Lâm for many different reasons, from tired joints to skin troubles. Whatever brings them, most take home the same feeling of a lighter body after a soak in warm water from the earth.

The tourism website lists what the resort offers. There are mineral tubs, open-air mineral pools, mud baths, herbal baths made with leaves used by the Red Dao people, steam rooms and massage. Hotels and restaurants stand in the grounds as well. The province treats this as its main tourist area, and its master plan covers more than 1,161 hectares divided into 6 zones.

The national tourism authority records that the resort was built in 1965. That is 42 years after the French scientist found the water. From then until today, Mỹ Lâm has served visitors across generations.

People do not come to Mỹ Lâm for sights to photograph. It is a place to stop, to breathe, and to let the body rest. After days among historic sites and steep mountain passes, an afternoon here is a way to recharge, in the most literal sense. The water has risen from more than 150 meters underground, and a bather sits in it.